Penn State anthropology graduates dig up jobs in the business world

By CHERYL FRANKENFIELD
Collegian Staff Writer

Not all anthropologists are digging up old bones or discovering artifacts -- more are being hired by corporations.

"(Anthropologists) provide a different way at looking at the business world," said Mara Greengrass, program assistant at the American Anthropological Association. "Anthropologists are trained to look at culture as it is."

Ethnography, observing what people do and talking with them, is a skill anthropologists are using in fields such as marketing, she added. For example, some anthropologists watch how people use computers so that future designs can be improved, Greengrass said. Others observe how people react to displays or salespeople in stores.

About half of anthropologists holding doctorates go into academics, while the other half do a variety of things, said Paul Durrenberger, professor of anthropology. They might work for the World Bank or other government agencies, he added.

Anthropologists can be used in business because they offer a unique perspective, he said.

Using advertising as an example, Durrenberger said while focus groups might be used to look at the demographics of a region to best select a specific advertising campaign, an anthropologist would study how people react to the ad. An anthropologist might notice sometimes people go to the bathroom or kitchen during commercials while others mute them altogether, he said.

Because people may be performing multiple tasks, the only way to know what they are doing is through observation, he said.

"One of the downsides of ethnography is that it takes a lot of time," Durrenberger said.

Larger companies such as the Xerox and Intel corporations employ some anthropologists, and there are consulting firms that also have anthropologists performing market research, Greengrass said.

Beverly Goodman (graduate-anthropology) said she was hired at a company to help businesses with international relationships.

"They needed people to do culture training," Goodman said about employees who were being sent on international assignments.

Businesses often use consulting firms to assess the factors involved with moving an employee and perhaps an entire family to another culture, Goodman said. Anthropologists employed by the firms can foresee problems and educate people about cultural differences.

"(Anthropologists) understand how things interact with each other," she added.

Within the past 10 years, the numbers of anthropologists involved in business has grown, Greengrass said.

But, she added, "Anthropologists have been doing this sort of thing for decades."