Anthropology

Anthropology ( /ænθrɵˈpɒlədʒi/) is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος), "human being", and -logia (-λογία), "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German philosopher Magnus Hundt.

Anthropology's basic concerns are "What defines Homo sapiens?", "Who are the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens?", "What are humans' physical traits?", "How do humans behave?", "Why are there variations and differences among different groups of humans?", "How has the evolution Anthropology ( /ænθrɵˈpɒlədʒi/) is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος), "human being", and -logia (-λογία), "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German philosopher Magnus Hundt.

Anthropology's basic concerns are "What defines Homo sapiens?", "Who are the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens?", "What are humans' physical traits?", "How do humans behave?", "Why are there variations and differences among different groups of humans?", "How has the evolutionary past of Homo sapiens influenced its social organization and culture?" and so forth.

In the United States, contemporary anthropology is typically divided into four sub-fields: cultural anthropology also known as social anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and physical (or biological) anthropology. The four-field approach to anthropology is reflected in many undergraduate textbooks as well as anthropology programs (e.g. Michigan, Berkeley, Penn). At universities in the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, these "sub-fields" are frequently housed in separate departments and are seen as distinct disciplines.

The social and cultural sub-field has been heavily influenced by structuralist and post-modern theories, as well as a shift toward the analysis of modern societies (an arena more typically in the remit of sociologists). During the 1970s and 1990s there was an epistemological shift away from the positivist traditions that had largely informed the discipline.During this shift, enduring questions about the nature and production of knowledge came to occupy a central place in cultural and social anthropology. In contrast, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology remained largely positivist. Due to this difference in epistemology, anthropology as a discipline has lacked cohesion over the last several decades. This has even led to departments diverging, for example in the 1998–9 academic year at Stanford University, where the "scientists" and "non-scientists" divided into two departments: anthropological sciences and cultural & social anthropology; these departments later reunified in the 2008–9 academic year. ...more

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The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

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Anthropology Books

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

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The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation

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Lists

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

The Clan of the Cave Bear & The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel

Paleoanthropological Speculative Fiction , or....

84 books — 79 voters

Bukareszt. Kurz i krew by Małgorzata Rejmer

Gdzieś dalej, gdzie indziej by Dariusz Czaja

Błoto słodsze niż miód. Głosy komunistycznej Albanii by Małgorzata Rejmer

Czarne - Sulina

96 books — 24 voters

Ghost Ships, Abandoned Lighthouses and Other Eerie Vanishings in Fiction Part III

92 books — 1 voter

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking

Big History

266 books — 107 voters

Barry Humphries Book of Innocent Austral Verse by Barry Humphries

The Mystic Mantle; or, the demon spider and the angel fly by James Harry Bunn

Technicians of the Sacred by Jerome Rothenberg

Upside-Double-Under-Southern-Crosstralia

132 books — 4 voters

Ambedkar's Preamble by Aakash Singh Rathore

The Social Context of an Ideology by M S Gore

Ambedkar — Books About Babasaheb

26 books — 3 voters

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Quotes Tagged “Anthropology”

“ It is...highly probable that from the very beginning, apart from death, the only ironclad rule of human experience has been the Law of Unintended Consequences. ”
― Ian Tattersall, Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins

11 likes

“ I used to say to my classes that the ways to get insight are: to study infants; to study animals; to study primitive people; to be psychoanalyzed; to have a religious conversion and get over it; to have a psychotic episode and get over it; or to have a love affair with an old Russian. And I stopped saying that when a little dancer in the front row put up her hand and said, 'Does he have to be old? ...more ”
― Margaret Mead

110 likes

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