The scene: the final months of senior year. Seventeen year old me pouring over college majors during a research day in my economics course. A quick perfunctory search for an alphabetized list of college majors:

ANTHROPOLOGY

I’d never read the word before let alone knew the field existed, but I distinctly remember that the small blurb that mentioned something to the extinct of studying cultures past and present. I immediately tunnel-visioned to ANTHROPOLOGY, imagining the sorts of cultures (past and present) that existed beyond my 6,000-person hometown.

It was there, senior year of high school, I decided on my college major. I vividly recall the reaction from my parents when I broke the news that I was steadfast in my decision to study ANTHROPOLOGY:

“What are you going to do with that?”, dad asked, no ill-intention behind the inquiry.

“Whatever I want”

15 years later, four and a half of those spent studying cultures past and present, I am slightly surprised (and impressed) that I did get my undergraduate degree in ANTHROPOLOGY. From that moment in high school when I declared, my major never changed, although I nearly swore off the field forever after taking a required linguistics course.

And, in that declarative fashion, I have (kind of) done whatever I wanted with that degree. From working on archaeological excavations, to teaching tech skills to adults in day programs, and finally falling into instructional design – the opportunities are as random as they are endless.

Anthropology did exactly what it promised the day I stumbled upon it in high school: I immersed myself headlong into cultures past and present far beyond the reaches of what I ever imagined. Anthropology became the practicum for how I navigated my lived experiences; careful observation, continuous clarification, deep respect, and unbridled fascination. It was safe and it was familiar.

As I tumbled into the ID world, much like Alice into Wonderland, I observed something most peculiar; the college major my parents feared would never pay off my student loans acted as my lifeline, immersing me into this culture in ways I never expected.

If you look up the definition of culture, one of the first hits on google reads,

Most anthropologists would define culture as the shared set of (implicit and explicit) values, ideas, concepts, and rules of behaviour that allow a social group to function and perpetuate itself.

Patricia M. Hudelson

Each organization I’ve worked with came with their own mission statements, values, visions, all developed to demonstrate purpose and remain sustainable. In my mind, I need to approach each organization as a sort of artificially constructed culture. And although these cultures are created intentionally, they still exhibit a shared implicit and explicit values, ideas, rules, and concepts a group.

Anthropology became my roadmap as I explored, guiding me through the structures, unfamiliar theories, and nuances of this strange new world. And (albeit) slowly, ID world became familiar

References

Patricia M. Hudelson, Culture and quality: an anthropological perspective, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, Volume 16, Issue 5, October 2004, Pages 345–346, https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzh076