ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the dimensions of the interaction between engineers and anthropologists and the ways in which the point at which anthropologists enter the process may influence their possibilities for carrying out analysis in that interaction. Engineers often appear to display a quiet certainty that their mission in the world is to introduce the order which they see as facilitating the modernist culture they value as a morally and aesthetically pleasing summit of human development. Engineering specifications consist of written instructions that form part of the contract between an engineer representing an owner and the organization that contracts to undertake the construction set out in the contract: the contractor. In contrast to engineers anthropologists have long recognized the realities of environmental influence on cultural practices. Documentary authority in engineering is further reinforced by the tacit knowledge that the work being undertaken is often highly consequential, potentially controversial, and extremely expensive.
