Page 9 - BANC-131 (E)
P. 9
IGNOUPROJECT.COM 9958947060
Americans. Samoan adolescents seemed to be well adjusted with no associated
trauma or disturbances.
Shrichakradhar.com
c) Applying Anthropology to Solve Life Problems: Anthropology is studied
and practiced to bring about positive change in the lives of the people. This is the
applied aspect of anthropology where anthropological knowledge is used to help
people lead better lives. Development seems to be the buzz word in the present
global context. It requires utilization and consumption of natural resources in the
form of forest produces, minerals, coal, etc. that in turn may require felling of
trees for wood and mining to extract minerals. Such activities lead to large-scale
displacement of people mostly tribes who inhabit such areas for centuries. It is in
this context that the anthropological knowledge and insight comes in handy.
Anthropologists are people who can take stand for such a marginalized section of
9958947060
the population. Knowledge about tribal needs and wants can help in protecting
their rights. In this context anthropology relates to the issue of advocacy of civil
rights (Olivier de Sardan, 2005).
d) Universal vs. Specific Knowledge: The basic underlying objective of the
subject has been to juxtapose the localwith the global. In other words, the
anthropological knowledge has grownfrom understanding the particular in the
context of the universal. This is tosay that even when an anthropologist looks on
the particular, her aim remainsuniversal. This is evident from the above examples
where an anthropologistchose a very specific community for her study and based
on such a studyaimed at answering certain basic questions which are more
fundamental innature.
Acquiring particular knowledge also fulfills the objective of comparing itwith the
known. For example, if the objective of an anthropologist is tounderstand the
position of women in the society then she will start withasking the question what
is the position of women across different societies?After having obtained answers
from different societies, she will comparethem in order to reach some kind of
conclusions. This kind of particularknowledge also has some advantage in the
form of suggesting alternativestrategies and structural formulations that may
lead to solving presentproblems. For example, while studying gender equality, if
alternative modelsof equal status of men and women in the society are available
then they canbe emulated on a larger scale (Beard-Moose, 2010).
Q4. Describe the scope and significance ofanthropology.
Ans. The various scope ofAnthropology is given below:
1. Urban Anthropology: Urban Anthropology came to grow as a distinctive area
of study in Anthropology in recent times. It is a subset of anthropology concerned
with issues of urbanization, poverty, urban space, social relations, and
neoliberalism. The field has become consolidated in the 1960s and
1970s.Although some anthropologists studied ethnic populations in urban
Page 5