Explain why anthropology is both a science and a humanity.?

Question

Explain why anthropology is both a science and a humanity.?

Answer 1

IT is a science in that it has objective standards and criteria to gauge evolutionary and cultural changes.  I don't know that I'd call it a humanity, but I think it has been subverted into an ideology rather than a science.  

As a grad student in Anthro, I was shocked by the moral relativism that left some unable to criticize the brutality and repression women experience in many tribal cultures, or the scarrification or mulitation of children in rites of passage.  I would listen to forensic anthro lectures on how to identify the race of a corpse by measuring features of the skull or other bones, then I would hear a cultural anthro lecture on the ideology that "races" are a purely social construct, and the use of race as a word or as a measurement is false and racist.

In other words, anthro has become a political tool for the radical left, and is no longer a science.

Answer 2

There are divisions within Anthropology and this is how it can be dually classified as a hard science and as a humanity or social science.  As a cultural Anthropologist I do not deal with hard facts and testable proofs.  Archaeologists deal with much more concrete data but the argument is often made since the subjects are of the past and the hypothesis is never testable it can never be a true science.

Answer 3

Anthropology is a holistic discipline that studies everything about humankind.  Whereas some approaches study a specific aspect (Psychology looks at the mind, sociology at how groups act, biology at what makes us tick at a cellular level) Anthropology is the one discipline that brings them all together.  Unlike some answers have suggested, we look at much more than just how people have evolved. We look at cultures, religion, politics, ecology, biological responses to environmental stresses......etc. and utilize tools from both the humanties and the hard sciences.  

An individual anthropologist can specialize in one particular aspect of study or another - pushing their work more toward science or the humanities, but good anthropologists understand that both are important to really understanding humans and our socieities.  As an archaeologist/physcial anthro person, I am a bit more on the science side, but I know that without understanding how people thought, cried, organized themself, etc.  I can never really understand the past, no matter how hard I apply the scientific method.

I hope this helps

Answer 4

Anthropology essentially deals with evolution of man and hence it is a  Humanities subject. While many asoects of human evolution have a Social science persdpective and methods for studying them have to be tailored to that  field, some of the aspects like dating the finds, identifying or postulating stages of evolution etc. are done through complex scientific processes like Carbon Dating. Hence it is A science also.

Answer 5

Antoropology for some reason is created into four seperate categories, two of which are sciences and two of which are a humanity or social science.  the first two -- archaeology and biological/physical -- are sciences.  while linguistics and social/cultural anthropology deal more with "modern" civilizations, some of which still exist today, which are based on humanities.  All of those terms that you hear about such as radiocarbon dating and forensics, etc, are are related to the scienticif portions of anthropology.....