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 evolutiona 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

New Releases Tagged "Anthropology"

How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words

Magnifica Humanitas: Lettre encyclique sur la protection de la personne humaine à l’ère de l’intelligence artificielle

Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World

Most Read This Week Tagged "Anthropology"

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans

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

The Bone Hacker (Temperance Brennan, #22)

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations

Estuve aquí y me acordé de nosotros: Una historia sobre turismo, trabajo y clase (Nuevos cuadernos Anagrama, #61)

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

Unstoppable Us, Volume 1: How Humans Took Over the World

Peak Human: What We Can Learn from History's Greatest Civilisations

More most read this week tagged "anthropology"...

Anthropology Books

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

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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

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

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

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

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

More anthropology books...

Lists

Never My Father's Daughter by Bamini Selladurai

Immigrant Experience Literature

1,089 books — 1,829 voters

Bukareszt. Kurz i krew by Małgorzata Rejmer

Błoto słodsze niż miód. Głosy komunistycznej Albanii by Małgorzata Rejmer

Gdzieś dalej, gdzie indziej by Dariusz Czaja

Czarne - Sulina

97 books — 25 voters

Ley Lines, Ancient Roads, and Nemeta in Fiction

66 books — 10 voters

ANSGAR AND THE TROLLS by Patricia Stinson

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

The Invisibles, Volume 1 by Grant Morrison

Arks, Crosses and Grails, Oh My: Holy Artifacts in Fiction

39 books — 2 voters

Guidance to Death by Daniel V. Meier Jr.

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

102 books — 3 voters

Tears in the Graeco-Roman World by Thorsten F. Gen

The Elongated Skulls of Stonehenge by Maria Wheatley

Darkaeology

101 books — 2 voters

Related Genres

Nonfiction
Archeology

Featured News & Interviews

It’s Literally Summer! 93 Topical Titles for Your Seasonal Reading List.

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Anthropology”

“ Marriage," "mating," and "love" are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture. The examples we've noted of rampant ritualized group sex, mate-swapping, unrestrained casual affairs, and socially sanctioned sequential sex were all reported in cultures that anthropologists insist are monogamous simply because they've determined that something they call "marriage" takes place there. No wonder so many insist that marriage, monogamy, and the n ...more ”
― Christopher Ryan, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

40 likes

“ L'anthropologie n'est ni une religion à laquelle on adhère, ni une maladie qu'on contracte. Elle est d'un même mouvement un retour sur Soi et sur l'Autre considérés ensemble, mais l'habitude d'une relation à sens unique depuis cinq siècles n'autorise pas l'inversion de cette relation a produire les mêmes effets. ...more ”
― Jean Copans, Introduction à l'ethnologie et à l'anthropologie

3 likes

More quotes...