Anthropology

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      This editable Main Article is under development and subject
to a disclaimer. [edit intro] Anthropology studies all aspects of
human life in all geographic regions of all time periods, both past
and present. Anthropology[1] is the holistic study of humankind.[2] It
studies all aspects of human life in all geographic regions of all
time periods, from its evolution as Homo sapiens to its diverse
manifestations within cultures and societies both past and present.
Since recorded history, people have sought answers to such probing
questions as Who are we? How have we come to be as we are? How can
diverse peoples peaceably co-exist? and What might the past and
present tell us about our future? Anthropology seeks to answer these
and many other fundamentally humanistic questions. Anthropology
employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods within its
numerous sub-disciplines. Common to all anthropologists is the method
of fieldwork. A physical anthropologist may observe wild or captive
primates, or dig pre-historic sites in Central Africa to discover
clues about humankind's origins and early migration patterns, while an
applied anthropologist plays games with inner-city Chicago, Illinois
schoolchildren to advise administrators on how to create
conflict-reducing after-school programs. A sociocultural
anthropologist may live in a hut among Haitian peasants to learn the
meanings of their unique rituals and political economy, while a
linguistic anthropologist interacts with modern Chamorro language
speakers at a barbecue to discover clues to their cultural retention
amidst a globalizing society. Within each of these and the myriad
other ways and places in which anthropologists conduct day-to-day
research, they seek answers to benefit humankind. Anthropology has
been described as "the reformer's science", and "the most humanistic
of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities". Contents 1
The development of anthropology 2 The many facets of anthropology
today 2.1 Archaeology 2.2 Physical anthropology 2.2.1 Forensic
anthropology 2.3 Paleoanthropology 2.4 Genetics 2.5 Sociocultural
anthropology 2.6 Linguistic anthropology 2.7 Applied anthropology 2.8
Nutritional anthropology 2.9 Ecological anthropology 3 Anthropology
reconsidered 3.1 Successes of anthropology 3.2 Ethics and controversy
4 The continuing story 4.1 The postmodern challenge 5 Education for
anthropology 6 References The development of anthropology[edit]
Montesquieu's Lettres persanes. How did anthropology begin? Although
humans have probably always studied other humans in one way or
another, the first formal study of human variation can be found in the
work of the fifth-century Greek historian Heredotos, who compared the
beliefs and customs of Athenians with those he called "barbarians"
outside of the Greek city-state center. Beginning eleven centuries
later, and spurred largely by descriptions of distant peoples found in
the travel logs of European explorers and colonizers, Renaissance-era
thinkers such as Michel de Montaigne in the sixteenth century, Thomas
Hobbes in the seventeenth century, and Giambattista Vico of the
eighteenth century, sought to account for human variation, while
defending the variation from relativist notions in their day.
Eighteenth century European Enlightenment thinkers continued with the
interest, when John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Charles
Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau took into account cultural
differences as they developed their theories of human nature,
morality, and social organization. The formal interest in studying
differing peoples during the period perhaps pinnacled within
Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, in which he compared Persians with the
French, as well as within the work of contemporaneous human anatomists
who undertook measurements of the body such as cephalic index. Émile
Durkheim profoundly influenced early anthropology. Yet it was not
until the early nineteenth century that the first attempts to organize
anthropology as a formal discipline under formal theories emerged,
following publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species that
offered a new way to look at the origins of humankind and the many
facets of human cultures. Herbert Spencer and Henry Maine of Britain,
and Lewis Henry Morgan along with Edward B. Tylor of the United
States, selected a social-Darwinian perspective of human variation,
while attempting to gain a surer footing for the emerging discipline
of anthropology among the established sciences of academia. Within
these early works, societies were viewed as progressing along a single
continuum, from primitive to modern. In Morgan's scheme, societies
evolved in seven stages, from "low savagery" to "civilization", with
Western European societies being the civilized standard by which other
societies were to be measured (see ethnocentrism), a perspective that
provided handy justification for worldwide European colonial exploits
during the time. The "primitive"/"civilized" dichotomy would not be
seriously challenged within anthropology for nearly another hundred
years. Among the first scholars to challenge some of the early
assumptions of anthropologists about environmental determinism and
evolutionism was Franz Boas, who in 1883 joined an expedition to
Baffin Island to record the influence of climate on culture. His
findings led him in another direction, however, suggesting that
culture is a product of social history rather than physical
environment. An extremely influential figure in the field, Boas and
his students (who included Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Alfred
Kroeber) turned the focus of anthropology away from the study of the
physical human being toward the study of human cultures. [3] [4]
Functionalism Functionalism is essentially the idea that each
individual person, and each individual action has meaning as part of
the whole. The purpose of each part was to maintain the whole
society/organism. Also, functionalism states that the purpose of
social institutions is to provide for the needs of the human being as
a biological entity. Malinowski was an early proponent of this idea,
as well as his students. Structuralism Structuralism was started by
Levi-Strauss, who argued for the importance of the meaning and
symbolism. Structuralists also emphasize the importance of exchange of
cultural traits and symbols, particularly in the study of myths and
mythic systems. The many facets of anthropology today[edit] An
Argentine forensic anthropology team worker helps excavate the site of
the El Mozote massacre in 1992 in El Salvador, where a Salvadoran army
battalion killed about 800 villagers, almost half of them children.
Anthropology in the United States is traditionally divided according
to the four field approach. The fields include archaeology, physical
or biological anthropology, sociocultural anthropology and linguistic
anthropology. This is a useful way to organize the diverse field of
anthropology, but it is by no means the only way that this is done. In
Europe, for example, what are considered subfields or subdisciplines
of anthropology in North America often stand as independent
departments, such as Ethnology, Social Anthropology, Classical
Archeology, or Ancient Civilizations. They may also be found as groups
within other disciplines, such as ethology and physical anthropology
within biology departments or medical schools. (Topics addressed by
linguistic anthropology are frequently addressed by scholars in
ethnology, linguistics, schools of education, and language
departments.) What is more, the traditional fields of anthropology are
now supplemented by the growing fields of applied anthropology,
forensic anthropology, ethnomusicology, ethnobotany, cultural ecology
and various other specialized subdisciplines. Each subdiscipline
approaches the study of humans from a slightly different perspective,
but they come together to give us a more holistic understanding of
ourselves than any one of them could provide individually. Common to
all subdisciplines is the practice of cross-cultural analysis. It uses
examples of similarity or difference found in two or more cultures to
make broader observations about structures of human thought, action,
and social organization. This might take the form of comparing data
from neighboring cultures like the Kumeyaay and the Cahuilla peoples
of southern California to learn more about a particular culture area
or it could involve the comparison of data from Guatemala and Vietnam
to study approaches to economic integration in developing countries.
Archaeology[edit] A historical archaeologist discovers details of
early pioneer life in Oregon, USA. Archaeology has been called "the
past tense of anthropology."[5] It studies material remains as a way
to understand the people who created them. This includes charting
settlement patterns, economic structures, religious institutions,
dietary regimens, art forms, people's interactions with their
environments and much more. Archaeologists generally make use of two
techniques, called "surveys" and "excavations," to piece together the
lives of the past inhabitants of a site. Surveys are often performed
before excavations in order to give the archaeologist a preliminary
picture of the site, but they are also sometimes conducted in place of
an excavation because they are less expensive, faster to implement,
and because they cause less irreversible damage to the site. Surveys
create a map of the site using various methods (including human
recorders, aerial photography, and magnetometers) to comb an area and
record the type and location of artifacts and features. Excavations
systematically remove layers of soil in an area of interest in order
to discover the different ways that the site was used over time.
Excavations are necessarily a destructive process, and must be
conducted with great care. Archaeologists record the precise location,
or provenance, of the artifacts and features that are discovered and
then look at the spacial and temporal relationships between their
discoveries. Physical anthropology[edit] Physical or biological
anthropology studies humans as a biological species, often through the
study of and comparison with non-human primates. Physical
anthropologists study genetics and physiology in modern populations as
well as in the fossil record in order to learn more about the
processes of human evolution and adaptation. Forensic
anthropology[edit] Forensic anthropology is a cross-disciplinary field
of osteology (the study of bones) and physical anthropology. Bones
leave evidence of disease and trauma and may indicate cause of death,
age, sex and race, diet, partruition, burial customs, occupation,
customs and possibly nature of habitat and environment; a host of
possibilities may be found in the clues left in human bones.[6][7] As
the term forensic implies, forensic anthropology is also the
application of the science of physical anthropology to the legal
process. While ancient peoples are a focus of study in this field, so
also is the contemporary period in that the study of skeletal evidence
may be utilised to determine identity and cause of death in criminal
investigations.[8] Forensic anthropology involves archeological
excavation with the examination of hair, and insects, plant materials
and footprints associated with the skeletal remains. Forensic
anthropologist also work to determine how much time has elepsed since
death, reproducing facial characteristics, photographic
superimposition and detection of anatomical variants. Bones also leave
clues of past injury and possibly medical treatment if any. Forensic
anthropologists primarily attempt to establish identity based on the
available evidence.[9] Paleoanthropology[edit] Paleoanthropology
("Paleo" means "ancient") is a sub-field of anthropology that is more
specificaly concerned with the study of the evolution of the hominin
lineage and exploration of ancient hominin behaviour than is a
physical anthropologist. While paleoanthropology has traditionally
been associated with the discovery, comparison and description of
early hominin fossils from Africa, Europe and Asia, more and more
Paleoanthropologists are examining younger fossils such as those from
Flores island or Native American remains from North and South America.
Many paleoanthropologists ally themselves more with anatomical
sciences such as anatomy or geosciences such as paleontology.
Genetics[edit] Genetics has, in the last several decades, become
important to anthropologists in interpreting not only the
inter-relationships of living peoples through studies of mitochondrial
and Y-chromosome DNA, but also to interpreting the evolution of
hominins through the examination of the genetic clock or through the
direct examination of paleo-DNA. Probably the most prominent current
project in the field of genetics as used in anthropology isThe
Genographic Project. Genographic has launched an effort to collect DNA
specimens from indigenous populations around the world as a tool to
help them trace prehistoric patterns of human migration. They compare
the characteristics that they observe in each human population with
the characteristics of other populations to identify their common
ancestors and determine how long ago those populations diverged.
Sociocultural anthropology[edit] A sociocultural anthropologist (Tom
E. Fricke) taking a break from interacting with members of the Tamang
Community of Nepal to sit and busily write some field notes.Photo ©
by Tom E. Fricke, used by permission. Sociocultural anthropology is
the branch of anthropology that is most often associated with the term
"anthropology." It studies the abstract structures that help people to
better understand the world around them and to interact with each
other and their environments. This branch studies kinship structures,
subsistence strategies, religious and cosmological beliefs, and the
myriad of other constructs that work together to determine a person's
experience of the world. Sociocultural anthropologists conduct two
different types of research: ethnography and ethnology. Ethnographers
try to learn everything they can about a particular culture within a
short time frame (this could be as long as years or even decades in
some cases). Ethnology is cross-cultural - it compares data collected
about multiple cultures. Sociocultural anthropology is heavily reliant
on participant observation. This is a systematic approach to the
recording of cultures, the development of which is generally credited
to Bronislaw Malinowski. An anthropologist will live with the people
that he or she is interested in studying and take part in the
every-day activities, and special rituals of those people in order to
learn the explicit and tacit aspects of their culture. [10] The
researcher then carefully records his or her observations in field
notes for later use in cultural analysis. Methods of research in
sociocultural anthropology also include interviews, questionnaires,
and content analysis. Linguistic anthropology[edit] Linguistic
anthropology studies people through their use of language. This
includes studies of written language, oral expression, sign languages
such as American Sign Language, and various forms of nonverbal
communication like smiles and waves. Linguistic anthropologists
research the meaning that is created by these different types of
communication as well as the context in which that meaning is created.
They seek to learn what the differences are between the language that
different people use in similar situations as well as the variations
in the language that a single person uses in different situations.[11]
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf are widely cited as the most
important figures in this field, due to the theory that became known
as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This theory comes in two forms: strong
linguistic determinism and weak linguistic determinism. The "strong"
formulation says that the way that a person thinks is completely
dependent on the language that the individual speaks; this view
largely developed through Whorf's amateur research on Native American
languages. The "weak" version claims that a person's thoughts are
merely influenced (though they may be influenced rather strongly) by
the person's language. This second version of linguistic determinism
is a major assumption in much of the research that is conducted in the
field of linguistic anthropology whereas the "strong" version is more
often rejected for being too exacting. Linguistic anthropology is
closely related to the fields of anthropological linguistics, which
studies language through the biological human and sociolinguistics,
which studies the ways that societal structures influence language
use. Applied anthropology[edit] Applied anthropology plays an
important part in our study of humans because it takes anthropology
out of the library and puts it to use in the world by drawing on the
knowledge that is gained through the other branches of anthropology
and applying the results as a way to expand upon them. Applied
anthropologists undertake their research with the goal of integrating
"anthropological perspectives and methods in solving human problems
throughout the world." [12] Nutritional anthropology[edit] Among its
major questions, nutritional anthropology asks: “Why do we eat the
so-called foods that we eat?” Nutritional anthropologists and the
biomedical community expect that answers to that question will shed
light on the relationship between diet, on the one hand, and health
and disease, on the other, and to provide guidelines for healthy
eating.[13] The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Center for
Nutrition notes: The quest for food has shaped the development of our
society. In his search for sustenance, man has influenced population
growth and urban expansion, has dictated economic and political
theory, and has inspired wars. Food and the science of food touches
our lives in numerous ways. Many religions follow strict dietary laws.
Some of the earliest observations in the world of chemistry came from
the preparation and cooking of food. Food has influenced technology,
too. The water wheel, developed for the milling of grain, became a
primary tool during the Industrial Revolution. Even class distinctions
in some societies are determined by what foods are put on the
table.[14] To paraphrase the colorful expression by the Oxford
historian, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a species’ most intimate
contact with its natural environment occurs when it eats it.[15]
Ecological anthropology[edit] Humans, and human populations, have the
ability to adapt to differing ecosystems, including such differing
geographical environments as the arctic and the desert, and a host of
other ecosystems. Ecological anthropologists study the adaptive
strategies that come into play for successful adaptations. Those
strategies include physiological, behavioral, and cultural
adaptations, among others.[16] The study of human adaptability tends
to emphasize the plasticity of human response to any environment. Its
use of a broad database that includes physiological, behavioral, and
cultural adjustments to environmental change circumvents sterile
debates over whether cultural or biological studies provide the most
useful tools for studying interactions between humans and their
environments. The human adaptability approach deals with the specific
problems faced by inhabitants of various environments rather than with
environment as a static "given" that limits human possibilities. It
focuses on how human populations in interacting with each other and
their environments attempt to accommodate themselves to these very
specific environmental problems. As a result, the environment ceases
to be an overgeneralized context for human action and the scope of
particular investigations is narrowed.[17] See also: Department of
Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama,
Anthropological Theories: A Guide Prepared by Students for Students.
Dr. M.D. Murphy. Ecological Anthropology. Stacey McGrath Anthropology
reconsidered[edit] Successes of anthropology[edit] Ethics and
controversy[edit] The maintenance of the ethical guidelines in
anthropology are the province of the professional associations for
each subfield. For instance, for American socio-cultural
anthropologists, the main association is the American Anthropological
Association (AAA), and for archaeologists it is the Society of
American Archaeologists. The AAA Committee on Ethics issues statements
on their website [1]. Among the most important ethical considerations
are repatriation of artifacts that have been stolen by museums, such
as the Getty Museum in 2006 [2]. Also important is the Native American
Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was passed in 1990 to
allow Native American tribes in the United States to request artifacts
such as human remains and grave goods in museums to be returned. The
tribe that is requesting the artifacts must be able to show that they
are either descended from the tribe whose artifacts are in question,
or that they are culturally affiliated with that tribe. National
NAGPRA has a website which can be viewed here: [3]. Other issues
include what should count as restitution for the groups that cultural
anthropologists study, as well as how to deal with the difference in
status between the anthropologist(s) and the people being studied. A
major controversy has insued over the "militarization" of
anthropologists in Iraq, who are sent as part of a team to help the
soldiers navigate the differences in culture between themselves and
the Iraqis. For instance, see this article on Boston.com written in
2007 [4]. The continuing story[edit] The postmodern challenge[edit]
Education for anthropology[edit] Anthropology is a commonly-offered
major at most colleges and universities, and graduate programs are
widely available. References[edit] ↑ Etymology: The word
"anthropology" is formed by combining two Greek words "anthropos"
("human") and "logia" ("study"). ↑ American Anthropological
Association: What is Anthropology? ↑ T.K. Pennimen (1965). A Hundred
Years of Anthropology. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.. ASIN
B0000CMJT7.  ↑ Eriksen, Thomas Hylland; Finn Sivert Nielsen (2001).
A History Of Anthropology. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0-74-531385-X. 
↑ Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn. (2004) Archaeology: Theories,
Methods, and Practice. ISBN 0-500-28441-5 ↑ Forensic Anthropology
Wm. Bass, University of Utah Health Science Center ↑ What is
Anthropology and Forensic Anthropology ? A. Midori Albert, University
of North Carolina at Wilmington ↑ Definition American Board of
Forensic Anthropology ↑ The Forensic Antropologist Robert W. Mann,
and Douglas H. Ubelaker, Physical Anthropologists Department of
Anthropology Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Origianlly
published in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, July 1990 ↑ Kathleen
M. Dewalt, Billie R. Dewalt, with Coral B. Wayland. Participant
Observation. In Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. H.
Russel Bernard, Ed. Pp. 259-299. ISBN 0-7619-9151-4 ↑ Nancy
Bonvillian. (2003) Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning
of Messages, Fourth Edition. ISBN 0-13-097953-8. ↑ Society for
Applied Anthropology. Purpose and Vision. Electronic document,
http://sfaa.net/sfaagoal.html. Archived March 31, 2007. ↑ Department
of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. (2005)
Dietary Guidelines for Americans. ↑ UCLA Center for Human Nutrition
↑ Fernandez-Armesto F. (2002) Near a Thousand Tables: A History of
Food. The Free Press, New York. ISBN 0743226445. ↑ Moran EF. (2007)
Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. 3rd
ed. Westview Press. ISBN 9780813343679. Table of Contents on
Publisher's Webpage Publisher's Description: Designed to help
students understand the multiple levels at which human populations
respond to their surroundings, this essential text offers the most
complete discussion of environmental, physiological, behavioral, and
cultural adaptive strategies available. Among the unique features that
makeHuman Adaptability outstanding as both a textbook for students and
a reference book for professionals are a complete discussion of the
development of ecological anthropology and relevant research methods;
the use of an ecosystem approach with emphasis on arctic, high
altitude, arid land, grassland, and tropical rain forest environments;
an extensive bibliography on ecological anthropology; and a
comprehensive glossary of technical terms. Entirely new to the third
edition are chapters on urban sustainability and methods of spatial
analysis, with enhanced emphasis throughout on the role of gender in
human-adaptability research and on global environmental issues as they
affect particular ecosystems. In addition, brand-new sections in each
chapter guide students to websites that provide access to relevant
material, complement the text’s coverage of biomes, and suggest ways
to become active in environmental issues. ↑ Moran EF,
Gillett-Netting R. (2000) Human Adaptability: An Introduction to
Ecological Anthropology. 2nd ed. Westview Press. ISBN 9780813312545. |
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