ABSTRACT
For decades, practice was the hidden side of anthropology. Today, practitioners are more visible than at any other time, and far outnumber their academic colleagues. Opportunities for anthropologist practitioners abound today, as organizations come to understand the usefulness and relevance of their work. The divide between academic anthropology and practice appears to be closing. In repurposing anthropology people still need to pay attention to and improve the relationship between practice and its academic base. Practitioners have become skilled at advocacy, management, leadership and policy-making. Practitioners have been telling us for years how difficult it is for many of them to stay connected to their disciplinary roots. In decades past, application and practice were seen as divorced from the concerns and realities of academic anthropology, and considered, by many university-based anthropologists, as a separate and very different sphere. Practice is engaging our discipline with many of our most pressing global problems, and doing so in increasingly effective ways.
