Anthropologists and Archeologists
Tasks
Core Tasks Include:
- Study objects and structures recovered by excavation to identify, date, and authenticate them and to interpret their significance.
- Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents.
- Research, survey, or assess sites of past societies and cultures in search of answers to specific research questions.
- Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences.
- Describe artifacts' physical properties or attributes, such as the materials from which artifacts are made and their size, shape, function, and decoration.
- Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations.
- Compare findings from one site with archeological data from other sites to find similarities or differences.
- Record the exact locations and conditions of artifacts uncovered in diggings or surveys, using drawings and photographs as necessary.
- Assess archeological sites for resource management, development, or conservation purposes and recommend methods for site protection.
- Gather and analyze artifacts and skeletal remains to increase knowledge of ancient cultures.
- Collect artifacts made of stone, bone, metal, and other materials, placing them in bags and marking them to show where they were found.
- Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials.
- Consult site reports, existing artifacts, and topographic maps to identify archeological sites.
- Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning.
- Advise government agencies, private organizations, and communities regarding proposed programs, plans, and policies and their potential impacts on cultural institutions, organizations, and communities.
- Create data records for use in describing and analyzing social patterns and processes, using photography, videography, and audio recordings.
- Develop intervention procedures, using techniques such as individual and focus group interviews, consultations, and participant observation of social interaction.
- Develop and test theories concerning the origin and development of past cultures.
- Lead field training sites and train field staff, students, and volunteers in excavation methods.
- Collaborate with economic development planners to decide on the implementation of proposed development policies, plans, and programs based on culturally institutionalized barriers and facilitating circumstances.
- Clean, restore, and preserve artifacts.
- Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments.
- Organize public exhibits and displays to promote public awareness of diverse and distinctive cultural traditions.
- Formulate general rules that describe and predict the development and behavior of cultures and social institutions.
- Study archival collections of primary historical sources to help explain the origins and development of cultural patterns.
- Apply traditional ecological knowledge and assessments of culturally distinctive land and resource management institutions to assist in the resolution of conflicts over habitat protection and resource enhancement.
- Enhance the cultural sensitivity of elementary and secondary curricula and classroom interactions in collaboration with educators and teachers.
- Participate in forensic activities, such as tooth and bone structure identification, in conjunction with police departments and pathologists.
Tasks Include:
- Teach or mentor undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology or archeology.
- Write grant proposals to obtain funding for research.
The data sources for the information displayed here include: O*NET™. (Using onet28)
