From Savage To Self

Farrah speaks to the thinker whose writing caused the biggest argument amongst her fellow anthropology students - Donna Haraway. She ponders the anthropology of artisanal cheesemakers, and their cheese, and learns what studying cheese has in common with studying outer space (it has nothing to do with the moon).

Farrah Jarral concludes her series on anthropology by looking to the future.

Farrah Jarral explores the history of anthropology

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She explores how a turn towards the very practical - from lobbying on the behalf of native peoples to research into infectious tropical diseases - proved one part of the solution to anthropology's existential crisis.

She speaks to some of those involved, including Marcus Colchester, founder of the Forest People's Programme and Melissa Parker, creator of the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform. And she discusses the benefits of an anthropological approach with the world's highest-profile anthropologist: Jim Kim, President of the World Bank.

Starting with Ursula Graham-Bower, who lead Naga tribesmen against the Japanese in the Second World War, Farrah examines how anthropologists have been involved with armed conflict. She shows how US government funding allowed anthropology to expand rapidly during the Cold War, with controversial results. And she tells the story of the Human Terrain System: a programme embedding anthropologists and other social scientists with US Army combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan. To its critics, it flouted ethics rules; while its creator argues that it saved many lives.

Farrah Jarral looks at the complex relationship between anthropologists and war.

Farrah hears how anthropology was forced to reckon with its colonial heritage, raising questions about how knowledge was produced - and by whom. She speaks to Professor Talal Asad, an academic who wrote a seminal book on the subject, and to an activist still fighting the same battles he first fought almost forty years ago.

But anthropology's existential crisis posed other questions about what it can really know, too, and about how research should be conducted; and Farrah meets up with an old colleague to see the results.

Farrah looks at how Mead's first research trip to the South Pacific set a new template for how anthropological learning could be used in modern societies, upending how Americans thought about child-rearing and breastfeeding. And she argues that Mead's research in her second major research expedition changed forever notions of fixed gender identities.

Speaking to Margaret Mead's daughter, the anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, and to an anthropologist who wrote a book called 'Margaret Mead Made Me Gay', Farrah explores the extraordinary legacy of this anthropological pioneer.

Farrah Jarral looks at the anthropological legacy of Margaret Mead.

In this first omnibus edition Farrah begins her travels in the East End of London with one of the classic jokes in anthropology. She then hears how anthropology emerged out of colonialism, and how some anthropologists embraced eugenics. But as she tells the story of three of the twentieth century's most influential anthropologists - Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowksi and Margaret Mead - she also discovers how anthropology affected the way we think about the most profound questions of human identity, including race and gender.

Farrah Jarral tells the intriguing and unexpected story of anthropology.

In this second omnibus edition, Farrah investigates the tangled history of anthropologists during times of war, she hears how anthropology suffered a crisis of conscience as colonialism came to an end, and how some anthropologists responded by getting much more involved in the lives of those they were studying. She meets anthropologists helping businesses understand how their products and services might fit into our lives, and speaks to anthropologists studying animals, cyborgs, cheese and even alien life. And as she catches up on what she calls her own favourite 'modern ethnographic masterpiece', The Only Way Is Essex, Farrah concludes by reflecting on how the success of the ideas and methodology of anthropology make it less visible as a distinct discipline.

Farrah discovers how anthropologists helped direct early research into office automation. She speaks to an anthropologist working with drivers in Birmingham to understand how they use their time in the car, and gets dating advice from Helen Fisher, an anthropologist who has worked for a decade as Chief Scientific Adviser to match.com. And she reveals which British TV show she considers a 'modern ethnographic masterpiece'.

Farrah Jarral shows how anthropology has infiltrated everyday life.

Farrah Jarral explores the history of anthropology

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She asks the questions which anthropologists have asked for generations - how have we understood our own societies, how have we seen and understood those of others, what is it that we share, and what is it to be human - and situates them in the changing historical and intellectual contexts in which they were asked, and answered.

In this first episode, Farrah explains her own passion for anthropology and explores its birth as a distinct discipline.

Farrah Jarral explains her passion for anthropology and explores its birth as a discipline

In this episode she examines how closely anthropology was tied to colonialism, how major anthropological collections were built during the colonial period, and how quasi-scientific racism and some of the underlying attitudes towards 'savage' societies lead to a dark period in anthropological history.

But she also explores the history of one of early anthropology's greatest works: James Frazer's multi-volume work The Golden Bough - and how it was influenced by, and in turn influenced, wider intellectual trends in the early twentieth century.

Farrah Jarral examines how closely anthropology was tied to colonialism.

In this episode she explores the legacy of one of the most influential anthropologists of all: Franz Boas. From pluralising the word 'culture' to developing the idea of cultural relativism and promoting the cause of anti-racism, Boas can claim a tremendous intellectual legacy. Farrah travels to New York City, where she sees one of his original displays at the American Museum of Natural History, and hears why he is known as the father of American anthropology.

Farrah Jarral explores the legacy of one of influential anthropologist Franz Boas.

When Malinowski got stuck on a small chain of Pacific islands during the First World War, it seemed like little more than an unfortunate turn of events. In fact, it proved to be his making. The book he produced as a result of his fieldwork, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, upset much of previous anthropological practice. Instead of broad conclusions drawn from multiple cultures, Malinowski's intense immersion in a single culture reset the template. Participant observation became how social anthropologists practiced their trade - and Farrah meets an anthropologist who still relies on it to the present day.

Farrah Jarral tells the story of how Bronislaw Malinowski changed anthropology forever.