ABSTRACT
The anthropology of economic life has changed accordingly, and today researchers are involved in examining a host of different aspects of ‘how people make a living’: thus they work with resource industries. Studying anthropology is the beginning of a long and exciting journey, and what happens along the way is filled with surprises! Many also have international networks of relationships that bring further – and sometimes even more diverse – cultural perspectives into the equation. The ‘cultural translation’ skills of anthropology, and its ability to provide in-depth understandings of social behaviour are therefore an important part of the work that anthropologists do in this sphere. Carrie McLaren is highly critical of this misrepresentation of anthropology, and of the approach itself: ‘since focus groups aren’t the real world, they’re working damn hard to make the real world a focus group’. Anthropology can bring greater depth to such data collection, as well as the ability to consider diverse cultural responses.
