D I A L O G U E April 2002 • Anthropology News

experience is that communitymembers appreciate the anthropo-logical perspectives that I bring.

Just as new technologies willstrongly affect our methods, infor-mation technology will be a crucialelement in anthropological re-search and practice 30 years hence.Connections with organizationsand communities are a two-waystreet. As such groups take charge oftheir own lives, as they are begin-ning to do now, our (interdiscipli-nary team) data will be a key totheir successes. Anthropologists canprovide the foundation knowledgefor making decisions and figuringout how to act on them. We willneed to communicate our findingsand insights to community boards,citizen groups and public meetings.Some of this will be accomplishedelectronically, perhaps throughcommunity bulletin boards or pub-lic kiosks, perhaps using technolo-gy not yet envisioned.

We Will Make It HappenFinally, let me mention the workthat is being done now to createthis future. In 2001, Louise Lam-phere (AAA Past President), LindaBennett (SfAA Past President) and 1

appointed the AAA/SfAA Commis-sion on Applied/Practicing Anthro-pology. I chair this commission,which is made up of presidents andpast presidents of the two organiza-tions and a heterogeneous group ofexperienced and well-known an-thropologists from both academiaand practice. We have set an ambi-tious agenda to increase our disci-pline's capacity for the practice ofanthropology. We expect to facilitatetraining and continuing educationopportunities for students, facultyand practitioners at all levels ofexperience. We also hope to influ-ence anthropology departments toemphasize their current strengthsthat promote interest and skill inapplied/practicing anthropology.When anthropology is able to pro-mote the synergy of theory andpractice, we will be a mature disci-pline. M

Noel J Chrisman is professor of psycho-social and community health at the U ofWashington and president of the Societyfor Applied Anthropology. In addition toteaching clinically applied anthropologyand cultural competence skills to healthpractitioners, he does participatory re-search with community health coalitionsin Seattle.

Looking Back, ProjectingAhead . » .

50 Years Ago . . ."The training of anthropologists is unfortunately a very sore subjectto those of us in applied anthropology. Too often nowadays we findourselves in the embarrassing position of the storeowner who has toput on a big advertising campaign—the customers are at the doorand he finds he has forgotten to order the merchandise. Althoughit may not yet be widely employed, anthropology has becomeaccepted as a key discipline in a variety of fields; psychiatry andsodal work, business and governmental organization and policy,,and in the specialized techniques of extension work which we nowcall technical assistance and are applying to the underdevelopedareas of the world. In all of these fields, opportunities are growingrapidly for anthropologists—that the number of jobs is increasingand, likewise, the salary scale attached—and jobs are the mainstayof any professional field. Jobs mean competitively more money forresearch, more money for university teaching budgets. Jobs meanthat the student who turns to anthropology as a profession can lookforward to a future in a field that is constantly growing in a publicacceptance and in the contributions it can make to the well-beingof mankind."—From "The Training of the Professional Anthropol-ogist: Social Anthropology and Applied Anthropology," by Eliot DChappie {AA, 1952, p 340).

2OO2-O3 AN Theme:

An Exercise for Professor X

"I see a camel in my mind.I do not say to myself, in English,'There is a camel.'I do not talk to myself.On the contrary, I watchAnd a camel passes in my mind.This might happen to a Persian.My mind and a Persian'sAre as much alike, then,As moonlight on the AtlanticIs like moonlight on the Pacific."

—Wallace Stevens (1913-1915?)

As anthropologists, we always are translating: languages, our field experi-ences and data into scholarly publications; and our research findings intoinformation that can benefit the public. How do we know that the explana-tory models we develop of our interpretations of our data are accurate? Arewe developing broader understanding of other ways of human life in thisprocess? As the NIH knows, focusing on problems of translation is key in ourincreasingly interconnected and fast-paced world; thus, they are forming ini-tiatives on translation: translating research into useful practice for doctors,nurses, social workers and public health officers. The same could be said forthose who work for museums: how to translate our understandings about ar-chaeological, biological and ethnographic artifacts into exhibits for a publicthat increasingly does not have a simple scientific base of knowledge is a keyarea of work.

Is Stevens right about the human mind and imagination? How do wetranslate our sensations into images into thought and language into action?What are the ethical implications of our understanding of this process, orany process of translation? Moreover, what are the implications of howtranslations historically are recorded and contextualized? And what are theimplications of who keeps and interprets these records?

AN challenges readers to explore these questions using concrete examplesfrom their own research. Specific issues include:

• How has our understanding of "translation" changed historically?'•• What are the biological, linguistic, personal and cultural processes

involved in translation?• What are the ethical dilemmas surrounding problems of translation?• Is the human mind the same cross-culturally, as Stevens suggests? What

might such an understanding of the human mind mean for humanrights debates?

• In focusing on cognitive aspects of humanity and translation, ratherthan the body, are we missing something? Does the "body" play a rolein problems of translation? If so, how?

• How might we construct useful research questions and programs ontranslation to address contemporary needs?

• How should we responsibly translate our research findings?• How should we responsibly contextualize, record, credit, teach and

archive our translations?

AN invites readers to submit their ideas, 600- to 800-word articles or 1,000-word commentaries for its 14th annual theme, "Problems of Translation," torun from Oct 2002 through May 2003. Contributors are asked to submittheir thoughts (on disk or in emails) to Stacy Lathrop, AN Managing Editor,4350 N Fairfax Dr, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203-1620; tel 703/528-1902 ext3005; fax 703/528-3546; slathrop@aaanet.org.