My Carrer: Social Anthropology

Hello everybody!

Sometimes I think to study anthropology because it was the last option, because i was dropping one by one, until they were three: Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science. The problem was that Political Science wasn’t at the University of Chile, so the discarded, and Sociology thought weren’t good methods to analyze society. Maybe I think now other than that. Finally I chose Anthropology, however I don’t had the safety of my choice. But i'm here, in fourth year, and as all the careers Anthropology have things that i like and other things that i dislike.

Anthropology has much to contribute to society. Most importantly, we must help solve problems such as poverty, crime, homelessness, and problems in the healthy, help improve the quality of life for those that need: poor people, immigrants, old people, children, etc. An anthropologist needs several basic tools and knowledge to play their role. These are for example, some statistical programs for to help explore social problems, such as SPSS, Arc View, etc.

My favourite subject is Quantitative Methods II. This is a excellent lecture and one of the reasons i like is the teacher is very good. His name is Jaime Fierro. He teaches of a way clear and explanatory. In addition, he teaches all the matter that he is supposed to teach...not all teachers do that. Other reason because i like this subject is that i like the statistical area. It is very interesting because you can study with a high level of reliability on various themes: political, economic, social, cultural. In addition, through the results of these studies can be guide solutions to the problems discussed.

And my favourite theme is the residential segregation, it’s the territorial agglomeration of families belonging to the same social group, whether it is defined in terms of ethnicity, age, religious preference, or socioeconomic status, which generates as a result, residential areas that are characterized by a high internal homogeneity and a strong socio-economic gap between them. In our country, the main dividing line is economic: the high price of land in certain districts, especially those from the eastern sector of Santiago. One can argue that the urban planning policies have generally located the houses of the poor in the periphery of the city, because that is where the economic value of the land is lower, resulting in concentrations of segregated populations, mainly in the southern area of Santiago. In these areas there are problems with infrastructure and public services, relating to health, education, recreation, etc., to the detriment of the quality of life for those who live there. Here the Anthropology is very important for help to solve these problems.

That is all for today…