Definition and Nature of Anthropology

Anthropology is a branch of sociology. It always describe human, human behavior and human societies around the world. It is a comparative science that examines all societies. The term anthropology comes from Latin world ‘anthrop’ means man or human  and ‘logos’ means science or study. So the term anthropology means scientific study of man or human beings.

Anthropologists have defined anthropology in many ways. Some of them are given below. 

Definition of Anthropology:

“Anthropology the study of human kind everywhere, throughout time , seeks to produce useful generations about people and their behavior and to arrive at the fullest possible understanding of human diversity” (Havilland, W. A.1975).

“Anthropology is the study of people and all the things they do, think, say and make" (Gwynne and Hicks, 1994).

 “Anthropology is the study of human beings, divided into the branches of biologically oriented, physical anthropology and social oriented, social anthropology” (Jary and Jary, 2005).

Characteristic:

1. study of human beings.
2. scientific process.
3. explain human diversity. 
4. Tendency to make generalization.

Finally, we can say that anthropology describe the distinctive feature of different culture ,organization, fundamental similarity among human being around the world

Nature, Scope and Fields of Anthropology;

Different anthropologist concentrates on different characteristics of the anthropology. Some Anthropologist has given emphasized on the physical characteristic and others have given the cultural characteristics of the anthropology. The main fields of anthropology can be shown by the fowling figure__            

 

(Source: Havilland, W.A.1975, Cultural anthropology)

Description of the figure 

A. Physical/ Biological Anthropology: 

The systematic study of human as a biological organism. It studies the present day human variation in the world. 

FOCUSING ISSUES:

Kottak in his cultural anthropology, he identified five special introits. Those are given follow__

1. Pale anthropology: Human evolution as revealed by the fossil record.
2. Human genetics: The scientific study of the ways in which different Characteristic are passed from generation to generation. Exam: Body structure, color, shape etc.
3. Human growth and development: The study of human variations Investigates how and why contemporary human populations differ in Biological and physical characteristics. Ex.: language, attitude, behavior etc.
4. Human biological plasticity: The body’s ability to change as its copies with stress such as heat, cold and attitude. Ex.: Australian people, African people etc.
5. Others: The biological evaluation behavior and social life of monkey’s apes and other nonhuman primates.  

B. Cultural Anthropology : 

Cultural anthropology mainly focuses on human behavior. [ Ref: Havilland cultural anthropology]. It can be divided into the area of archaeology, linguistic anthropology and ethnology. Although each has its own interests and methods, all deals with cultural data. 

a) Archaeology: 

The study of material remains usually from the past to describe and explain human behavior.

Focusing issues: it has founded on the human past, for material products of behavior, rather than behavior itself, as all that survive of the past. The archaeology studies on the____

1. Tools.
2. Pottery.
3. Other enduring relics.
4. Reconstruct the daily life and custom.
5. To trace out the cultural changes.
6. Try deal with prehistory. (Before five thousand years BC).
7. Discuss our previous generation.

b) Linguistic Anthropology:

Linguistic anthropology is the study of languages, ancient and modern written form, talking style etc. it divided into three part those are given below__

1.  Historical linguistic: Historical linguistic may also deals with the history of the language. The process of finding historical linguistic is called ‘Diachronomical’. It deals with such factors___
•  Words living language.
•  Dead language.
2. Socio linguistics: The study of how language is used in social context and it is acceptable by everybody.
3. Descriptive structural: It incorporates how contemporary languages differ specially in their construction. Exm: sounds, grammar meaning. 

c) Ethnology: 

The systematic description of a cultural based on first hand observation. 

• Universality: A custom is shared by all human being, such as—Infant dependency.
• Particularity: A custom which is common to several groups not to all groups. Exm: Birth ceremony , Death ceremony, Marriage ceremony etc.
• Generality: It stands between universality and particularity. Exm: Nuclear Family.

Conclusion:  in the above discussion, we can say that the fields/ scopes of the anthropology are very board.