ABSTRACT
Anthropology should be applied at a national level to all development programmes that intend to make changes in the lives of countries in need (such as disaster relief, poverty reduction, and programmes for vulnerable communities and the elderly). Some years ago the Royal Anthropological Institute created the Lucy Mair Medal of Applied Anthropology, which recognizes excellence in using anthropology for ‘the relief of poverty or distress, or for the active recognition of human dignity’. The cultural understandings provided by anthropology are particularly important in understanding issues around race and racism, and a number of practitioners work in agencies devoted to upholding human rights and encouraging cross-cultural tolerance. Ideas about ‘race’ are often implicit in ‘ethnic’ or ‘religious’ conflicts, and there is a widespread need for anthropological skills in resolving the extreme intergroup conflicts that occur across national, cultural, political and religious boundaries.
