Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humankind. The discipline of anthropology consists of four fields that explore human nature in a manner that bridges the natural and social sciences. The fields are physical (or biological) anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology. Click on each to learn more.
Increasingly, some anthropologists have been recognizing the emergence of a fifth field of anthropology—applied anthropology. Although trained in one of the traditional four fields, applied anthropologists use their knowledge to better understand modern problems.
All fields of anthropology study the influence of culture on humankind and human behavior. Culture represents the knowledge that people use to interpret their world.
What guides anthropologists in their study of humans and culture? Anthropologists of all the fields are guided by the following unifying concepts which serve to distinguish anthropology from other social science disciplines:
- Holistic perspective: Holism is concerned with getting the entire picture. Considered the trademark of anthropology, holism views all aspects of the human condition—from religion to biology, psychology to economics—as interconnected parts of the whole.
- Integrating the parts: The concept of integration, or social system, describes the way the parts of the whole function together. Because systems are integrated, a change in one part of society will create changes in others.
- Adaptation: The concept of adaptation concerns the process by which individuals or groups react to their environment to thrive and survive. Adaptation is ongoing and is necessary because change is always occurring.
- Universalism: Anthropologists operate on the principle that all members of our species are equally human, deserving of dignity and respect. The concept of universalism implies that no group is more or less worthy of study.
- Cultural relativism: The culturally relative perspective allows the outside observer to appreciate what is considered correct behavior in diverse cultures, rather than bringing his or her own biases in judgment. In contrast to other social scientists, anthropologists adopt a perspective of cultural relativism across time and space. By looking at a practice in more than one cultural setting (i.e., cross-cultural approach), the range of human behaviors can be studied. Anthropologists also take a global perspective. They are concerned with human beings in all regions of the world, and across time. Anthropology is unique among the social sciences in that it studies a time horizon that goes back millions of years to our earliest ancestors.