Understanding the Concept of Anthropology

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Lesson 1: Understanding the Concept of Anthropology
Nature and Meaning of Anthropology
Anthropology is a branch of sociology that often describes human, its behavior
and human interaction in the society. It is a field of science that studies all societies.
When we talk about anthropology, the term comes from Latin world ‘anthrop’ which
means man or human while ‘logos’ stands science or study. Therefore, anthropology
is a scientific study of man or human beings.
There are so many definitions of Anthropology according to renowned
Anthropologists. Below are some of the definitions of Anthropology as describe by
different anthropologists.
“Anthropology is a term that define as the study of human kind everywhere,
throughout time, seeks to produce useful generations about people and their behavior
and to arrive at the fullest possible understanding of human diversity” (Havilland, W.
A.1975). While according to Gwynne and Hicks (1994), “Anthropology is the study of
people and all the things they do, think, say and make".
Consequently, Anthropology as defined by Jary and Jary (2005) is the study of
human beings that divided into the branches of biologically oriented, physical
anthropology and social oriented, social anthropology.
The following are the characteristics of Anthropology; (1) study of human beings,
(2) scientific process, (3) explain human diversity and (4) tendency to make
generalization.
In general, anthropology simply describes the unique feature of the different
culture, organizational structures, and fundamental similarity among people in the
entire world.
Anthropology: its Scope and Fields
Anthropology has been described by different anthropologist focusing on the
different characteristics of the anthropology. Some of this Anthropologist has given
stressed on the physical characteristic while others have emphasized on the cultural
characteristics of the anthropology. As shown below is the main fields of anthropology:

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Source: Havilland, W.A.1975, Cultural anthropology
A. Physical/ Biological Anthropology:
Based from the diagram above, physical/biological anthropology is the
systematic study of human as a biological organism. It focuses on the present day of
human variation in the whole world.
Issues being discussed:
In his cultural anthropology, Kottak identified the five special introits. The following
are as follows:
1. Pale anthropology states that human evolution was discovered by the
fossil record.
2. Human genetics is the scientific study of the ways in which different
characteristic are being passed from generation to generation. Examples: Body
structure, color, shape etc.
3. Human growth and development is the study of human variations that
examines how and why contemporary human populations differ in biological
and physical characteristics.
Example: language, attitude, behavior etc.
4. Human biological plasticity is the body’s ability to change as its copies
with stress such as heat, cold and attitude.
Example: Australian people, African people etc.
5. Others: The biological evaluation behavior and social life of monkey’s apes
and other nonhuman primates.
B. Cultural Anthropology:
According to Havilland (1975), cultural anthropology focuses on human
behavior and is divided in different areas such as archaeology, linguistic anthropology
and ethnology. The following has its own interests and methods however all of these
areas deal with cultural data.

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a) Archaeology
Archaeology is the study of material remains that usually from the past
that will describe and explain human behavior. Archaeology is the study of the
ancient and recent human past through material remains. Archaeologists might
study the million-year-old fossils of our earliest human ancestors in Africa. Or
they might study 20th-century buildings in present-day New York City.
Archaeology analyzes the physical remains of the past in pursuit of a broad and
comprehensive understanding of human culture.
It has originated from the human past history, from the material products
of behavior, rather than behavior itself, as all that survive of the past. The
archaeology studies on the following such as (1) Tools, (2) Pottery, (3) Other
enduring relics, (4) Reconstruct the daily life and custom, (5) To trace out
the cultural changes, (6) Try deal with prehistory (before five thousand
years BC) and (7) Discuss our previous generation.
Archaeologist tries to reconstruct and the recreate of the material being
discovered. Reconstruction in this dimension invariably means the complete (re-
)building of a given archaeological site, the creation of a substitute for the
original in the form of a full-scale copy or replica (e.g. Skulls, Artifacts,
Sumerian Tablets). Consequently, different issues connected to reconstruction
in relation to the social expectations and challenges that archaeology faces were
placed within the context of contemporary conservation doctrine guidelines,
particularly in regard to the preservation and conservation of archaeological
heritage, its authenticity, and the need to disseminate it.

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b) Linguistic Anthropology
The study of languages, ancient, and modern written form, talking style is refer
to Linguistic Anthropology. This is divided into three parts;
1. Historical linguistic deals with the history of the language. The process
of finding historical linguistic is called ‘Diachronomical’. It deals with the
following factors such as words living language and dead language.
2. Socio linguistics is the study of how language is used in social context
and it is acceptable by everybody.
3. Descriptive structural includes how contemporary languages differ
specially in their construction. Example: sounds, grammar meaning.
c) Ethnology
Ethnology is the systematic description of a cultural based on first hand
observation. This could be in a form of universality, particularity and generality.
Universality is a custom that shared by all human being, such as—Infant
dependency.
Particularity is a custom which is common to several groups not to all groups.
Example: Birth ceremony, Death ceremony, Marriage ceremony etc.
Generality stands between universality and particularity. These are cultural
traits that occur in many societies but not all of them.
Source: http://socialscienc.blogspot.com/2015/02/definition-and-nature-of-anthropology.html
Human Cultural variation
It refers to the differences in social behaviors that different cultures exhibit
around the world. What may be considered good etiquette in one culture may be
considered bad in other etiquette. It refers to the differences in social behaviors that
different cultures exhibit around the world. An example of human variation can be
found with a cline. A cline is a genetic variation between populations of species that
are isolated in their reproduction (such as skin color variation in humans). Human
skin color variation is a selective adaptation that relates to the populations' proximity
to the equator. Because of pigmentation characteristics within the human population,
a system and term emerged to categorize the differing variations. This category is
recognized as race. Populations of humans in equatorial regions have selective
advantages as a result of their darker skin pigmentation, whereas populations in more
northern environments have less selective pressure to evolve darker pigmentation and
have lighter skin. Other clines include differences in stature and hair type.
Source: http://socialsci.libretext.org /2019/03/ A_Human_Cultural_Variation.html