So.. what is anthropology?

Except for some of my social scientist friends, I have found scarcely few people can envisage what it means to be an anthropologist. If you ask a STEM or PoliSci graduate what they do, the very least they can give you is a job description. The same can unfortunately not be said of Anthropologists. We are sort of all over the place. Some of us live with indigenous tribes in the Amazons, trying to understand their day-to-day lives. Others join gangs to better understand the criminal underworld. You can find more and more anthropologists working hard to improve UIX.?There are even anthropologists in Banks. They have been able to warn the world of the incredible danger CDOs pose to our financial system - two years before the world economy crashed. Thus, to understand what Anthropology is, let's first look at why Anthropologists feel so entitled to be everywhere.

To understand why we stick our noses into everyone's business the way we do, we must comprehend why and how we go about sticking our noses into others' businesses. The answer to why can be found in the definition of our discipline. Anthropology is the study of humanity. It's the study of what makes us human. Hence, you can find an anthropologist anywhere you can find humans.?

But to concretely understand what we do and how it's supposed to generate an added value for society, let me now turn to the "how" of anthropology. To figure out what makes us human, there's one unavoidable first step. This step is easier said than done. Any anthropologist must first recognise that they are dealing with humans. Thus, we are forced to let go of our biases and suspend our prior judgments. In practice, this means that instead of thinking of someone as a shaman or crime boss, a coder, data analyst, or banker, Anthropologists must look at the people they are studying as humans. Expect to repeat that first step over and over again - it is easier said than done.

The second task needed to "do" anthropology consists of considering the environment or situations that your human is dealing with. To understand that environment - or context - must have a good look at people's "everyday" lives. There are many ways to gain insights into our research participants "everyday." You can interview people or have them fill out questionnaires. You could also just simply watch them, or, most optimally, you'll be able to spend some time living with the humans whose world you're trying to understand.

In my opinion, to understand the "everyday," we should consider the tools people use to cope with their context. How does a shaman make sense of healing or disease? How do gangs think they can challenge the power of rivals, how do they go about building trust in their group? How do bankers model the inherent risk of giving loans to people who might not afford to pay those loans back? My preferred tool to answer these questions is to take into consideration the mental models - heuristic tools - applied by people in their contexts. Anthropologists can investigate how those mental models make social transactions more effective and less risky.

Beyond describing mental models, Anthropologists also try to explain those mental models the "other" employ to make sense of the world around them. They can act as translators giving us a glimpse into another culture. However, anthropologists can also point out to people who take their models for granted as literally true (like bankers), that they are dealing with social constructs and not natural laws.?Then, there's the task of figuring out how these mental models or social contracts arose, their impact on society and whether or how they could be changed. Doing any of these tasks requires us to resort to philosophy, thinking about how we can know or whether we can know. Hence, Anthropologists engage in some intense debates. The foundation of those debates is the results of our studies. The debate as such forms the academic discipline the term "anthropology" refers to.

Of course, no discipline comes without its own set of problems. Firstly, Anthropology still has a long way to go to recon with its colonialist heritage. Moreover, our debates can be inward-looking, making it hard for outsiders to comprehend what we do. And if it's hard for people to understand what we do,?it's hard for them to use our insights to solve real-world "everyday" problems. Our work can be so abstract that some observers are left more puzzled than before.

However, I do believe Anthropologists generate added value for society. Firstly, we can uncover how mental models impact our lives and promote debates about whether that impact is justified. Secondly, our deliberations are grounded in observations made in the "real world." Meaning that the outcome of our debates can generate crucial learnings for that real world. Thirdly, I believe uncovering mental models allows us to take a step back and think outside of the box. Anthropologists are good at coming up with original and creative ideas and theories to solve everyday problems. We're the innovators among the social sciences as we extend the horizon of what is possible. Fourth, and most crucially, explaining to people what tools "others" employ to deal with the world around them, allows us to recognise that those "others" are humans, embrace diversity, and foster understanding.?

To sum it up for those of us who have little time:

• Some people are confused about Anthropology, because Anthropologists can be found all over the place. They are found everywhere because Anthropology is the study of humanity. Anthropologists are trying to figure out what makes us humans.
• To study humanity Anthropologists think about people not as shamans or bankers, but as humans who are trying to deal with a specific context. So they employ various methods to investigate what tools - (mental) models, strategies, or heuristics - their research participants employ to deal with- or make sense of their environment.
• The results of our research form the basis of a debate about the mental models we encounter in the field. This debate is the academic discipline we refer to when we speak of "Anthropology." It involves a lot of philosophy but is different than philosophy since the basis for our debates are real-world observations about the everyday.
• Anthropology has a lot of problems. However, the debates sparked within it can help us think critically about seemingly mundane problems. The work of Anthropologists also fosters understanding between cultures and different people.