Applied Anthropology

Anthropology 330

Kimberly Porter Martin

Military AnthropologyWorld 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.

Military AnthropologyWorld 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.

Military Anthropology

1950’s 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

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

Military AnthropologyProject 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.

Military AnthropologyThe 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)

Human Terrain Teams: Embedded Anthropologists in Iraq

 The Controversy:

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=25b899e3a1415c151a6cde86c8bb3311ed99cd54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA9KkhoMxYE

http://www.youtube.com/CultureTubeAnthro