History Main / FantasticAnthropologist

%%[[folder:Fan Works]]
%%* Lyra Heartstring's ''Fanfic/{{Anthropology}}''.

%%[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'' is structured like an anthropologist's notes on the distant future Kesh people. But in a couple of segments, Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin inverts the plot device and provides Kesh perspectives on then-current real humans. The Kesh think "they all had their heads on backwards".

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/GetMedieval'' features anthropology student Asher Hane as one of the HumanAlien protagonists stuck in 14th century France.

Astonishing as it may seem, not all non-{{Muggle}} characters are on a crusade to murder us {{Muggles}}. In fact, their motivations will turn out to be surprisingly mundane -- they want to see how us crazy {{Muggles}} operate. How do we keep from getting cold without any fur? Where does our food come from if we don't have access to FunctionalMagic? And how do we... reproduce?

This usually non-malicious character type has one primary function in a story--[[RuleOfFunny comedy]]. Because it's hard to beat the humor of someone who doesn't understand human customs trying to make any sort of sense out of them. The Fantastic Anthropologist very rarely has long-term story implications in large part because part of their job is to keep the {{Muggles}} in the dark about what's going on.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/WhatIsThisThingCalledLove": The alien protagonists are [[AlienAbduction abducting humans]] in order to [[HumansThroughAlienEyes better understand us]].

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'': Michael Valentine is a human raised by Martians who returns to Earth as an adult, eventually he discovers that the Martians have been monitoring his thoughts to evaluate humanity's [[spoiler: threat potential, and starts a religion to teach Earth PsychicPowers so they can compete with them.]]
* Ford Prefect from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' does this for the titular Guide. However, the editors trim down the comprehensive article he wrote about Earth to "Mostly Harmless" (it previously read "Harmless.")
* In ''Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime'' the Great Race of Yith swap consciousnesses with people from different times and planets in order to learn from them. [[spoiler: And evaluate their potential as future hosts.]]
* In Creator/RobertSilverberg's "Flies", a human space traveler crash-lands on the planet of a race who are [[HigherTechSpecies able to save him with their advanced medicine]]. In return, they enable him to transmit the feelings of others so that they can study humans, but tragedy ensues when this enables him to inflict grievous suffering without experiencing any effects of remorse.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' Paul the [[StarfishAliens Starfish Alien]] earns his living on Earth as an essayist, writing about human behavior from an outsider's point of view. Human readers seem to like his stuff.

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'':
** Dick and his "family" observe what life is like on Earth and report the findings back to base. Their ultimate goal, however, remains vague throughout the series. We know they're not trained anthropologists, in part because they routinely received poor job evaluations but also because Dick and Tommy are clearly shown to be experts in hard science while Sally is a soldier and Harry is their communication link to the home planet making him, effectively, equipment. Earlier episodes imply that they are not used to running into planets or lifeforms with diverse cultures or complex emotions. Most notably, their initial stay was supposed to last only a few weeks, long enough to copy over the sum of human knowledge and leave. When they discovered there was ''more'' to humanity than just the dry facts of our history, they decided that Earth warranted longer investigation and extended the mission in order to explore the "human condition" by experiencing it first hand.
** On occasion they would run into other aliens. One such alien was a Fantastic Anthropologist with a far more specific goal -- determine whether Earth was valuable enough to avoid destroying (since it was [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale somehow]] blocking their view of part of the universe).

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 5e has the Anthropologist background, which may be played as this should the player wish. They could also be interested in genuinly exotic cultures, but most players enjoy the novelty of a LizardFolk who studies human culture.

* Pleakley from ''Franchise/LiloAndStitch'' is an "Earth expert" interested in humanity's life on the planet who, among other things, believes that you eat cereal with a fork.

* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo:'' Celery and Carrot Propulsion came to Earth to study it. They return to Bortron in 'Return to Bortron 7' and give a report on it.

--> -- '''Arthur Weasley''', ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''

* ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E55MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]", both the Martians and the Venusians conduct experiments on Luther Dingle to see how he'll react when he gains SuperStrength and then SuperIntelligence.

* Eris from ''LightNovel/CatPlanetCuties'' is sent as a scout by her species the [[CatGirl Catians]] to check Earth as a suitable diplomatic partner. Note that the Catians' outlook is pretty much that of tourists: her reports on Japanese cuisine makes the Catian expedition hurry to establish formal relations.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'': Gobo's uncle, Traveling Matt, [[BoldExplorer explores]] "Outer Space" (the human world), trying to understand the differences between Fraggle-kind and humanity. Every episode, he sends a postcard back to Fraggle Rock with details of a recent adventure he's had involving humans.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'': Gobo's uncle, Uncle Traveling Matt, [[BoldExplorer explores]] "Outer Space" (our human world), trying to understand the differences between Fraggle-kind and humanity. Every episode, he sends a postcard back to Fraggle Rock with details of a recent adventure he's had involving humans.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'': Gobo's uncle, Uncle Traveling Matt, [[BoldExplorer explores]] "Outer Space" (our human world), trying to understand the differences between fraggle-kind and humanity. Every episode, he sends a postcard back to Fraggle Rock with details of a recent adventure he's had involving humans.

This usually non-malicious character type has one primary function in a story--[[RuleOfFunny comedy]]. Because it's hard to beat the humor of someone who doesn't understand human customs trying to make any sort of sense out of them. The Fantastic Anthropologist very rarely has long-term story implications due to their job in large part because part of their job is to keep the {{Muggles}} in the dark about what's going on.

Astonishing as it may seem, not all non-{{Muggle}} characters are on a crusade to murder us {{Muggles}}. In fact, their motivations will turn out to be surprisingly mundane -- they want to see how us crazy {{Muggles}} operate. I mean, how do we keep from getting cold without any fur? Where does our food come from if we don't have access to FunctionalMagic? And how do we... you know...

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 5e has the Anthropologist background, which may be played as this should the player wish. They could also be interested in genuinly exotic cultures.

In terms of narrative, the Fantastic Anthropologist's culture can sometimes be a satire of our own. After all, as wacky as this guy may seem, when it gets right down to it we're NotSoDifferent.

* Gus from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is a big fan of all things human, to the point of having started the Human Appreciation Society at his school, which is dedicated to analyzing the few human artifacts that wind up in the Boiling Isles... often coming to hilariously incorrect conclusions about what they're used for. (For example, he ponders why humans would nail bits of metal to their children's teeth, and concludes it must somehow be beneficial for them to be magnetic.) He's thrilled to meet [[TokenHuman Luz]], who's happy to answer his questions and even comes to a Human Appreciation Society meeting as a guest speaker. (Fittingly, Luz was [[AscendedFangirl a huge fan of fantasy fiction]] before coming to the Boiling Isles and was [[NotSoDifferent equally delighted]] to find out witches and other magical creatures are real.)