Who invented Anthropology?

Question

Who invented Anthropology?

Answer 1

I haven't a clue who invented Anthropology., but whoever it was began with an assumption, and we have been assuming and theorising and guessing ever since. I can't find anything that is believable, espesially the evolution question.

Answer 2

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkjTAoihH_6...

Answer 3

Franz Boas and Bronisław Malinowski

Answer 4

Interesting question, and harder to answer than I initially thought.  I have a degree in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin.  My first reaction was to credit Franz Boas, who I had learned was the "father of Anthropology."   But, upon further investigation, there is no easy answer.

Although he didn't call himself an anthropologist, Abu-Rayhan Biruni (973-1048), a Muslim scholar carried out extensive, personal investigations of the peoples, customs, and religions of the Indian subcontinent, and has been described as "the first anthropologist." He wrote detailed comparative studies on the anthropology of religions and cultures in the Middle East, Mediterranean and South Asia.

Institutionally, anthropology emerged from the development of natural history  that occurred during the European colonization of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Programs of ethnographic study originated in this era as the study of the "human primitives" overseen by colonial administrations. There was a tendency in late 18th century Enlightenment thought to understand human society as natural phenomena that behaved in accordance with certain principles and that could be observed empirically. In some ways, studying the language, culture, physiology, and artifacts of European colonies was not unlike studying the flora and fauna of those places. The fields of study that eventually gave rise to modern anthropology attempted to deal with Europeans' and their colonists' exanded awareness in three broad areas:1) a greater appreciation of their own past, new discoveries regarding Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern antiquities, and the social changes with the growth of cities and industry (Classics, Egyptology, folklore, etc.); 2) encounters with non-European peoples, whose customs, appearance, languages, religious beliefs, and social organization often differed strikingly from those of Europeans (ethnology, philology, etc.); and 3) growing curiosity about the biological history of humanity, the historical relationships among existing populations, and the relatively new idea that human beings could be related to other primates (Natural history, Zoology, etc.).

Franz Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-born American pioneer of modern anthropology and is often called the "Father of American Anthropology". He is famed for applying the scientific method to the study of human cultures and societies.

There are many others who have made significant and lasting contributions to anthropologists. . . but to provide a list of individuals isn't really answering the question, is it? Hopefully someone can provide a better answer.  I look forward to seeing it.