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: