The first published work to mention the term anthropological engineering was a 1943 manuscript by Eliot D. Chapple entitled "Anthropological engineering: its use to administrators." In it, he discussed the application of anthropology to social systems, and how anthropology can help create and maintain these systems: essentially, how anthropology can be used to "engineer" society.

 

Anthroengineering is different, dealing with the intersection of two disciplines: anthropology and engineering. The best examples of how anthropology and engineering have come together in the private sector are highlighted by Design or Techno-Anthropology, the use of ethnographies in industry, and human factors. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) published an article by Alan S. Brown in 2012 highlighting how Design Anthropology influenced the design of the MP3 player, cell phones, and the minivan, by helping each product operate in a culturally relevant manner. Similarly, ethnographies are used in industry to aid in product design and development - a practice has become so popular it led to the development of a society surrounding this topic, EPIC. Human factors, the application of physiological principles to the design of products, processes, and systems, has its roots at the intersection of biological (or physical) anthropology and engineering, as much of the data concerning human body proportions used by human factor engineers comes from anthropologists.

 

In academia, the connections are no less tangible. Biological anthropology and mechanical engineering have been used to understand human and primate evolution through biomechanics studies and the application of lever arm mechanics, finite element analysis, and computational fluid dynamics to primate systems. Archaeology and civil engineering merge to analyse how deposits are formed, how to preserve historic structures and landscapes, and understand how ancient structures and landscapes were constructed, such as Machu Picchu, the Egyptian pyramids, and Stonehenge. Engineers Without Borders is a perfect example of how universities can work with communities create culturally relevant solutions to real-world problems.