Practice question · Select all that apply
Which are documented failure modes of development projects that skipped ethnography?
Hints
- The documented failures are institutional and cultural.
- One listed option reverses the lesson rather than illustrating it.
Show the answer
- A. Pumps abandoned because no one owned their maintenance
- C. Improved stoves rejected for ignoring how cooking is actually done
- D. Latrines repurposed as grain stores
Why
Real failures are institutional and cultural, unowned maintenance, misread practice, better local uses. The second option inverts the lesson: users understood perfectly; the designers didn’t.
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More questions on Applied Anthropology Today
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- Why did the American Anthropological Association condemn the Human Terrain System?
- Sort each project decision: ethical practice or red flag?
- Order the steps of a live informed-consent process.
- Order the phases of a well-run applied-anthropology project.