Transcript What is Anthropology?

Applied Anthropology
Anthropology 330
Kimberly Porter Martin
Military Anthropology
World War I (1917 to 1919)
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A number of anthropologists worked as spies for the
American Government
Sylvanus Morley, an archaeologist, was the most famous “the best secret gent the United States produced during
World War I.”
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Criticism from Franz Boas “[anthropologists] …have
prostituted science by using it as a cover for their activities
as spies. A soldier whose business is murder as a fine art
. . . accepts the code of morality to which modern society
still conforms. Not so the scientist. The very essence of
his life is the service of truth.”
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The American Anthropological Association censured Boas
for his lack of patriotism in criticizing anthropologists for
helping in the war effort.
Military Anthropology
World War II ( 1941 to 1945)
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Anthropologists served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS = pre
CIA)
Carleton Coon (Harvard) trained Moroccan resistance groups,
smuggled arms to French resistance groups in Morocco. Book: The
Anthropologist as OSS Agent.
Cora DuBois served as Chief of the Indonesia Section, OSS Research
and Analysis Branch and Head of the Southeast Asia Command in
Ceylon.
Gregory Bateson served as a civilian member of the Forward
Intelligence Unit in Burma, produced “Black Propaganda Radio”
against the Japanese, and rescued three OSS agents from the Japanese.
Recommended the founding of the CIA.
Margaret Mead did research on food and eating habits to guide
rationing efforts in the U.S., wrote a book called “Keep Your Powder
Dry” on American military culture.
Ruth Benedict became the head of the Basis Analysis of the Section of
the Bureau of Overseas Intelligence of the Office of War Information,
and produced pamphlets and a book on Japanese character and culture.
Military Anthropology
 1950’s
 Edward
Lansdale and Charles Bohannon
used anthropological research and cultural
information to mount counterinsurgency
campaign against the communists in
Vietnam and the Huk rebels in the
Philippines
Military Anthropology
The Vietnam War (1963 to 1975)
 Gerald Hickey advised military leaders, wrote
extensively about Vietnamese culture, and
recommended non-military strategies for success
 Awarded Distinguished Public Service Award by
U.S. Government
 Was never able to get an academic job because of
his work with the military
Military Anthropology
Project Camelot (1964)
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Government program to study cultures of developing
countries in order to predict and “influence politically
significant aspects of social change.” (that is control what
happened politically in these countries)
The first target was Chile.
Documents were leaked and a huge scandal resulted.
The Thai Scandal (1970)
Documents were stolen from anthropologists that showed
their participation in a program similar to Project Camelot
in Thailand.
These scandals caused the American Anthropological
 Association to condemn any and all use of anthropological
methods and data for military purposes.
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Military Anthropology
The Iraq War: Operation Iraqi Freedom & Operation
Enduring Freedom
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“The U.S. military has not . . . always done a good job in
transmitting necessary local cultural information to follow-on
forces attempting to conduct Phase IV operations (those
operations aimed at stabilizing an area of operations in the
aftermath of major combat.”
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“Whatever notable successes we have had in specific localities
closely correlate with proactive efforts to understand and respect
the culture. By conducting operations that took indigenous
cultural norms into account, those units garnered support for
coalition objectives.”
Kipp, Grau, Prinslow & Smith, (2006)
Human Terrain Teams:
Embedded Anthropologists in Iraq
The Controversy:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=25b899e3a1415c15
1a6cde86c8bb3311ed99cd54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA9KkhoMxYE
http://www.youtube.com/CultureTubeAnthro