The Relevance of Anthropology in Today’s World

What is Anthropology and why do we need it?

By Sayantani Chakrabarty

It was a balmy summer afternoon on a Sunday as I was fiddling with the TV remote and came across what seemed like a documentary on an African tribe. It was on National Geographic Channel and my grandfather asked me to stop browsing and watch this. A 14-year-old me was although fascinated with their distinctive hairstyles and multitudes of colourful beads, necklaces, and bracelets; it was also the first time I heard the word “Anthropology”. As the obvious confusion on my face gave away, my grandfather, a professor of Sanskrit at Vidyasagar University, said aloud, “You know Archaeology, right? From those movies you see? You also know Geology, the study of rocks. Your father’s friend is a Geologist. Anthropology is also very interesting. It is the study of humans. No, sorry. It is study of what makes us humans.”

Meaning?

“Anthropologists study about people, and their relationship with nature, animals and other human beings.” It was perhaps the simplest way anyone could have explained what anthropology stands for.

Fifteen years later, here I am, not an anthropologist, but a cultural enthusiast who is trying to write why anthropology matters in today’s world. If I learned anything from that documentary about the Hamer tribe of Ethiopia and obviously the passive titbits of information from my grandfather, anthropology always mattered. It is just that recent trends of wilful ignorance and racist, classist, and ethnographic one-sidedness have made it absolutely necessary to have an anthropological understanding of the human evolution history and the story of how we became what we are.

Let’s think about what are the big challenges faced by humanity at large: Climate change, global inequality, a worldwide pandemic — the economic, political, ecological and biological issues that are pressing hard on us make it explicitly difficult for the human race to think beyond our apparent surroundings. All of these things require some understanding of the human processes in the past and the present to think about the future, to predict the future. And most importantly, to live more responsibly in the future without having to worry about an apparent doom.

Anthropology provides the toolkit, a theoretical grounding and a social justice engagement. The primary function of an anthropologist is not to study about humans and write about them, it is to study about humans to care for them. In an interview, revered anthropologist Dr. Agustín Fuentes from the University of Notre Dame notes, “Right now it is absolutely critical that we know, as best as we can, why are things happening? Why is the climate changing? Why are political systems the way they are? What is the problem with access to healthcare and inequality? Those are issues that anthropology brings to the table. That’s why Anthropology matters.” Fuentes observes, “If we don’t understand the past, we’re doomed to repeat it in the future.”

It is important to think about where the collective humanity is going as a society, to understand where we come from. Observing the past and studying present trends give us a window of opportunities to govern what works and what doesn’t. Anthropology makes people understand that the way that we see the world cannot be the only way to see the world. It is the study of human beings, which means it covers anything that affect us. As we deal with the incredible amount of meta-diversity in our lives, the many encounters can get confusing, leading us to believe in things that may have far-reaching consequences. Anthropological awareness can find surprising ways to educate people to become more tolerant of diversity, of climate change, of global crises.

The world is facing a global ecological crisis and we are aware of it, climate change being at the forefront. In the face of this adversity, which the global media fails to document seriously, Anthropology is a discipline that also has much to offer than just being your moral counsellor. If we go by recent market standards and Instagram aesthetics, one could follow that “organic lifestyle” and “sustainable living” have become buzzwords of the post-pandemic reality. From shampoos to detergents, laundry baskets to bed linens, toothbrush to trash bags, every socially-aware household are looking to be participants of a more “responsible world”. Even such a transition from a plastic-loving, morally-corrupt industry to being a more sustainable producer of goods, even if superficially, we could say that the global market has underwent an anthropological metamorphosis.

How?

Anthropologists study and document traditional livelihoods, comparing the lifestyles of different human settlements where they come across sustainable adaptations to environments imbibed through rich bodies of traditional knowledge and ancient practice. These sustainable environments, when documented and celebrated, seep in to modern lives, thereby making the human relationship with nature better and stronger.

The Ecologist, one of the world’s leading environmental affairs platform, notes, “Anthropologists also provide robust, evidence based critiques of the assumptions of policy makers and technocrats who offer tempting ‘win-win’ solutions to problems of sustainable development. Far too many well-meaning development projects do not take detailed account of situations on the ground, and fail in their objectives, with unintended and sometimes destructive consequences, both for the environment and for native inhabitants.”

Which implies Anthropology seeks to bring about a tangible change in human nature, which no amount of technological advancement can do. According to journalist Nancy Banks-Smith, “Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over — except when they are different.”

This article first appeared on the Dalham Blog. Check out more at https://www.dalhamlearning.com/dl_blogs/2021/07/09/the-relevance-of-anthropology-in-todays-world/