Anthropology

the study of humankind around the world and throughout time.

Anthropology

• is concerned with both the biological and the cultural aspects of humans

• is comprised of four main subdivisions which are all integrated, resulting in a holistic or full perspective our species

The Four Fields :

• Biological or physical anthropology - the study of the evolutionary process our historical development as a species

• Archaeology - our unrecorded history

• Social and cultural anthropology our current ways of life

• Linguistics and our ways of expressing ourselves

Physical/Biological Anthropology

• Mechanisms of biological evolution

• the fossil record of human evolution

• genetic inheritance

• human adaptability and variation

• primatology

• forensic anthropology

Archaeology

• Prehistory and early history of cultures around the world

• Major trends in cultural evolution

• techniques for finding excavating dating and analyzing material remains of past societies

• Salvage archaeology – site preservation

Cultural Anthropology includes

•The study of the cultural aspects of language and communication

• Subsistence and other economic patterns

• Kinship

• Sex and marriage

• Gender

• Childrearing patterns

• Socialization

• Social Organization

• Social control

• Political organization

• Religion and belief systems

• Class

• Ethnicity

• Culture change

• Globalization and its impacts

And MUCH more

Linguistic Anthropology

• The human communication process focusing on:

• the importance of socio-cultural influences

• nonverbal communication

• tracing historical relationships (glottochronology)

• the structure function and history of languages dialects pidgins and creoles

Anthropology

•Provides us a way of looking at the world

•It attempts to free us from the prejudices of our own culture

• or at least makes us aware of our own beliefs and values