What the heck is anthropology?

Question

What the heck is anthropology?

Answer 1

Yes, the study of humans.

There are three major branches but it is an extremely varied science:

Archaeological, Biological, and Cultural Anthropology.

Archaeological is what you would typically think of when you think archeology.

Biological studies human evolutionary origins, things like the Lucy find -as well as other ways we physically evolve, and adapt. - and the other primates, teaching sign language to chimps etc..

Cultural explores the why and how of cultural interaction, such as ritual, symbolism, religion, politics, social structure and lineage and so on through ethnography and cross cultural comparison.

That is a very simplified description, but, as I said, it is a very varied science that touches on everything from linguistics to forensics.

Answer 2

Anthropology,in short,is the scientific study of the origen,the behavior,the physical/social and cultural development of humans.

Answer 3

A social science with pretensions.

Answer 4

"Anthropology" comes from the Greek meaning "the study of man."

What it really is is the study of all humankind, past and present. If you're thinking that's a wide-open field, you're right!

There's cultural anthropology, which is chiefly what people think of when you say "anthropology." This is the study of different cultures around the world. The typical method for doing this would be for an anthropologist to go and live among the people for at least a year, to experience and understand the culture on a firsthand basis. The result is an ethnography, or writing about that culture, trying to explain everything about it. Cultural anthropology is interested in all the different forms human society can take, and respecting them all equally.

There's archaeology - the study of humans in the past, trying to reconstruct and understand past civilizations. The goal might be the same as cultural anthropology, but you can't do personal research - you have to use artifacts.

There's biological anthropology, which encompasses everything from paleoanthropology (ancient hominid fossils) to modern-day forensics. There's also medical anthropology, which explores different cultural attitudes towards the body and healing.

There's also linguistics - another varied field - studying differences between languages, how languages change, or even how we came to have language in the first place.  

So...human evolution. Human history. Human language. Human societies. That's what anthropology is!

Answer 5

Anthropology is the study of humanity. This can include culture (cultural anthropology), the biology of it all (forensic anthropology) and archaeology.

To learn more, check out the page on www.wikipedia.com:

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

Answer 6

Anthropology is the study of humans my friend is an anthropoligist