Facilitating Intellectual Property Rights: A Role for Business Anthropologists

Abstract

Mainstream intellectual property rights are granted by governments and international agreements in order to advance the goals of society. Indigenous peoples, however, often embrace their own systems of intellectual ownership that are distinct from the mainstream regime. Business anthropologists can serve both local people and mainstream corporations by facilitating a mutual understanding of the full implications of competing intellectual property regimes and doing so from a cultural as well as an economic perspective.