anthropologist

Etymology

anthropology + -ist

noun

1. An expert in anthropology.
   In actual fact, it is hard to see how anyone could defend the prescriptive approach. In any other field of enquiry, it would be seen as patently absurd. What would we say of the social anthropologist who, instead of describing the way a given society is, sets about prescribing the way he thinks it ought to be? (We'd probably suggest he ought to give up Anthropology and take up Politics!) … 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar, Cambridge: University Press, page 8