Corporate anthropology is not a metaphor.
It is the practice of studying organizations as living systems, shaped by incentives, fears, rituals, and informal power. Software engineering, whether it admits it or not, operates inside these systems.
Every production incident tells a story. Not only about technology, but about communication paths, trust boundaries, and decision latency. Logs capture symptoms. Anthropology captures causes.
Organizations do not behave rationally. They behave consistently with their incentives. Software that assumes rational actors will fail quietly and repeatedly.
Engineering that acknowledges this reality does not become cynical. It becomes precise.
Corporate anthropology is the difference between systems that look correct and systems that continue to function when conditions deteriorate.
Observing before acting is not slowness. It is responsibility.