Applied Anthropology

1
Applied Anthropology

• Anthropology 330
• Kimberly Porter Martin

2
Military Anthropology

• World War I (1917 to 1919)
• 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.
• 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.
• The American Anthropological Association censured
  Boas for his lack of patriotism in criticizing
  anthropologists for helping in the war effort.

3
Military Anthropology

• World War II ( 1941 to 1945)
• 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.

4
Military Anthropology

• 1950s
• 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

5
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

6
Military Anthropology

• Project Camelot (1964)
• 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.

7
Military Anthropology

• The Iraq War Operation Iraqi Freedom
  Operation Enduring Freedom
• 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.
• 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)

8
Human Terrain Teams Embedded Anthropologists
in Iraq

•  The Controversy
• http//video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story25b899e3a141
  5c151a6cde86c8bb3311ed99cd54
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vqA9KkhoMxYEhttp
  //www.youtube.com/CultureTubeAnthro