This document provides an overview of the field of anthropology. It defines anthropology as the study of humankind everywhere and throughout time. The key fields of anthropology are discussed as archaeology, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. Research methods used by anthropologists are described, including cultural immersion, human ecology studies, archaeological analysis, and linguistic analysis. Physical anthropological research methods focusing on human bones and remains are also summarized. The document contrasts anthropology with other social sciences and discusses concepts like culture, society, evolution, and postmodernism.

1. The Science of
Anthropology
De Jesus, Uzziell
Landicho, Keona Mae
Lontoc, Shelah Mae
BSRT 2A

2. Introduction to Anthropology
Written in Bone:
Life and Death in Colonial Chesapeake
(Source: Youtube)
Click the video

3. What is Anthropology?
 Anthropos - man, human
 Logos - study
 Anthropology - Study of man
 Anthropology is the study of humankind
everywhere, throughout time.

4. Continuation
 Relatively new discipline
 Study began only in late 1800’s
 Incorporates other disciplines: sociology,
psychology, political science, economics, history,
human biology, philosophy and literature.

5. What do Anthropologists want to
understand?
 When, where and how humans appeared on earth
 How and why they have changed since then
 How and why modern human populations vary in
certain physical features
 How and why societies, past and present, have varied
their customary ideas and practices

6. Key Concepts

7. Society
 consists of any group of interacting animals, such
as a herd of bison
 People generally share common cultural patterns

8. Culture
 ways of life learned and
shared by people in social
groups
 fundamentally tied to
people’s ability to use
language and other
symbolic forms of
representation, such as
art, to create and
communicate complex
thoughts

9. Evolution
 Fossil evidence – human
evolved from ape 6 mil
years ago
 Biological evolution –
natural process by
which new and more
complex organisms
develop over time

10. Fields of Anthropology
Archaeology
Physical
Anthropology
Cultural
Anthropology
Linguistics

11. Physical Anthropology
 One major field of Anthropology
 It seeks to answer 2 distinct sets of
questions
 Questions about the emergence
of humans and their evolution -
Paleoanthropology.
 Questions about how and why
contemporary human populations
vary biologically - Human
Variation.
 Biological anthropology is the
systematic study of humans as
biological organisms.
 Molecular anthropology looks at
genes and genetic relationships.

12. Archaeology
 It seeks to reconstruct the
daily life and customs of
peoples in the past and to
trace cultural changes.
 Deals with Pre-historical
(before written history)
and Historical (after
recorded history) artifacts
 Bio-archaeology looks at
human skeletal remains
 They try to understand
and connect the past to
the present

13. Linguistics
 The study of human languages,
written and unwritten
 Historical Linguistics studies how
languages change over time
and how they are related
 Descriptive or Structural
Linguistics study how
contemporary languages differ
in construction
 Sociolinguistics study how
language is used in social
contexts

14. Cultural Anthropology
 The study of customary patterns
of human behavior
 Seeks to understand how and
why people today and in the
recent past differ in their
customary ways of thinking and
acting
 It has two main components -
ethnography and ethnology

15. Anthropology Vs. Other Social Sciences
History
Psychology
Sociology

16. Anthropology vs. History
Anthropology History
Primarily the study of people,
their societies and their
cultures
Primarily the study of written
records of the past –from
which they cannot learn
about human societies that
had or have no writing

17. Anthropology vs. Psychology
Anthropology Psychology
Studies how people become
enculturated or shaped by
their culture as they grow up
in a particular society
Focuses on universal
characteristics of human
thought and behavior and
studies these characteristics in
individual people

18. Anthropology vs. Sociology
Anthropology Sociology
Began as the study of small-scale
tribal societies, large-scale chiefdoms,
and ancient civilizations and global-
scale societies
Study of modern and urbanized
societies
Comparison of different societies to
understand scope of human diversity
Frequently examines universal patterns
of human behavior

19. Understanding Human Diversity
Making Comparisons
Examining Many Perspectives
Avoiding Cultural Bias

20. Making Comparisons
 Only through
comparison can
anthropologists learn
about the uniqueness
of particular cultures as
wall as the
characteristics that
people in all cultures
share.

21. Examining Many Perspectives
 The holistic approach of
anthropological
research can provide
insight into complex
contemporary
problems.
 Studies of connections
among human ecology,
biology and culture in
small-scale societies
have given
anthropologists insights
on large-scale, even
worldwide problems

22. Avoiding Cultural Bias
 Cultural relativism –
helps anthropologists
understand why
people in different
culture live as they do

23. Research Methods

24. Cultural Immersion
 Bronislaw Malinowski –
established methods of modern
cultural anthropological research
in his study
 Participant observation – gives
anthropologists a chance to get
an insider’s view of how and why
other people do what they do
 Anthropologies commonly
construct “genealogies” or
diagrams of kinship relations
 Provide a way to see cultural
patterns and complexities of
daily life that would be difficult to
comprehend

25. Human Ecology
 Examines how people
interact with their natural
environments such as to
make a living
 Roy Rappaport – analyzed
the ecological significance
of a ritual cycle of peace
and warfare among
Tsambaga people of Papua
New Guinea

26. Archaeological Analysis
 Remote sensing – uses
airplane photography
and radar systems to
find buried sites of past
human cultures
 Seriation – practice of
determining relative
age relationships
among different types
of artifacts based on
their shapes and styles

27. Linguistic Analysis
 Phonology – sound
properties of spoken
words
 Orthography –
technique of creating
written versions of
spoken languages

28. Physical Anthropological Research
 Rely on rigorous medical scientific
methods for at least part of their
research
 Physical anthropologists – have
detailed knowledge of human
skeletal anatomy
 Paleoanthropologists and
forensic anthropologists – can
construct extremely detailed
descriptions of people’s lives from
only measurement of bones and
teeth
 Anthropologists specialize in
epidemiology – study of disease
and health among large groups
of people

29. In Absence of Historical Records How Do We
Discover The Past?
 Anything made or modified by humans is
an artifact that can be studied
 Lithics - stone tools
 Ceramics - pots and items made of clay
 Wood and bone tools
 Textiles and hides
 Metal and glass

30. Postmodernism
 literally means “after modernity
 An extremely diffuse concept
 Provided a major focus of
debate and commentary
 Postmodernists challenge
modernist assertions
 believe that objective neutral
knowledge of another culture,
or any aspect of the world is
impossible
 The postmodernist challenge
has led anthropologists to
examine the basis of their
discipline

31. Applied Anthropology and Holism
 Training in all four fields required
 Links to other social sciences
 Sociology, psychology, economics, political science,
history
 Applied Anthropology
 Sometimes called the 5th field
 Offers practical solutions to cultural problems

32. The Science of
Anthropology
De Jesus, Uzziell
Landicho, Keona Mae
Lontoc, Shelah Mae
BSRT 2A