I am an anthropologist. For me, the most important equipment I carry is a notebook and a pen.
Anthropology covers such a wide spectrum of disciplines that it is impossible to list all the equipment all of them use. From forensic tools of criminologist to digital cameras of ethnologists, you have to be more specific.
It really depends on what your research focus is. Cultural anthropologists document culture using the participant observation method and therefore don't use any special machines in the course of their profession. Archaeologists, physical, and forensic anthropologists, however, make use of a variety of technologies to assist them. Most of the machines that these kinds of anthropologists might use are geared to help them measure something: age of a specimen, genetic similarity between organisms, the sequences of proteins. Obviously not everybody has to know how to use everything, but if you're interested in questions that have to do with genetics, dating techniques, physiology, or forensics, then the methods that you'll be using will demand the use of certain technologies.
