ABSTRACT
The application of anthropology to real-world problems by non-academic practitioners has emerged as of the most important developments in the discipline in recent decades. Anthropology today is both a discipline and a profession. A discipline generates knowledge. Professions apply knowledge. Successful professions are those which have carved out territory in the outside world wherein they have some claim to expertise, and where they can bring specialized knowledge and technique to bear. The priority, for most academic researchers, is the discovery and elaboration of knowledge, and its transmission through teaching and publication. For many academics, there is a fair amount of consistency over time in both their professional interests and in the kinds of tasks they perform in their work. The professional side of anthropology- in all of its varied forms- is clearly going to be the future for the majority of today's graduates, a fact which will not fail to work major changes on the discipline itself.
