Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human. It takes a holistic approach across four fields: archaeology studies how humans shape their material environments; physical anthropology examines human biological diversity and evolution; linguistic anthropology analyzes human language and communication; and cultural anthropology describes human cultures and learned knowledge systems. Together, these four fields seek to understand all aspects of human existence and behavior.

1. ANTHROPOLOGY’S
FOUR FIELDS

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

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

4. 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 tradition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Interdisciplinarity & Holism
Cultural
Archaeology Physical
Linguistic