Musings on an Archaeology of Business Anthropology

Abstract

Business anthropology is an emergent hybrid discipline (Baba 2006) that is still in the process of becoming (Ingold 2013). Even if this process is generally at work, temporal gaps are observed in its development, following national traditions. We thus observe differences between USA and Europe, probably in relation to the dichotomy between fundamental anthropology and applied anthropology, due to different colonial heritage. However, this hybrid discipline ostensibly bridges an anthropological focus with business, design, and organizational practices and beyond. The anthropologist’s ability to “look beneath” apparent behavior and uncover deeper motivations, and link these insights to shared values and beliefs, is based on broader understandings of human behavior that organizations find useful. As obvious as this all may appear today, from the most unlikely or serendipitous of circumstances, a few pioneering adventurers in the1980s in the US and Europe began this enterprise first employed as business anthropologists.