Toward an Applied Missionary Anthropology

Abstract

Roman Catholic missionary work has produced more direct professional anthropological investigation than has Protestant missionary work. Several priests have been world famous anthropological theoreticians as well. Anthropos, one of the great ethnological journals of the world, is edited by Roman Catholic scholars. Anthropological Quarterly, the journal of the Catholic Anthropological Association in the United States, was started more than twenty years before Practical Anthropology. The author of the following article is preparing a volume in applied anthropology for missionaries to be entitled Applied Missionary Anthropology. In this article he states the need for a formulation of anthropological insights specifically for Roman Catholic missionaries. His points generally apply fully to Protestants as well.