[URBANTH-L]Need for A Useful Urban Anthropology, Further Responses

[Angela Jancius]

Need for A Useful Urban Anthropology, Further Responses

From: Paul McDowell <paulanthropus at cox.net>

Henry David Thoreau put his nineteenth-century finger on today's academic
malaise when, replying to Emerson's comment that Harvard contained many
branches of knowledge, said "and none of its roots."

For a field supposedly holistic and cross-cultural in orientation,
anthropology is more branch than root. We have developed a forest of
specializations through endless analyses. Is it not time that we get on with
syntheses of the findings made across the discipline?

Paul McDowell
Instructor in Anthropology
Santa Barbara City College

=========================

From: E.J. Ford <edseljoe at earthlink.net>

Not that I wish to dip my oar into the raging currents of this particular
thread, but I would like to point out that applied anthropology is, in
fact, the application of anthropological knowledge to real life situations.
(Or so I learned in my Contemporary Applied Anthropology class here at
USF)...

While USF program graduates are required to demonstrate theoretical fluency
as part of their degree completion, many, if not most, do not work in
academic settings at all - either for their internship or their subsequent
place of employment.  Rather, they work for various non-academic
institutions in a variety of practical roles.

EJ Ford
MA - Applied Urban Anthropology

=========================

From: Micah Bump <bumpm at georgetown.edu>

Art, Thanks for seeing both the theoretical and practical value of the
"Beyond the Gateway" project. For those that are interested, the link to the
book description and order form is below.

Micah Bump
Research Associate
Georgetown University
Institute for the Study of International Migration
www.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/isim

Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America
http://www.lexingtonbooks.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=%5E
DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0739106368

Managing Complexity: ISIM's Training for Humanitarian Professionals
http://www.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/isim/pages/ManagingComplexity.html