This document provides an overview of anthropology as an academic discipline. It explains that anthropology takes a holistic approach to understanding what it means to be human, integrating insights from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The document outlines the four main subfields of anthropology: archaeology studies human manipulation of the material environment and artifacts of past societies; physical anthropology examines human biological evolution and similarities to other species; linguistic anthropology focuses on language use, acquisition, and change over time; and cultural anthropology describes and analyzes shared beliefs and how they shape human behavior.

1. SOCIOLOGY,
ANTHROPOLOGY &
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Nature & Beginning of
Social Sciences

2. The Dark Ages –>Age of
Enlightenment

3. What now?

6. What Is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the scientific study of what
it means to be human

12. What Is
Anthropology?
As a scholarly discipline,
anthropology straddles the
sciences, social studies
and humanities.

13. What Is Anthropology?
What makes anthropology
unique is its holistic
approach: the notion that
hard sciences, social
sciences and humanities can
all speak to one another
within the same disciplinary

14. Anthropology recognizes that
almost all phenomena “are
simultaneously real, like
nature, narrated, like
discourse, and collective, like
society.”

15. The Four Fields
Human Characteristic Anthropological Subfield
Humans shape their material environment Archaeology
Humans differ in their physical form Physical/Biological
Anthropology
Humans have a unique communication
system
Linguistic Anthropology
Humans act according to learned knowledge
systems
Cultural Anthropology
What makes human beings unique?

16. Archaeology
 Studies the ways humans
manipulate their material
environment
 Examines material environment
of past societies for clues about
their lives

17. Physical Anthropology
Examines the ways
humans are
biologically similar
to and different from
other animals
 Primatology
 Human Evolution

18. Linguistic Anthropology
 How humans use
language to communicate
 The spread and
transformation of
language
 Language acquisition
 Language revitalization

19. Cultural Anthropology
Describes and analyzes the
beliefs people have about
their social and material
worlds, and the ways these
affect human action

20. Interdisciplinarity &
Holism
Cultural
Physical
Linguistic
Archaeology