What is anthropology?

Question

What is anthropology?

Answer 1

Anthropology is the study of the anatomical and mental composition of humanity through the examination of historical and present geographical distribution, cultural history, acculturation, and cultural relationships.

It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all human beings at all times and with all dimensions of humanity

Answer 2

The observation, measurement, and explanation of human variability in time and space. This includes both biological variability and the study of cultural, or learned, behavior among contemporary human societies. These studies are closely allied with the fields of archeology and linguistics. Studies range from rigorously scientific approaches, such as research into the physiology, demography, and ecology of hunter-gatherers, to more humanistic research on topics such as symbolism and ritual behavior.

anthropology, classification and analysis of humans and their society, descriptively, culturally, historically, and physically. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations has been the distinctive concept of culture. It has also differed from other sciences concerned with human social behavior (especially sociology) in its emphasis on data from nonliterate peoples and archaeological exploration. Emerging as an independent science in the mid-19th cent., anthropology was associated from the beginning with various other emergent sciences, notably biology, geology, linguistics, psychology, and archaeology. Its development is also linked with the philosophical speculations of the Enlightenment about the origins of human society and the sources of myth. A unifying science, anthropology has not lost its connections with any of these branches, but has incorporated all or part of them and often employs their techniques.

Anthropology is divided primarily into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology focuses basically on the problems of human evolution, including human paleontology and the study of race and of body build or constitution (somatology). It uses the methods of anthropometry, as well as those of genetics, physiology, and ecology. Cultural anthropology includes archaeology, which studies the material remains of prehistoric and extinct cultures; ethnography, the descriptive study of living cultures; ethnology, which utilizes the data furnished by ethnography, the recording of living cultures, and archaeology, to analyze and compare the various cultures of humanity; social anthropology, which evolves broader generalizations based partly on the findings of the other social sciences; and linguistics, the science of language. Applied anthropology is the practical application of anthropological techniques to areas such as industrial relations and minority-group problems. In Europe the term anthropology usually refers to physical anthropology alone.

Answer 3

Anthropology is a broad, holistic study of human beings. Many people confuse anthropology as a whole with its subfields archaeology (going on digs) or physical anthropology (studying bones). Actually anthropology includes archaeology, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Cultural anthropologists study living cultures -- from hunters and gatherers in Africa to corporations in the USA -- by living in the culture and gaining the insiders' point of view.

Archaeologists do a lot more than dig; they reconstruct past cultures based on their finds.

Physical anthropologists do a lot more than study bones. They reconstruct the physical evolution of the human species, they study the physical adaptations humans have made, and they study primates (apes, monkeys, prosimians, as well as humans).The purpose of all of this activity is to learn about US -- HUMANS..

Answer 4

a study of us(humans)

Answer 5

i have been wondering this, thanks for asking

Answer 6

It is a study of ourselves

Answer 7

study of man

Answer 8

Better refer a dictionary.