The term “ Anthropology ” is derived from two Greek words, anthropos meaning human and logos meaning study. So, in the simplest terms, Anthropology is the study of human beings. An anthropologist tries to study and understand everything that can be related to humans and not limited by time and space.
Thus, Anthropology can be defined as “ The science of man in his physical environment, social, material and cultural development including the study of his origin, evolution, geographical distribution, ethnology and communal forms.” An anthropologist must have sufficient knowledge of all these aspects.
In general, an anthropologist may seek answers to the following questions:
Why some people are dark-skinned while some are light-skinned?
Why in European countries O blood group is the most prevalent whereas in India it’s B and in Central Asia it’s A?
Why some languages have more specific terms for colours while others do not?
What are the power distribution and resource-control pattern in any community?
Why people belonging to a particular community suffer more from a given disease than others?
What is the means of subsistence in a community and how it has changed with time?
Why in some cultures do children leave the house of their parents when they grow old while in some they do not?
How the birth, marriage, and death ceremony varies within communities?
These are very few examples of questions that an anthropologist may possibly want to know. Anthropologists are curious about the typical characteristics of populations around the globe.
Anthropology is divided into Socio-cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology and Pre-historic Anthropology.
>>>Socio-cultural anthropology is also known as cultural anthropology or social anthropology. It deals with the behavior of man in social situations. It is also the study of societies and cultures around the world. How the social structure, norms, economic and religious organizations, kinship system, marriage system, cultural practices, behavioral patterns, etc varies around the world.
>>>Physical anthropology involves an evolutionary perspective towards the study of human populations and their diversity. To understand variations, they use the techniques and principles of genetics, biology, and epidemiology.
Physical anthropology deals with the characteristics of human anatomy. It help us to have knowledge about the human race, such as Mongoloids, Negroids and Caucasoids. We also get to study the Early men such as Australopithecus, Neaderthals, and Peking man.
>>>Pre-historic (Archaeological) anthropology deals with the culture as existed under pre-historic period. It also studies cultures from prehistory and how they have changed with evolution, changes in climatic conditions and advancements in tools and techniques. They collect material remains from various archeological sites and try to reconstruct the past. These artifacts could be tools, remains from human cultures like pottery, cave paintings, etc. They use different dating techniques like carbon dating, pollen dating, stratigraphy, etc. to arrange the findings in a chronological order and understand the cultural development in the past.
Under pre-historic period, origin of man is studied such as Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Pliocene/Miocene stage and Quaternary stage.
Note: Enthnology is a discipline that traces the origins and movement of human populations.
Thus, Anthropology can be defined as “ The science of man in his physical environment, social, material and cultural development including the study of his origin, evolution, geographical distribution, ethnology and communal forms.” An anthropologist must have sufficient knowledge of all these aspects.
In general, an anthropologist may seek answers to the following questions:
Why some people are dark-skinned while some are light-skinned?
Why in European countries O blood group is the most prevalent whereas in India it’s B and in Central Asia it’s A?
Why some languages have more specific terms for colours while others do not?
What are the power distribution and resource-control pattern in any community?
Why people belonging to a particular community suffer more from a given disease than others?
What is the means of subsistence in a community and how it has changed with time?
Why in some cultures do children leave the house of their parents when they grow old while in some they do not?
How the birth, marriage, and death ceremony varies within communities?
These are very few examples of questions that an anthropologist may possibly want to know. Anthropologists are curious about the typical characteristics of populations around the globe.
Anthropology is divided into Socio-cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology and Pre-historic Anthropology.
>>>Socio-cultural anthropology is also known as cultural anthropology or social anthropology. It deals with the behavior of man in social situations. It is also the study of societies and cultures around the world. How the social structure, norms, economic and religious organizations, kinship system, marriage system, cultural practices, behavioral patterns, etc varies around the world.
>>>Physical anthropology involves an evolutionary perspective towards the study of human populations and their diversity. To understand variations, they use the techniques and principles of genetics, biology, and epidemiology.
Physical anthropology deals with the characteristics of human anatomy. It help us to have knowledge about the human race, such as Mongoloids, Negroids and Caucasoids. We also get to study the Early men such as Australopithecus, Neaderthals, and Peking man.
>>>Pre-historic (Archaeological) anthropology deals with the culture as existed under pre-historic period. It also studies cultures from prehistory and how they have changed with evolution, changes in climatic conditions and advancements in tools and techniques. They collect material remains from various archeological sites and try to reconstruct the past. These artifacts could be tools, remains from human cultures like pottery, cave paintings, etc. They use different dating techniques like carbon dating, pollen dating, stratigraphy, etc. to arrange the findings in a chronological order and understand the cultural development in the past.
Under pre-historic period, origin of man is studied such as Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Pliocene/Miocene stage and Quaternary stage.
Note: Enthnology is a discipline that traces the origins and movement of human populations.
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