Because It Turns Talk into ACTION

Every year on the third Thursday of February, we celebrate Anthropology Day—a chance to further our understanding of what it means to be human. Established by the American Anthropological Association, this day brings students, teachers, and professionals together to share how anthropology helps us explore cultures, societies, and human behavior. Anthropology isn’t just about studying ancient artifacts or faraway tribes; it’s about connecting the dots between the past and present, helping us make sense of how we live and interact today. In short, anthropology guides us towards a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

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Because It Can Help Preserve Cultural Heritage Important for Understanding and Social Benefit

Cultural heritage is today threatened on a number of fronts.

Embodied in the form of ancient archaeological sites and historical buildings, collections of antiquities, artworks, artifacts and archives, and as the lifeways of contemporary communities, cultural heritage comprises features of continuing existence and past accomplishment recognized by a social group as an enduring symbol of its identity. Benign neglect, devastating accidents, major natural disasters—and increasingly climate change—all challenge our ability to preserve cultural heritage. Think of earthquakes in Haiti and Italy and their ruin of historic buildings and galleries; remember the fires that wreaked havoc on Notre Dame and destroyed collections at the National Museum in Brazil; and imagine the loss of living cultural traditions among Inuit communities seeing massive warming in the Arctic. Social persecution, terrorism, and armed conflict too endanger the preservation of cultural heritage. Consider the burning of historical manuscripts in Timbuktu; recall ISIS blowing up the ancient trading center of Palmyra, the Taliban looting and trafficking ancient treasures; and recognize the Myanmar government’s persecution of the Rohingya for their religious and ethnic ways and the Chinese government for doing the same to Uighurs and Tibetans.

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Because We Have a World of Knowledge the World Needs to Know

“At its core, Anthropology is about a simple idea—that the world is a better place if people understand one another,” wrote Alec Barker, past president of the American Anthropological Association. “For some that means basic research, because knowing more about people—their past, present, and prospects—is a worthy goal in itself. Others teach, helping students of all ages better understand the diverse ways of being human, and for others it means applying that knowledge in practical application. It’s the broadest of endeavors, encompassing scientific and humanistic approaches to people and their near kin, to how they communicate, come together, divide, develop and find meaning. That variety is its greatest strength.”

Anthropologists play a critical role by helping to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, developing basic protocols in medical labs, serving as “on the ground” expert witnesses, and yes, even helping reduce anxiety about an impending “robotic apocalypse.”

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Because Money Makes The World Go ’Round

I often get asked questions like, “What is an anthropologist like you doing studying money? I thought that was the domain of economists!” The archaeological and ethnographic record is full of objects, texts, and records of promises humans have used for millennia to mark transactions with one another and figure value. It’s true that I enjoy working with and thinking about those objects, and among my favorite places are the money galleries in museums around the world and at the regional branches of the U.S. Federal Reserve. But the anthropology of money is more than an archive of the arcane. Understanding practices like bridewealth, involving objects like the tevau of the Santa Cruz Islands, can shed light on how contemporary money is far more than a neutral medium of exchange. This matters for product design, financial literacy programming, and macroeconomic policy, too.

Indeed, now that the world is in a global pandemic caused by the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, what people do with money and its technologies has acquired a new kind of significance. Although the virus apparently does not survive for long on fibrous materials like cloth and paper, reports have surged of Chinese and other officials ordering the disinfecting of banknotes to prevent its spread. The fintech industry conference organization Money 2020, promoting its (almost certainly to be cancelled) next event, proclaimed in an email that the pandemic would usher in the end of cash and the era of digital payments—despite the fact that most in-person digital payments (at your local take-out restaurant now, for example) rely on plastic and metal cards and point of sale devices, touched by many hands, on which the virus can survive for several hours. And in Kenya, the authorities are recommending all Kenyans use mobile phones to pay—about which, more below.

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