Will “Anthropologists” be Replaced By Robots? 🤔

Job Description

Research, evaluate, and establish public policy concerning the origins of humans; their physical, social, linguistic, and cultural development; and their behavior, as well as the cultures, organizations, and institutions they have created.

Job Details

• The SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code is 19-3091.01

Also Known As…

• Scientist
• Researcher
• Professor of Anthropology
• Professor
• Medical Anthropology Director
• Behavioral Scientist
• Applied Anthropologist
• Anthropology Instructor
• Anthropologist
• American Indian Policy Specialist
• Science and Technology for Sustainability Director
• Research Project Coordinator
• Research Fellow
• Research Director
• Research Anthropologist
• Program Review Director
• Principal Investigator
• Political Anthropologist
• Policy Specialist
• Physical Anthropologist
• Forensic Anthropologist
• Ethnologist
• Egyptologist
• Chief Knowledge Officer
• Anthropology Professor

Tasks for “Anthropologists”

• Teach and mentor undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology.
• Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences.
• Analyze and characterize user experiences and institutional settings to assist consumer product developers, technology developers, and software engineers with the design of innovative products and services.
• Examine museum collections of hominid fossils to classify anatomical and physiological variations and to determine how they fit into evolutionary theory.
• Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations.
• Create data records for use in describing and analyzing social patterns and processes, using photography, videography, and audio recordings.
• Develop intervention procedures, using techniques such as individual and focus group interviews, consultations, and participant observation of social interaction.
• Identify key individual cultural collaborators, using reputational and positional selection techniques.
• Apply traditional ecological knowledge and assessments of culturally distinctive land and resource management institutions to assist in the resolution of conflicts over habitat protection and resource enhancement.
• Gather and analyze artifacts and skeletal remains to increase knowledge of ancient cultures.
• Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments.
• Build geographic information systems (GIS) to record, analyze, and cartographically represent the distribution of languages, cultural and natural resources, land use, and settlement patterns of specific populations.
• Study archival collections of primary historical sources to help explain the origins and development of cultural patterns.
• Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials.
• Observe and measure bodily variations and physical attributes of different human groups.
• Formulate general rules that describe and predict the development and behavior of cultures and social institutions.
• Organize public exhibits and displays to promote public awareness of diverse and distinctive cultural traditions.
• Apply systematic sampling techniques to ensure the accuracy, completeness, precision, and representativeness of individuals selected for sample surveys.
• Participate in forensic activities, such as tooth and bone structure identification, in conjunction with police departments and pathologists.
• Enhance the cultural sensitivity of elementary and secondary curricula and classroom interactions in collaboration with educators and teachers.
• Construct and test data collection methods.
• Observe the production, distribution, and consumption of food to identify and mitigate threats to food security.
• Advise government agencies, private organizations, and communities regarding proposed programs, plans, and policies and their potential impacts on cultural institutions, organizations, and communities.
• Build and use text-based database management systems to support the analysis of detailed first-hand observational records, or field notes.
• Collaborate with economic development planners to decide on the implementation of proposed development policies, plans, and programs based on culturally institutionalized barriers and facilitating circumstances.
• Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents.
• Explain the origins and physical, social, or cultural development of humans, including physical attributes, cultural traditions, beliefs, languages, resource management practices, and settlement patterns.
• Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning.

Related Technology & Tools

• Ultraviolet UV crosslinkers
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• Spreading calipers
• Portable gamma spectrometers
• Theodolites
• Protective gloves
• Graded sieves
• Oil immersion microscopes
• Selective ion meters
• Deoxyribonucleic acid DNA analyzers
• Microcentrifuges
• Laptop computers
• Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ELISA plate readers
• Sliding calipers

• ESRI ArcGIS software
• Microsoft FrontPage
• Golden Software Surfer
• Apple iMovie
• Microsoft Word
• Sony Creative Software Vegas Movie Studio
• Image enhancement software
• Microsoft Access
• Age progression software
• Adobe Systems Adobe Illustrator
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• Wolfram Research Mathematica
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• The University of Tennessee FORDISC
• SPSS
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• Qaulis Research The Ethonograph
• STATISTICA
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• Microsoft Outlook
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• Gene Codes Sequencher
• Insightful S-PLUS
• Adobe Systems Adobe Dreamweaver
• Voice activated software
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• Systat