Anthropology is a branch of sociology. It always describes humans, human behavior, and human societies around the world. It is a comparative science that examines all societies. The term anthropology comes from the Latin word ‘anthrop’, meaning man or human, and ‘logos’ means science or study. So the term anthropology means the 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 humankind everywhere, throughout time, seeks to produce useful knowledge 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 socially oriented, social anthropology” (Jary and Jary, 2005).
Characteristic:
- study of human beings.
- scientific process.
- explain human diversity.
- Tendency to make generalizations.
Finally, we can say that anthropology describes the distinctive features of different cultures, organizations, and fundamental similarities among human beings around the world
Nature, Scope, and Fields of Anthropology;
Different anthropologist concentrates on different characteristics of anthropology. Some Anthropologist has given emphasized the physical characteristics, and others have given the cultural characteristics of anthropology. The main fields of anthropology can be shown by the following figure__
(Source: Havilland, W.A.1975, Cultural anthropology)
Description of the figure
A. Physical/ Biological Anthropology:
The systematic study of humans as a biological organism. It studies the present-day human variation in the world.
FOCUSING ISSUES:
Kottak, in his cultural anthropology, identified five special introits. Those are given follow__
- Pale anthropology: Human evolution as revealed by the fossil record.
- Human genetics: The scientific study of how different characteristics are passed from generation to generation. Exam: Body structure, color, shape, etc.
- 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.
- 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.
- Others: The biological evaluation, behavior, and social life of monkeys, 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 areas of archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and ethnology. Although each has its own interests and methods, all deal with cultural data.
a) Archaeology:
The study of material remains from the past is usually used to describe and explain human behavior.
Focusing issues: it is founded on the human past, for material products of behavior, rather than behavior itself, as all that survives of the past. The archaeology studies on the____
- Tools.
- Pottery.
- Other enduring relics.
- Reconstruct the daily life and customs.
- To trace out the cultural changes.
- Try to deal with prehistory. (Before five thousand years BC).
- Discuss our previous generation.
b) Linguistic Anthropology:
Linguistic anthropology is the study of languages, ancient and modern written forms, talking styles, etc. It is divided into three part those are given below__
- Historical linguistics: Historical linguistics may also deal with the history of the language. The process of finding historical linguistics is called ‘Diachronomical’. It deals with such factors___
- Words living language.
- Dead language.
- Sociolinguistics: The study of how language is used in a social context and is acceptable to everybody.
- Descriptive structural: It incorporates how contemporary languages differ, especially in their construction. Exm: sounds, grammar, meaning.
c) Ethnology:
The systematic description of a culture based on first-hand observation.
- Universality: A custom is shared by all human beings, 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 anthropology are very broad.
