A plan is under consideration to open a large tract of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil...

  

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A plan is under consideration to open a large tract of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil to commercial mining and logging operations on territory several indigenous cultures consider to be their traditional homeland. XYZ Mining and Logging Corporation has been selected by the Brazilian government to manage and profit from these commercial operations. However, the project can only go forward after each of the three major stakeholders-1) the Brazilian government, 2) XYZ Corp., and 3) an Indigenous Coalition representing the local indigenous groups- has completed and approved an environmental and cultural impact assessment, which assesses the project's impact on both the environment and the indigenous inhabitants of the target territory. Each of these three major stakeholders, in turn, is hiring a team of anthropologists to help with the assessments over a six-month period of time. *Note: Obviously, many details of this hypothetical scenario are unstated. Use your creative and critical thinking skills to fill in any gaps you deem necessary or useful, generally keeping things on this side of fantasy of course. The Thought Experiment Imagine you are an applied anthropologist hired by any one of these three stakeholders. Think about the challenges you would face in this particular role, based on what you have learned about the work of applied anthropologists-the concepts, perspectives, approaches, and methods they use. The Reflections Discuss what you would expect to experience working for this particular stakeholder on this project as an applied anthropologist (don't forget to specify the stakeholder). Again, use your creative and critical thinking skills in telling this story. Address any of the questions below, or others you consider interesting or important. . . What project impacts would you expect to explore, and what anthropological concepts and research methods would you use to explore them? What findings would your stakeholder hope to see, and why? What challenges would you expect to encounter-practical, ethical, political, theoretical, methodological, other? How would you handle any research findings that conflict with the interests of your stakeholder? In what ways could you see your work with this stakeholder contributing to solving human problems, as applied anthropology seeks to do? What larger questions and human challenges would your work on this project contribute to solving or prompt you to think about? What other questions would you expect to arise in this context? A plan is under consideration to open a large tract of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil to commercial mining and logging operations on territory several indigenous cultures consider to be their traditional homeland. XYZ Mining and Logging Corporation has been selected by the Brazilian government to manage and profit from these commercial operations. However, the project can only go forward after each of the three major stakeholders-1) the Brazilian government, 2) XYZ Corp., and 3) an Indigenous Coalition representing the local indigenous groups- has completed and approved an environmental and cultural impact assessment, which assesses the project's impact on both the environment and the indigenous inhabitants of the target territory. Each of these three major stakeholders, in turn, is hiring a team of anthropologists to help with the assessments over a six-month period of time. *Note: Obviously, many details of this hypothetical scenario are unstated. Use your creative and critical thinking skills to fill in any gaps you deem necessary or useful, generally keeping things on this side of fantasy of course. The Thought Experiment Imagine you are an applied anthropologist hired by any one of these three stakeholders. Think about the challenges you would face in this particular role, based on what you have learned about the work of applied anthropologists-the concepts, perspectives, approaches, and methods they use. The Reflections Discuss what you would expect to experience working for this particular stakeholder on this project as an applied anthropologist (don't forget to specify the stakeholder). Again, use your creative and critical thinking skills in telling this story. Address any of the questions below, or others you consider interesting or important. . . What project impacts would you expect to explore, and what anthropological concepts and research methods would you use to explore them? What findings would your stakeholder hope to see, and why? What challenges would you expect to encounter-practical, ethical, political, theoretical, methodological, other? How would you handle any research findings that conflict with the interests of your stakeholder? In what ways could you see your work with this stakeholder contributing to solving human problems, as applied anthropology seeks to do? What larger questions and human challenges would your work on this project contribute to solving or prompt you to think about? What other questions would you expect to arise in this context?

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As an applied anthropologist hired by the Indigenous Coalition representing the local indigenous groups I would face several challenges in assessing the impact of the proposed mining and logging opera... View the full answer