ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors review the historical development of two schools of thought that inform current beliefs and practices about how to best prepare students to study, live, and work abroad. They examine their theories that seek to characterize how humans make sense of the world and each other in cross-cultural situations. The authors focus on the related but distinct fields of anthropology and intercultural communication, two disciplines that have had a significant impact on the applied world of international education and training. Widely considered the father of American anthropology, Boas played an important role in establishing a new kind of academic anthropology beginning at the end of the 19th century and continuing. Anthropology's philosophical contribution will remain central to study abroad preparation because of its emphasis on participant observation and its concern for culture-specific knowledge, and intercultural communication will continue to provide tools that make communication across cultural borders more efficient, empathetic, and productive.
