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Anthropology (from the Greek word ANTHROPOLOGIA) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times, and with all dimensions of humanity. Central to anthropology is the concept of culture and that our species has evolved a universal capacity to conceive of the world symbolically, to teach and learn such symbols socially, and to transform the world (and ourselves) based on such symbols.In the United States, anthropology is traditionally divided into four fields:
- physical anthropology, which studies primate behavior, human evolution, and population genetics; this field is also sometimes called biological anthropology.
- cultural anthropology, (called social anthropology in the United Kingdom and now often known as socio-cultural anthropology). Areas studied by cultural anthropologists include social networks, social behavior, kinshipKinship is a biological and/or familial relationship between two organisms. The word kinship can refer more broadly to any emotional relationship. This can also refer to ideas which are mathematically related. In its most general sense, kinship can be use patterns, law, politics, ideologyAn ideology is a collection of ideas. The word ideology was coined by Count Destutt de Tracy in the late 18th century to define a " science of ideas. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things (compare Weltansch, religion, beliefs, patterns in production and consumption, exchange, socialization, gender, and other expressions of culture, with strong emphasis on the importance of fieldworkFieldwork refers to scientific activity conducted in the "field", outside the laboratory, of subject matter in an as-found state, by anthropologists, geologists, botanists, archaeologists or others who study the natural or human world. For instance, archa, i.e living among the social group being studied for an extended period of time;
- linguistic anthropology, which studies variation in languageAs with any complex, emergent concept, language is somewhat resistant to definition; however, most would agree that language is a system of communication or reasoning using representation along with metaphor and some manner of logical grammar. Many langua across time and space, the social uses of language, and the relationship between language and culture; and
- archaeologyArchaeology or archeology ( American English) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. The goal of archaeology is to sh, which studies the material remains of human societiesA society is a group of people that form a semi-closed (or semi-open) system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. More abstractly, a society is a network of relationships between entities. A society is an interdep. Archaeology itself is normally treated as a separate (but related) field in the rest of the world, although closely related to the anthropological field of material culture , which deals with physical objects created or used within a living or past group as mediums of understanding its cultural values.
More recently, some anthropology programs began dividing the field into two, one emphasizing the humanitiesThrough the humanities we reflect on the fundamental question: What does it mean to be human? The humanities offer clues but never a complete answer. They reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of a world in which ir and critical theory, the other emphasizing the natural sciences and positivism.
