Main Discussion

Aristotle wrote “The human is by nature a social animal”. Human beings are social
animals for they are born and spend their entire lives within groups. From birth to
old age, groups give meaning and support to the individual. Inspite of their
individuality, men are social creatures destined to live with other people in a society.
Their relationship and social organizations / institutions are the concerns of social
sciences.

The social sciences

1) anthropology, 2) sociology, 3) psychology, 4) history, 5) political science, 6)
economics, and 7) geography are focused on human behavior and interaction; each
one focuses on a different aspect of that behavior. Anthropology and sociology are
twin social sciences. Both disciplines are considered the science of man.

Sociology is the scientific study of human and social activity. It is the systematic study
of social behavior and human groups. It focuses primarily on the influence of the
social relationship upon people’s attitude and behavior and how societies are
established and changed. In short, the main focus of sociology is the group, not the
individual.

Anthropology is interested in the study of the social behavior of man in relation to his
natural and social environment. Human behavior is not inherited. It is determined by
how man adjust to his environment. Likewise, man inherited his physical equipment,
the human body, consisting of bone structure, the sense organs, the nervous system,
and the ductless glands. His racial and family inheritance comes along with his
physical equipment. This points clearly to the fact that human behavior has been
biological and cultural.

The Nature of Anthropology

The word anthropology was derived from the Greek word “ anthropos” for
“man” and Latin word “logos” for study. Anthropology may be defined as the study
of man or the scientific study of humankind. It is the science of human origins,
evolutions and cultures. Anthropologists are concerned in discovering 1) when, 2)
where, 3) why, and 4) how humans appeared in this world. They are interested on
how and why societies of the past and present have developed different customary
ideas and practices. Their efforts are geared towards solving practical problems in his
everyday life. ( Ember and Ember,1999).

Anthropology has been called the science of humanity. That is a vast and noble
calling, but a vague one and also not one that immediately distinguishes it from all
the other social sciences. Psychology and sociology and history study humans, and
even biology and physics can study humans.
 Anthropology shares one factor with all of the other “social sciences”. They all
study human beings acting and interacting. However, all of the other social sciences
only study some kinds of people or some kinds of things that people do. Economics
studies economic behavior, political science studies political behavior, etc. And above
all, they tend to study the political, economic, or other behaviors of certain kinds of
people – “modern”, urban, industrialized, literate, usually “Western” people. But
those are not the only people of the world. There are many people today, and over
the ages, there has been a vast majority of people, who differ from the others.
Questions like , why do these people live the way they do? And why do we live the
way we do? Why are there so many ways to be human? Those are the questions that
anthropology asks.

Any science, from anthropology to zoology, is distinguished in three ways – its

questions, its perspective and its method. The questions of a science involve what it
wants to know, why it was established in the first place, and what part of reality it is
intended to examine. The perspective is its particular and unique way of looking at
reality, the “angle” from which it approaches its subject, or the attitude it adopts
towards it. Its method is the specific data-gathering activities it practices in order to
apply its perspective and to answer its questions.

Anthropology as a unique science, study humans and human diversity. Further,

humans are diverse in two dimensions. The first dimension is the past versus the
present; the second dimension is the physical versus the behavioral, our bodies as
opposed to the ways we organize ourselves and act. Therefore, anthropology may be
defined - as the study of the diversity of human bodies and behavior in the past and
the present.

Subdisciplines of Anthropology:

Physical or biological anthropology – the area that specializes in the study of the
diversity of human bodies in the past and present, including physical adaptation,
group or “race” characteristics, and human evolution.
Archaeology – the study of the diversity of human behavior in the past, based on the
traces left behind by past humans or societies.

Artifacts – physical objects created by humans, often specifically the portable objects
like pottery, jewelry, clothing , tools and weapons.
Features – the large and non- portable objects or structures created and left by
humans, including walls, buildings, roads, canals, farms etc.
Ecofacts – the environmental remains from past human social contexts, including
wood, seeds, pollen, and animal (bones , shells) remains.
Garbology – the study of contemporary trash to examine how humans make,
consume, and discard material objects in the present.
 Linguistic anthropology- is the study of the diversity of human language in the past
and present , and its relationship to social groups, practices and values.

Cultural anthropology – the study of the diversity of human behavior in the present.
Cultural anthropology- the study of the past and present societies, and the language,
traditions, customs and behavior that are both similar or different from one another.

Subdisciplines of Cultural Anthropology:

Urban anthropology -or the study of humans in urban settings, the effects of
urbanization on previously non -urban societies, and the relationships between cities
and their surrounding hinterlands ( such as labor migration).
Medical anthropology -or the study of knowledge systems and practices concerning
health and medical treatment cross-culturally.
Forensic anthropology – or the use of ( mainly physical) anthropological knowledge
and methods to solve crimes (e.g. identify murder victims, determine time and cause
cof death etc.)
Visual anthropology – or the study of the production, presentation, and use of
materibal or artistic media such as painting, body art, clothing designs, and so on. It
can include not only the arts that other societies make, but the arts that
anthropology employs to study them, such as film and photography.
Ethnomusicology, or the study of musical forms and their relation to culture.
Ethnobotany- or the study of knowledge and uses of plants in various cultures.
Development anthropology – or the study of as well as the practical contribution to
how modern forces affect and change societies. This can include attempting to
minimize the negative impact of change on traditional societies and even in some
cases advocating for the rights and wishes of those societies.
Feminist anthropology – originally the study of women’s issues and roles across
cultures. This subfield has expanded to include gender issues and roles more
generally, particularly how gender is defined, practiced, and controlled through
language, values, and power.
Evolution of Anthropology

Radcliffe-Brown - an early anthropologist defined anthropology as “the study of

primitive peoples or backward peoples.
E. Evans- Pritchard asserted that anthropology was the branch of science, “which
chiefly devotes itself to primitive societies” but put emphasis on the study of human
cultures and societies.
The 3 main phenomena that have forced reconceptualization of cultural
anthropology are:

Colonialism, post colonial independence and nationalist and indigenous movements

Modernization
Globalization

Glocalization - a combination of the words globalization and local, suggests the

unique local and situated forms and effects of wide-spread and even global
processes.

Research Methods in Anthropology:

Immersion in a culture
Analysis of how people interact with their environment
Linguistic analysis
Archaeological analysis
Analysis of human biology
Ethnography- is a research strategy where the approach is to get as much
information as possible about a particular culture. The ethnographer, tries to get
information from many angles, to see the whole picture. ( holistic view )
Ethnography – the observational branch of ethnology, describes each culture,
including its language, physical characteristic of its people, its material products and
its social customs. In short, ethnography is the systematic description of a culture
based on firsthand observation.

Relevance of Anthropology:

Anthropology provides students with the critical awareness needed for key issues of
our times which are not just religious and ethnicity.

Anthropology studies the concept of culture and its relationship to human life in
different times and places.

Study other societies to gain clearer perspective on our own.

Study the past to help interpret the present.

Gain a broad knowledge of other cultures as well as skills in observation, analysis,

research, critical thinking, writing and dealing with people from all cultures.

Studying anthropology gives you an insight into what makes people tick and the
centrality of culture in motivating social action. Anthropology is based on the study
of actual societies over an extended time frame through what is called participant
observation.

Anthropologists compare how people live in different societies at different times and
places and come up with theories about why people behave in particular ways.