What is the difference between sociology and anthropology?

Question

What is the difference between sociology and anthropology?

Answer 1

Sociology is strictly behavior of groups (culture, etc...) anthropology is human biology, behavior, culture, evolution, etc...  just about anything that has to do with humans.

Answer 2

Sociology is a smaller category in anthropology.  Anthropology can be cultural, biological, philosophical, archaeological,  and many different things.  Sociology is focusing only on the human race while anthropology dates back much farther.

They are very similar.

Answer 3

Sociology and anthropology (in a European sense) grew from very similar roots, but with differing research methodologies and interests.  Today, they are still distinct, but blur into one another more and more.

As noted, 'anthropology' literally means 'the study of man' (in the sense of 'humanity') - however, it has specific academic meanings. These vary depending which side of the Atlantic you're on.  In North America, 'Anthropology' in universities is usually the study of archaeology, linguistics, 'physical anthropology' and 'cultural anthropology'.    In the UK, the first two are not considered part of anthropology, and the latter two are called 'biological anthropology' and 'social anthropology' respectively. Throughout Europe, 'anthropology' tends to refer to the latter (American cultural anthropology being analagous, though theoretically slightly different, relatively speaking.)

Early sociology and European anthropology were both heavily influenced by Durkheim's call for a 'science of society'.  Sociology was most influential in France, where it grew in the late 19th and early 20th century into the study of cosmopolitan 'civilised' societies, using surveys and statistical analysis.

Anthropology (as defined above) was developed largely in England by Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski and others, in the early 20th century, as the study of 'primitive' societies in exotic locations, particularly the colonies of the empire, producing ethnographic monographs (writings of observations of society by a single researcher) through participant observation (in which the researcher lives amongst those he/she seeks to understand, and lives as they do, speaking their language, etc).

Today, the two have both come a long way from their beginnings. Anthropological is now theoretically interested in any human society anywhere, with many ethnographies now focusing on society in contemporary Europe for instance; and indeed, anytime, with many 'historical' ethnographies attempting to recount societal and cultural change and engagement with historical forces. Sociology has also expanded its interests, allowing for 'sociological ethnography',  as well as refined its methods of survey etc.

Sociology tends to be used by governments and other organisations to generate 'hard', 'objective' quantitative data, whereas anthropology is more principally academic, although increasingly of use to organisations who see a need for a more empathetic understanding of aspects of other societies.

Anthropology, in my experience, is in practice more given to self-examination and critique than sociology, which is often presented as more 'results-oriented'.

So in brief:

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Sociology means statistics, surveys, 'objectivity', predominantly continental European origins, tendency to study  a narrower more 'European' range of social contexts,

Anthropology means ethnography, participant observation, predominantly British and American origins, reflexiveness, tendency to study a wider range of social contexts.

Both arose in the early 20th C, and are useful in different ways to understand 'society'. (whatever _that_ is).

Sorry if this is longwinded - hope that helps!

Answer 4

The simple answer used to sociology is your own culture while anthropology is foreign cultures. (Or even more crudely, sociology for the first world and anthropology for the third world.)

Wanna know about poverty in the city you live in? Sociology. Wanna know how a tribe in Africa lives? Anthropology.

But now there are anthropologists who study their own, or Western, cultures just as much as the !Kung or Yanamamo. So the difference is really a question of methodology.

Sociology tends to be more of a "hard" social science, relying more on statistics, surveys, demographics and data - i.e. quantitative.

Anthropology tends to be more qualitative and subjective - depending on the researcher in question to assemble interviews, artifacts and observations into a coherent analysis.

Answer 5

Sociology is deals with study of cultures in the present, more of a view of how people interact with their environment, dealing with people and their useage of resources, population based on natural resources, etc... It's more of a view of populations as a system (demographics, etc).

Anthropology is the study of man, past & present.  

When cultural anthropologists study a culture, it's not just about studying what the culture does, but attempts to explain why and deals more with cultures from their point, not ours.  

In the united states anyways (or at least when I was in college in the 90's) Anthropology is generally split up into 4 categories:

Archaeology

Social Anthropology

Physical Anthropology

Lingistic Anthropology

one of my professors called himself a Medical Anthropologist.

If you read both listings in an encyclopedia, it will become a little more clear to you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropolog...

Answer 6

You smarr and donnao are so wrong.

You sound so racist especially you smarr

By definition, sociology is the study of society

and anthropology is the study of man

sociology is not a branch of anthropology. they are completely different.

it doesnt matter what time, place or economic standing it is