What can you do with an Anthropology degree? Anthropology is an excellent preparation for careers in journalism, social work, law, medicine, and international aid. A bachelor’s degree in Anthropology is not just for museum curators, ethnographers, or professionals in academia. Anthropology can open a world of opportunities for anyone interested in the study of human behavior.
There are anthropologists who are social workers, public relations officials, politicians, attorneys, police officers, crime scene investigators, forensic scientists, probabtion officers, interpreters/translators, religious leaders, teachers, professors, librarians, archaeologists, historical preservationists, museum curators, genealogists, public health officals, physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians, photographers, documentary film makers, actors, musicians, travel agents, flight attendants, park rangers, forest service employees, bankers, business leaders, diversity training specialists, environmental impact specialists, zoo employees, primatologists, writers, farmers, factory workers, and royalty.
Check out these links for stories about career paths that call for anthropological and ethnographic understanding:
- Intel Fellowships
- Harvard Business Review: “Fewer Engineers, More Anthropologists” — “…By having anthropologists study and interact with end-customers in their natural settings, Western firms can learn to tailor their business models and offerings to match users’ socio-economic and cultural context. For example, Intel’s People and Practices Research (PaPR) employs sociologists and ethnographers who spend months in emerging markets embedded in grassroots communities to identify the latent needs of local consumers. Dr Genevieve Bell, one of PaPR’s anthropologists, traveled extensively across China and India observing people in their homes to find out how they use and what they want from technology. Her ethnographic insights shaped Intel’s groundbreaking pricing models and partnership strategies for Chinese consumer market.”
View the American Anthropological Association’s excellent “Anthropology in Business” slideshow: