Traditional cultures : and the impact of technological change

My interest in applied anthropology, and the experiences on which Traditional Cultures is based, began in 1951 when Charles J. Erasmus, Isabel Kelly, Kalervo Oberg, Ozzie Sim mons, and I analyzed some of the social and cultural factors which seemed to us to affect the functioning of public health centers in several Latin American countries. As Smithsonian Institution teaching and research social scientists stationed in Latin America, we had carried out cultural anthropological studies in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil; now, we felt, we should try to determine ways in which this basic knowledge might be used to help solve contemporary problems. With the cooperation of the United States Government's Institute of Inter-American Affairs and the Servicio health organizations of the nations involved, we were able to observe behavior and interview personnel and patients in new public health centers in which American cooperation had played a role. Our very modest report, "A Cross-Cultural Anthropological Analysis of a Technical Aid Program," attracted surprising interest, and on the basis of this preliminary applied research we were asked to participate in a major evaluation of the first ten years of bilateral cooperative health programs between the United States and Latin American countries. In this capacity we were members of a public health team sent to the field by the United States Department of Public Health and the Institute of Inter American Affairs. This experience taught me much about the relationships between social science and newly developing health programs, and it gave me the opportunity to know many people working in international health programs. Among these was Dr. Henry van Zile Hyde, at the time Director of the Health and Sanitation Division of the Institute; his interest, support, and friendship then and over the years have meant much to me both personally and professionally.