The Real World

In organizing a forum on anthropology and public policy at the 1985 American Anthropological Association meetings, Walter Goldschmidt recalled that it was quite easy to attract three responsible Washington officials to the panel (including Claiborne Pell, ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), but that finding three anthropologists willing and able to participate proved extremely difficult. "Anthropologists," said Goldschmidt, "know that they have important things to say with respect to policies that involve humans—especially people of alien cultures ... But they have not prepared themselves for the serious and difficult task of translating their deep understanding into the workaday realities of decision making and the crossfire that goes with such a role" (Anthropology and Public Policy: A Dialogue, Walter Goldschmidt, ed., Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, 1986, pp. 3-4). That contradiction suggests the challenge we face in making anthropology a significant policy discipline

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