Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology
In the middle of the 20th century, the distinct fields of research that separated
anthropologists into specialties were (1) physical anthropology, emphasizing the
biological process and endowment that distinguishes Homo sapiens from other species,
(2) archaeology, based on the physical remnants of past cultures and former conditions
of contemporary cultures, usually found buried in the earth, (3) linguistic anthropology,
emphasizing the unique human capacity to communicate through articulate speech and
the diverse languages of humankind, and (4) social and/or cultural anthropology,
emphasizing the cultural systems that distinguish human societies from one another
and the patterns of social organization associated with these systems. By the middle of
the 20th century, many American universities also included (5) psychological
anthropology, emphasizing the relationships among culture, social structure, and the
human being as a person.
The concept of culture as the entire way of life or system of meaning for a
human community was a specialized idea shared mainly by anthropologists until the
latter half of the 20th century. However, it had become a commonplace by the beginning
of the 21st century. The study of anthropology as an academic subject had expanded
steadily through those 50 years, and the number of professional anthropologists had
increased with it. The range and specificity of anthropological research and the
involvement of anthropologists in work outside of academic life have also grown,
leading to the existence of many specialized fields within the discipline.
Theoretical diversity has been a feature of anthropology since it began and, although
the conception of the discipline as “the science of humanity” has persisted, some
anthropologists now question whether it is possible to bridge the gap between the
natural sciences and the humanities. Others argue that new integrative approaches to
the complexities of human being and becoming will emerge from new subfields dealing
with such subjects as health and illness, ecology and environment, and other areas of
human life that do not yield easily to the distinction between “nature” and “culture” or
“body” and “mind.”
Beginning in the 1930s, and especially in the post-World War II period, anthropology
was established in a number of countries outside western Europe and North America.
Very influential work in anthropology originated in Japan, India, China, Mexico, Brazil,
Peru, South Africa, Nigeria, and several other Asian, Latin American, and African
countries. The world scope of anthropology, together with the dramatic expansion of
social and cultural phenomena that transcend national and cultural boundaries, has led
to a shift in anthropological work in North America and Europe. Research by Western
anthropologists is increasingly focused on their own societies, and there have been some
studies of Western societies by non-Western anthropologists. By the end of the 20th
century, anthropology was beginning to be transformed from a Western—and, some
have said, “colonial”—scholarly enterprise into one in which Western perspectives are
regularly challenged by non-Western ones.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe
Now
Ralph W. Nicholas
History of anthropology