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Join a Section and Participate

Published on: Jan 22, 2021

Join a Section and Participate
Image credit: Bascom Guffin (image cropped to fit)

Join a Section

One of the best parts of joining the AAA, is that you get access to exclusive membership in one or more of our 40 specialized sections and access to all ~30 section journals via AnthroSource, our digital database.

Section memberships enhance the benefits of AAA by providing access to specialized leadership and mentoring opportunities, a close-knit community of anthropologists, and of course access to their special events at the AAA Annual Meeting.

The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology

The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA) promotes human-centered work applied to practical problems by linking a network of professional anthropologists working across employment sectors.

NAPA supports all anthropologists in bringing real solutions to communities, organizations, and policymakers, by offering advocacy, information, networks, mentoring, and continuing education.

Business Anthropology

Business Anthropology is one of the latest ways that anthropology has asserted itself on the global stage. Business anthropologists contribute to economic development worldwide, provide direction for better run organizations, and help companies improve their understanding of consumers, leading to product innovations and brand communications that are responsive to bona fide consumer needs and wants. Business anthropologists typically work with or within public, private, and non-profit organizations.

On an educational level, business anthropology scholars contribute to an understanding of culture and commerce. Business anthropology teaches students in anthropology departments and business schools about the culture of work, ethics, and exchange, including the values of and respect for actors on a global scale, advancing cross-cultural understanding.

Businesses are drawn especially to anthropology’s principal research method, ethnography, because it enables firms to understand their customers, partners, suppliers, and their own organizations better. Major corporations such as Google, Intel, and IBM recognize the contributions of staff anthropologists; companies like Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup, Nissan, Mars, and Coca Cola, among others, hire anthropologists as consultants; numerous advertising agencies and design firms employ anthropologists; and many marketing research firms specialize in business anthropology. Business opportunities for recent graduates and others with an anthropological sensibility and toolkit have never been better.