Cultural anthropology research

Of diversity and arency and funding opportunities es and ormative orate for social, behavioral & economic al anthropology program - doctoral dissertation research improvement w-program -program -program ant information for ion: proposers using orators and other affiliations template for more than project personnel will encounter proposal print . Please be advised that, the specified due date, the guidelines contained in nsf 17-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to proposal target y 15, annually 15, annually primary objective of the cultural anthropology program is to support basic scientific research on the causes, consequences, and complexities of human social and cultural pological research spans a wide gamut, and contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid. Recognizing the breadth of the field's contributions to science, the cultural anthropology program welcomes proposals for empirically grounded, theoretically engaged, and methodologically sophisticated research in all sub-fields of cultural anthropology. Because the national science foundation's mandate is to support basic research, the nsf cultural anthropology program does not fund research that takes as its primary goal improved clinical practice or applied policy. A proposal that uses anthropological methods to understand a social problem but does not propose to make a theory-testing and/or theory expanding contribution to anthropology will be returned without m research priorities include, but are not limited to, research that increases our understanding of:Socio-cultural drivers of critical anthropogenic processes such as deforestation, desertification, land cover change, urbanization, and ence and robustness of socio-cultural ct, cooperation, and y, culture, migration, and ility and change in kinship and family norms and al and social drivers of health outcomes and disease regulation, governmentality, and s of complexity in socio-cultural ge and culture: orality and literacy, sociolinguistics, and  variation through empirically grounded ethnographic atical and computational models of sociocultural systems such as social network analysis, agent-based models, multi-level models, and modes that integrate agent-based simulations and geographic information systems (gis). Part of its effort to encourage and support projects that explicitly integrate education and basic research, ca provides support to enhance and improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation projects designed and carried out by doctoral students enrolled in u. Universities who are conducting scientific research that enhances basic scientific ional program provides educational opportunities duals interested in applying for funding should see the program guidelines al al anthropology scholars statement on protecting and preserving field records and related has been funded (recent awards made through this program, with abstracts). Of recent awards made through this al wikipedia, the free to: navigation, the publication, see cultural anthropology (journal). Cultural ical pologists by of indigenous al anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of the anthropological al anthropology has a rich methodology, including participant observation (often called fieldwork because it requires the anthropologist spending an extended period of time at the research location), interviews, and surveys. Rise of cultural anthropology took place within the context of the late 19th century, when questions regarding which cultures were "primitive" and which were "civilized" occupied the minds of not only marx and freud, but many others. 5] the relative status of various humans, some of whom had modern advanced technologies that included engines and telegraphs, while others lacked anything but face-to-face communication techniques and still lived a paleolithic lifestyle, was of interest to the first generation of cultural el with the rise of cultural anthropology in the united states, social anthropology, in which sociality is the central concept and which focuses on the study of social statuses and roles, groups, institutions, and the relations among them—developed as an academic discipline in britain and in france. Some, like grafton elliot smith, argued that different groups must have learned from one another somehow, however indirectly; in other words, they argued that cultural traits spread from one place to another, or "diffused". Some of those who advocated "independent invention", like lewis henry morgan, additionally supposed that similarities meant that different groups had passed through the same stages of cultural evolution (see also classical social evolutionism). Although 19th-century ethnologists saw "diffusion" and "independent invention" as mutually exclusive and competing theories, most ethnographers quickly reached a consensus that both processes occur, and that both can plausibly account for cross-cultural similarities. Analyses of large human concentrations in big cities, in multidisciplinary studies by ronald daus, show how new methods may be applied to the understanding of man living in a global world and how it was caused by the action of extra-european nations, so highlighting the role of ethics in modern ingly, most of these anthropologists showed less interest in comparing cultures, generalizing about human nature, or discovering universal laws of cultural development, than in understanding particular cultures in those cultures' own terms. Such ethnographers and their students promoted the idea of "cultural relativism", the view that one can only understand another person's beliefs and behaviors in the context of the culture in which he or she lived or , such as claude lévi-strauss (who was influenced both by american cultural anthropology and by french durkheimian sociology), have argued that apparently similar patterns of development reflect fundamental similarities in the structure of human thought (see structuralism). Article: cultural al relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by franz boas and later popularized by his students. The principle of cultural relativism thus forced anthropologists to develop innovative methods and heuristic and his students realized that if they were to conduct scientific research in other cultures, they would need to employ methods that would help them escape the limits of their own ethnocentrism. In this context, cultural relativism is of fundamental methodological importance, because it calls attention to the importance of the local context in understanding the meaning of particular human beliefs and activities.

Thus, in 1948 virginia heyer wrote, "cultural relativity, to phrase it in starkest abstraction, states the relativity of the part to the whole. The part gains its cultural significance by its place in the whole, and cannot retain its integrity in a different situation. His comparative analyses of religion, government, material culture, and especially kinship patterns proved to be influential contributions to the field of anthropology. Like other scholars of his day (such as edward tylor), morgan argued that human societies could be classified into categories of cultural evolution on a scale of progression that ranged from savagery, to barbarism, to civilization. Article: boasian boas, one of the pioneers of modern anthropology, often called the "father of american anthropology". He believed that each culture has to be studied in its particularity, and argued that cross-cultural generalizations, like those made in the natural sciences, were not doing so, he fought discrimination against immigrants, blacks, and indigenous peoples of the americas. The so-called "four field approach" has its origins in boasian anthropology, dividing the discipline in the four crucial and interrelated fields of sociocultural, biological, linguistic, and archaic anthropology (e. Anthropology in the united states continues to be deeply influenced by the boasian tradition, especially its emphasis on et mead (1901-1978). Kroeber and sapir's focus on native american languages helped establish linguistics as a truly general science and free it from its historical focus on indo-european publication of alfred kroeber's textbook, anthropology, marked a turning point in american anthropology. Influenced by psychoanalytic psychologists including sigmund freud and carl jung, these authors sought to understand the way that individual personalities were shaped by the wider cultural and social forces in which they grew such works as coming of age in samoa and the chrysanthemum and the sword remain popular with the american public, mead and benedict never had the impact on the discipline of anthropology that some expected. Boas had planned for ruth benedict to succeed him as chair of columbia's anthropology department, but she was sidelined by ralph linton, and mead was limited to her offices at the , sahlins, mintz and political economy[edit]. Articles: political economy in anthropology, eric wolf, marshall sahlins, and sidney the 1950s and mid-1960s anthropology tended increasingly to model itself after the natural sciences. Others, such as julian steward and leslie white, focused on how societies evolve and fit their ecological niche—an approach popularized by marvin ic anthropology as influenced by karl polanyi and practiced by marshall sahlins and george dalton challenged standard neoclassical economics to take account of cultural and social factors, and employed marxian analysis into anthropological study. In england, british social anthropology's paradigm began to fragment as max gluckman and peter worsley experimented with marxism and authors such as rodney needham and edmund leach incorporated lévi-strauss's structuralism into their work. Structuralism also influenced a number of developments in 1960s and 1970s, including cognitive anthropology and componential keeping with the times, much of anthropology became politicized through the algerian war of independence and opposition to the vietnam war;[13] marxism became an increasingly popular theoretical approach in the discipline. 14] by the 1970s the authors of volumes such as reinventing anthropology worried about anthropology's the 1980s issues of power, such as those examined in eric wolf's europe and the people without history, have been central to the discipline. In the 1980s books like anthropology and the colonial encounter pondered anthropology's ties to colonial inequality, while the immense popularity of theorists such as antonio gramsci and michel foucault moved issues of power and hegemony into the spotlight. Gender and sexuality became popular topics, as did the relationship between history and anthropology, influenced by marshall sahlins (again), who drew on lévi-strauss and fernand braudel to examine the relationship between symbolic meaning, sociocultural structure, and individual agency in the processes of historical transformation. The cultural symbols of rituals, political and economic action, and of kinship, are "read" by the anthropologist as if they are a document in a foreign language. 17] schneider demonstrated that the american folk-cultural emphasis on "blood connections" had an undue influence on anthropological kinship theories, and that kinship is not a biological characteristic but a cultural relationship established on very different terms in different societies.

They were reflecting trends in research and discourse initiated by feminists in the academy, although they excused themselves from commenting specifically on those pioneering critics. 19] nevertheless, key aspects of feminist theory and methods became de rigueur as part of the 'post-modern moment' in anthropology: ethnographies became more interpretative and reflexive,[20] explicitly addressing the author's methodology, cultural, gender and racial positioning, and their influence on his or her ethnographic analysis. 21] currently anthropologists pay attention to a wide variety of issues pertaining to the contemporary world, including globalization, medicine and biotechnology, indigenous rights, virtual communities, and the anthropology of industrialized -cultural anthropology subfields[edit]. Pology of ical ic pology of gender and ical cal logical pology of ersonal cultural anthropology has its origins in, and developed in reaction to, 19th century ethnology, which involves the organized comparison of human societies. 22] the method originated in the field research of social anthropologists, especially bronislaw malinowski in britain, the students of franz boas in the united states, and in the later urban research of the chicago school of sociology. Observable details (like daily time allotment) and more hidden details (like taboo behavior) are more easily observed and interpreted over a longer period of time, and researchers can discover discrepancies between what participants say—and often believe—should happen (the formal system) and what actually does happen, or between different aspects of the formal system; in contrast, a one-time survey of people's answers to a set of questions might be quite consistent, but is less likely to show conflicts between different aspects of the social system or between conscious representations and behavior. To establish connections that will eventually lead to a better understanding of the cultural context of a situation, an anthropologist must be open to becoming part of the group, and willing to develop meaningful relationships with its members. 22] this focus may change once the anthropologist is actively observing the chosen group of people, but having an idea of what one wants to study before beginning fieldwork allows an anthropologist to spend time researching background information on their topic. It can also be helpful to know what previous research has been conducted in one's chosen location or on similar topics, and if the participant observation takes place in a location where the spoken language is not one the anthropologist is familiar with, he or she will usually also learn that language. In addition, participant observation often requires permits from governments and research institutions in the area of study, and always needs some form of funding. This helps to standardize the method of study when ethnographic data is being compared across several groups or is needed to fulfill a specific purpose, such as research for a governmental policy common criticism of participant observation is its lack of objectivity. Who the ethnographer is has a lot to do with what he or she will eventually write about a culture, because each researcher is influenced by his or her own perspective. Simply by being present, a researcher causes changes in a culture, and anthropologists continue to question whether or not it is appropriate to influence the cultures they study, or possible to avoid having influence. Article: the 20th century, most cultural and social anthropologists turned to the crafting of ethnographies. Typically, the anthropologist lives among people in another society for a period of time, simultaneously participating in and observing the social and cultural life of the us other ethnographic techniques have resulted in ethnographic writing or details being preserved, as cultural anthropologists also curate materials, spend long hours in libraries, churches and schools poring over records, investigate graveyards, and decipher ancient scripts. Kroeber, ruth benedict and margaret mead drew on his conception of culture and cultural relativism to develop cultural anthropology in the united states. Whereas cultural anthropology focused on symbols and values, social anthropology focused on social groups and institutions. Today socio-cultural anthropologists attend to all these the early 20th century, socio-cultural anthropology developed in different forms in europe and in the united states. Cultural anthropologists" focused on the ways people expressed their view of themselves and their world, especially in symbolic forms, such as art and myths. Today almost all socio-cultural anthropologists refer to the work of both sets of predecessors, and have an equal interest in what people do and in what people -cultural comparison[edit].

Means by which anthropologists combat ethnocentrism is to engage in the process of cross-cultural comparison. The institute of human relations had sponsored hraf's precursor, the cross-cultural survey (see george peter murdock), as part of an effort to develop an integrated science of human behavior and culture. Cultures in the more traditional standard cross-cultural sample of small scale societies are:Nama (hottentot) • kung (san) • thonga • lozi • mbundu • suku • bemba • nyakyusa (ngonde) • hadza • luguru • kikuyu • ganda • mbuti (pygmies) • nkundo (mongo) • banen • tiv • igbo • fon • ashanti (twi) • mende • bambara • tallensi • massa • azande • otoro nuba • shilluk • mao •  • songhai • wodaabe fulani • hausa • fur • kaffa • konso • somali • amhara • bogo • kenuzi nubian • teda • tuareg • riffians • egyptians (fellah) • hebrews • babylonians • rwala bedouin • turks • gheg (albanians) • romans • basques • irish • sami (lapps) • russians • abkhaz  • armenians • (samoyed) • basseri • west punjabi • gond • toda • santal • uttar pradesh • burusho • kazak • khalka mongols  • lolo • lepcha • garo • lakher • burmese • lamet • vietnamese • rhade • khmer • siamese • semang • nicobarese • andamanese • vedda • tanala • negeri sembilan • atayal • chinese • manchu • koreans • japanese • ainu • gilyak • se (miao) • balinese • iban • badjau • toraja • tobelorese • alorese • tiwi • aranda • orokaiva • kimam • kapauku • kwoma • manus • new ireland • trobrianders • siuai • tikopia • pentecost • mbau fijians • ajie • maori • marquesans • western samoans • gilbertese • marshallese • trukese • yapese • palauans • ifugao • k • aleut • copper eskimo • montagnais • mi'kmaq • saulteaux (ojibwa) • slave • kaska (nahane) • eyak • haida • bellacoola • twana • yurok • pomo • yokuts • paiute (northern) • klamath • kutenai • gros ventres • hidatsa • pawnee • omaha (dhegiha) • huron • creek • natchez • comanche • chiricahua • zuni • havasupai • tohono o'odham • huichol • aztec • é • miskito (mosquito) • bribri (talamanca) • cuna • goajiro • haitians • calinago • warrau (warao) • yanomamo • kalina (caribs) • saramacca • munduruku • cubeo (tucano) • cayapa • jivaro • amahuaca • inca • aymara • siriono • nambikwara • trumai • timbira • tupinamba • botocudo • shavante • aweikoma • cayua (guarani) • lengua • abipon • mapuche • tehuelche • -sited ethnography[edit]. Nevertheless, many contemporary socio-cultural anthropologists have rejected earlier models of ethnography as treating local cultures as bounded and isolated. These anthropologists continue to concern themselves with the distinct ways people in different locales experience and understand their lives, but they often argue that one cannot understand these particular ways of life solely from a local perspective; they instead combine a focus on the local with an effort to grasp larger political, economic, and cultural frameworks that impact local lived realities. Growing trend in anthropological research and analysis is the use of multi-sited ethnography, discussed in george marcus' article, "ethnography in/of the world system: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography". Through this methodology, greater insight can be gained when examining the impact of world-systems on local and global emerging in multi-sited ethnography are greater interdisciplinary approaches to fieldwork, bringing in methods from cultural studies, media studies, science and technology studies, and others. In this research, she follows organs as they are transferred through various legal and illegal networks of capitalism, as well as the rumours and urban legends that circulate in impoverished communities about child kidnapping and organ ultural anthropologists have increasingly turned their investigative eye on to "western" culture. Also growing more popular are ethnographies of professional communities, such as laboratory researchers, wall street investors, law firms, or information technology (it) computer employees. In kinship studies often crosses over into different anthropological subfields including medical, feminist, and public anthropology. Although anthropologists have found that biology is acknowledged in every cultural relationship to procreation, there are differences in the ways in which cultures assess the constructs of parenthood. Studies began to gain mainstream recognition in the late 1990s with the surging popularity of feminist anthropology, particularly with its work related to biological anthropology and the intersectional critique of gender relations. Studies have also experienced a rise in the interest of reproductive anthropology with the advancement of assisted reproductive technologies (arts), including in vitro fertilization (ivf). These advancements have led to new dimensions of anthropological research, as they challenge the western standard of biogenetically based kinship, relatedness, and parenthood. With ivf, specifically, there have been many questions of embryotic value and the status of life, particularly as it relates to the manufacturing of stem cells, testing, and research. Issues in kinship studies, such as adoption, have revealed and challenged the western cultural disposition towards the genetic, "blood" tie. 36] western biases against single parent homes have also been explored through similar anthropological research, uncovering that a household with a single parent experiences "greater levels of scrutiny and [is] routinely seen as the 'other' of the nuclear, patriarchal family". Schneider proposes that kinship is not a field that can be applied cross-culturally, as the theory itself relies on european assumptions of normalcy. 38] however, this critique has been challenged by the argument that it is linguistics, not cultural divergence, that has allowed for a european bias, and that the bias can be lifted by centering the methodology on fundamental human concepts. Role of anthropology in institutions has expanded significantly since the end of the 20th century.

41] much of this development can be attributed to the rise in anthropologists working outside of academia and the increasing importance of globalization in both institutions and the field of anthropology. Two types of institutions defined in the field of anthropology are total institutions and social institutions. 42] anthropology of institutions may analyze labor unions, businesses ranging from small enterprises to corporations, government, medical organizations,[41] education,[3] prisons,[4][5] and financial institutions. 6] nongovernmental organizations have garnered particular interest in the field of institutional anthropology because of they are capable of fulfilling roles previously ignored by governments,[43] or previously realized by families or local groups, in an attempt to mitigate social problems. Types and methods of scholarship performed in the anthropology of institutions can take a number of forms. 41] institutional anthropology may also focus on the inner workings of an institution, such as the relationships, hierarchies and cultures formed,[41] and the ways that these elements are transmitted and maintained, transformed, or abandoned over time. 44] additionally, some anthropology of institutions examines the specific design of institutions and their corresponding strength. All manifestations of institutional anthropology, participant observation is critical to understanding the intricacies of the way an institution works and the consequences of actions taken by individuals within it. 45] simultaneously, anthropology of institutions extends beyond examination of the commonplace involvement of individuals in institutions to discover how and why the organizational principles evolved in the manner that they did. Considerations taken by anthropologists in studying institutions include the physical location at which a researcher places themselves, as important interactions often take place in private, and the fact that the members of an institution are often being examined in their workplace and may not have much idle time to discuss the details of their everyday endeavors. Cultural -cultural inheritance behavioral relations area ible cultural of important publications in versus society vs guilt ormation of culture. In his earlier work, like many anthropologists of this generation, levi-strauss draws attention to the necessary and urgent task of maintaining and extending the empirical foundations of anthropology in the practice of fieldwork. Balinese cockfights and the seduction of anthropology" in anthropologies and histories: essays in culture, history and political economy. Quotation:Within anthropology's "two cultures"—the positivist/objectivist style of comparative anthropology versus a reflexive/interpretative anthropology—mead has been characterized as a "humanist" heir to franz boas's historical particularism—hence, associated with the practices of interpretation and reflexivity [... Basic guide to cross-cultural e "history of german anthropology/ethnology 1945/ moving anthropology student network-website - the site offers tutorials, information on the subject, discussion-forums and a large link-collection for all interested scholars of cultural al al -cultural -cultural -cultural -cultural -cultural ultural ultural ophy of r culture ultural dualistic al al al - and low-context zational -cultural cultural al al al al al al ological al al e and positive e and social ultural ultural things in ipatory ormation of ational ication nmental (social y of ational ophy of e and technology ries: cultural anthropologyhidden categories: all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from march 2009wikipedia articles with gnd logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia out wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this a bookdownload as pdfprintable dia commonswikiversity. Please be advised that, the specified due date, the guidelines contained in nsf 17-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to proposal target y 16, annually rs - spring funding y 15, annually research - spring funding y 15, annually tation research - spring funding 15, annually research - fall funding 15, annually tation research - fall funding 16, annually rs - fall funding ment target 1, annually ch experience for 1, annually ch experience for proposal target dates: january 15 and august 15 annually for senior research proposals, doctoral dissertation research improvement grant proposals, most workshop proposals and proposals for training programs. Cultural anthropology scholars target dates:january 16 and august 16 annually for faculty scholars proposals: career proposals must conform to the annually announced nsf-wide career proposal , rapid, and small workshop proposals:      eager, rapid, and small workshop proposals may be submitted at any time, with prior permission of the program and reu supplement proposals:      march 1 annually. Reg and reu supplement proposals may also be submitted out of cycle, with prior permission of the program primary objective of the cultural anthropology program is to support basic scientific research on the causes, consequences, and complexities of human social and cultural variability. Anthropological research spans a wide gamut, and contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid. Recognizing the breadth of the field’s contributions to science, the cultural anthropology program welcomes proposals for empirically grounded, theoretically engaged, and methodologically sophisticated research in all sub-fields of cultural anthropology.

Because the national science foundation’s mandate is to support basic research, the nsf cultural anthropology program does not fund research that takes as its primary goal improved clinical practice or applied policy. Program research priorities include, but are not limited to, research that increases our understanding of:Socio-cultural drivers of critical anthropogenic processes such as deforestation, desertification, land cover change, urbanization, and ence and robustness of socio-cultural ct, cooperation, and y, culture, migration, and ility and change in kinship and family norms and al and social contexts of health and regulation, governmentality, and s of complexity in socio-cultural ge and culture: orality and literacy, sociolinguistics, and variation through empirically grounded ethnographic atical and computational models of sociocultural systems such as social network analysis, agent-based models, and integration of agent-based models with geographic information systems (gis). General research the cultural anthropology program supports a broad portfolio of research by both senior scholars and by graduate students. All proposals must explicitly address both the intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the research in the one-page project doctoral dissertation research improvement grants (ddrig) program (see solicitation 15-556) supports doctoral dissertation research by anthropology graduate students enrolled at u. Grants are intended to support the extraordinary expenses of conducting research, not the normal daily expenses of graduate proposals support individual, team, or collaborative research by scholars who hold a phd, or other equivalent or appropriate credential. Researchers may propose empirically grounded and theoretically engaged projects in any sub-field and theoretical area of cultural l guidelines. All researchers should take care to explain very clearly why the research is needed; what it will contribute to the scientific understanding of human society and culture; and how it will lead to the development of theory extending beyond the particular cases to be investigated. They should be clear about the question or questions that the research is addressing; how the research design will address those questions; what information or data will be collected, how, and why; and how the information or data will be analyzed to address the research questions. A good research proposal is interesting, clear, explicit, tightly integrated, and confidence faculty scholars program (see solicitation 07-544) supports methodological training for cultural anthropologists who wish to learn new skills that are needed as part of an ongoing research program. For example, support may be requested to learn new methods of cross-cultural research, demography, remote sensing and gis, ecological field survey, linguistics, or modeling. Support may be requested to learn any methodological skill that is necessary to advance the scholar's research agenda, as justified in the proposal with reference to published results from prior work. Awards are for up to 12 months and for a maximum of $50, for rapid response research (rapid) and early-concept grants for exploratory research (eager). The rapid funding mechanism is used for proposals having a severe urgency with regard to availability of, or access to data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events. The eager funding mechanism may be used to support exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. There are no deadlines or target dates associated with these types of awards and the cultural anthropology program funding for them is rarely more than $25,000 including indirect ch experience for graduate students (reg) and reserch experience for undergraduates (reu) supplements. Senior pis with current nsf awards, may request supplements to support closely mentored but independent research projects by undergraduates intending to pursue graduate work in anthropology or graduate students at the pre-dissertation phase of their education. See dear colleague letter nsf 16-044 for detailed information on preparing cultural anthropology reg and reu supplemental funding ops. Proposals for workshops with research goals may be submitted in the normal grant cycle (target dates: january 15 and august 15). The cultural anthropology program supports the dissemination of the most current research tools available for social science research. Consequently, as budget permits, the cultural anthropology program funds a limited number of proposals for training workshops, short courses, and fieldwork programs, through the regular proposal review cycle.

The cultural anthropology program participates in this nsf-wide activity offering prestigious awards in support of the early development of academic faculty as both educators and researchers. Consult the career solicitation for more al anthropology program - doctoral dissertation research improvement al anthropology scholars -risk research in biological anthropology and ch experiences for cs of coupled natural and human y and evolution of infectious e of science and innovation statement on protecting and preserving field records and related colleague letter: cultural anthropology research experience for graduates (reg) and research experience for undergraduates (reu) al anthropology program -supported training opportunities in cultural anthropology (qualquant methods mall). Of recent awards made through this al anthropology: _indo-american center_ch in cultural anthropology has changed significantly over the hundred plus years of the field museum's existence. Today, anthropologists in the science action center and in the anthropology department are asking such questions as:What are the ways in which urban dwellers define and care for their environments? The field museum, we are conducting research in chicago, the pacific, africa, and south ionary public health & ian tural variation & mologies of ity & al, historical & political h centre for durkheimian pology ionary public health & ian tural variation & mologies of ity & al, historical & political h centre for durkheimian t research , class and research ular religion: varieties of religiosity in the nepali ches to misfortune in nepal.