Will AI Replace Anthropologists and Archeologists?

Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents.

Semi-structured cognitive task involving analysis, inspection, or monitoring.

Teach or mentor undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology or archeology.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Create data records for use in describing and analyzing social patterns and processes, using photography, videography, and audio recordings.

Routine cognitive or manual task with high vulnerability to automation.

Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Apply traditional ecological knowledge and assessments of culturally distinctive land and resource management institutions to assist in the resolution of conflicts over habitat protection and resource enhancement.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Lead field training sites and train field staff, students, and volunteers in excavation methods.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Conduct participatory action research in communities and organizations to assess how work is done and to design work systems, technologies, and environments.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Develop and test theories concerning the origin and development of past cultures.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Research, survey, or assess sites of past societies and cultures in search of answers to specific research questions.

Semi-structured cognitive task involving analysis, inspection, or monitoring.

Write grant proposals to obtain funding for research.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Advise government agencies, private organizations, and communities regarding proposed programs, plans, and policies and their potential impacts on cultural institutions, organizations, and communities.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Organize public exhibits and displays to promote public awareness of diverse and distinctive cultural traditions.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Collaborate with economic development planners to decide on the implementation of proposed development policies, plans, and programs based on culturally institutionalized barriers and facilitating circumstances.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Develop intervention procedures, using techniques such as individual and focus group interviews, consultations, and participant observation of social interaction.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Enhance the cultural sensitivity of elementary and secondary curricula and classroom interactions in collaboration with educators and teachers.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Study archival collections of primary historical sources to help explain the origins and development of cultural patterns.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Formulate general rules that describe and predict the development and behavior of cultures and social institutions.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Record the exact locations and conditions of artifacts uncovered in diggings or surveys, using drawings and photographs as necessary.

Routine cognitive or manual task with high vulnerability to automation.

Assess archeological sites for resource management, development, or conservation purposes and recommend methods for site protection.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Gather and analyze artifacts and skeletal remains to increase knowledge of ancient cultures.

Semi-structured cognitive task involving analysis, inspection, or monitoring.

Compare findings from one site with archeological data from other sites to find similarities or differences.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Describe artifacts' physical properties or attributes, such as the materials from which artifacts are made and their size, shape, function, and decoration.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Collect artifacts made of stone, bone, metal, and other materials, placing them in bags and marking them to show where they were found.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Study objects and structures recovered by excavation to identify, date, and authenticate them and to interpret their significance.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Consult site reports, existing artifacts, and topographic maps to identify archeological sites.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.

Clean, restore, and preserve artifacts.

Semi-structured task combining routine and non-routine responsibilities.

Participate in forensic activities, such as tooth and bone structure identification, in conjunction with police departments and pathologists.

Complex problem-solving, strategic leadership, or high-empathy task requiring human judgment.