Ticking All the Boxes

Abstract

It was 1972 and I was talking to a group of fellow anthropology graduate students just prior to leaving the country to conduct my dissertation research when I pronounced that applied should never go in front of anthropology. In my view, anthropology was an intellectual discipline and that if someone wanted to “help” people they should become social workers. Ratchet forward several decades and once again I’m speaking to anthropology students only now I’m telling them that if their research does not aid people in how they live, there is no reason to conduct it. So, what happened?