FREE ESSAY ON BI-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST

BI-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST

Can/should a cultural anthropologist become truly bicultural?
Understanding the basic cultural traits of the society an anthropologist is studying is
imperitive. However, as the anthropologist's knowledge of this culture increases, he or
she makes steps to a bicultural perspective. If this perspective is truly bicultural, I
do not know. Because I was not raised in a bicultural atmosphere, it is difficult for me
to develop and apply a definition to being 'truly bicultural.' If possible, an
anthropologist should strive to become truly bicultural to truthfully understand and
document practices and traits of the society being studied.
Any anthropologist can study and understand the actions and relations of a society. This
understanding, however, may include subconcious bias that compares a specific aspect of a
'different' culture to the culture the anthropologist understands best. This leads me to
believe that being truly bicultural includes being raised equally between two cultures. A
truly bicultural anthropologist understands a culture at the same level in which he or
she understands the culture of his or her native society. Because of this subconcious
bias, truly bicultural anthropologists are 'few and far between.'