Anthropology

Action Anthropology

Praveenkumar K

Action Anthropology:

 

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Dr. Sol Tax, anthropologist coined the term – Action Anthropology (1951)

 

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Fox Indians studied by Dr. Sol Tax

 

 

    1. Action Anthropology as a sub-discipline was an outcome of the project with Fox Indians in the USA by Sol Tax in 1951.  [Fox Indians at Tama, Iowa. ]
    2. It suggests a new approach to involve, inculcate and insinuate changes as desired by the community in the real-life laboratory. 
    3. It is more to facilitate what the community wants and less about the introduction of “outsiders rationale view”. 
    4. Action anthropologists are interested in solving anthropological problems, but perused in the context of action; hence, a sub-discipline called action anthropology.
    5. In principle, it implies that there is no one pill for every ill. Every ill requires subjective treatment in specific local conditions. 
    6. Action anthropology cannot be practiced without fieldwork.
    7. Goals:
      1. Desires to help a group of people to solve a problem.
      2. Wants to learn something in the process.
    8. Strategy: Bottom-top, participatory approaches; nondirective counseling for a community.
    9. Three values: truth, freedom, and principle of operation.
    10. Action anthropologists understand and enable solutions of the native – by understanding how one problem is configured with a larger system in the local context –the worldview. 
    11. It suggests a new approach to involve, inculcate and insinuate changes as desired by the community in the real-life laboratory. In this, action anthropologists involve themselves (“agent of change”) the process of development or solving the problems.
    12. For an action anthropologist, the development of the community is an end in itself.

In the current context of globalization, cultures are to assimilate; it is a matter of time and degree of change. In other words, retaining cultural identity in a globalizing culture is rather inevitable. But what is essential is voluntary change as a choice rather than a compulsion. 

          

Role of Action Anthropology:

  1. It emphasizes the right of self-determination.
  2. The role of the action anthropologist is not to impose his or her own knowledge as a solution.
  3. The action anthropologist’s role is to act as a catalyst, to help clarify issues for the tribal commonalities and to make available to them sustainable options and outcomes, which either may not be accessible to them or may not have occurred to them.
  4. Any lines of action or solution, even if it appeals to the action anthropologist, must be rejected if they are not acceptable to the people. 
  5. To learn local knowledge and apply it in a manner in accordance with the existing value and social structure of the people involved.

     Some anthropologists such as Verrier Elwin and many anthropologists worked towards tribal welfare with the principles of action anthropology. Some non- anthropologists such as Jean Drèze have also used the principles of action anthropology for the benefit of marginalized communities in India. 

 

Some of the Fieldworks by Anthropologists: 

  1. Sol Tax (USA; 1951) – Fox Project: Fox Indians, Iowa.
  2. Holmberg in the Vicos Project.
  3. Spillius  in Tikopia

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