[U][B]Introduction[/B][/U]
After taking anthropology as a semester class in my junior year of high school I became really interested in it. It's one of those subjects where a lot of things about social sciences come in, often working in tandem with each other; certain disciplines like history, sociology and psychology work with anthropology. You might be sitting here thinking, "Well, American, what is anthropology?" I'm going to give you my own definition then a textbook definition.
[B][U]What is anthropology?[/U][/B]
In my own words, anthropology is the study of human history, from our most common ancestor with apes seven million years ago to modern times. It encompasses four sub-disciplines: linguistic anthropology (the study of how language affects humans, why and how we speak, and so on), cultural anthropology (study of cultures, this sub-discipline lets you actually live amongst a certain people), archaeology (digging bones and fossils of humans) and biological anthropology (study of the human body - size of the brain over time, body proportions, and our similarities & differences from apes).
Now here is a textbook definition from dictionary.com:
[quote]The science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind.[/quote]
Basically a simplified version of my definition.
This all seems very interesting I hope, because it interests me a great deal. Onto the four sub-disciplines!
[B][U]Linguistic Anthropology
[/U][/B][quote]Linguistic anthropology is the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdisciplinarity"]interdisciplinary[/URL] study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology"]anthropology[/URL] that originated from the endeavor to document [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_language"]endangered languages[/URL], and has grown over the past 100 years to encompass almost any aspect of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_structure"]language structure[/URL] and use.[SUP][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_anthropology#cite_note-Duranti2004-0"][/URL][/SUP]
Linguistic anthropology explores how language shapes communication, forms social identity and group membership, organizes large-scale cultural beliefs and ideologies, and develops a common cultural representation of natural and social worlds.[/quote]
Hit the nail on the head, Wikipedia. There's a few things I want to touch up on though. First, why do we speak? Humans speak for the same reason your cat purrs when it is happy or a bear growls when angry or threatened: to communicate. Humans are different from apes in that we have developed a hyoid bone. What is a hyoid bone, you ask? It is a bone that most other mammals have to convey sounds to communicate. Ours, however, has the ability for us to be able to speak.
[quote]The discovery of a modern-looking hyoid bone of a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal"]Neanderthal[/URL] man in the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebara_Cave"]Kebara Cave[/URL] in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine"]Palestine[/URL] led its discoverers to argue that the Neanderthals had a descended [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larynx"]larynx[/URL], and thus human-like [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech"]speech[/URL] capabilities.[/quote]
Other words, we have a descended larynx compared to other mammals. This descended larynx might be the reason our hyoid bone lets us speak.
[B][U]Cultural Anthropology[/U][/B]
[quote][B]Cultural anthropology[/B] is a branch of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology"]anthropology[/URL] focused on the study of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture"]cultural variation[/URL] among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participant_observation"]participant observation[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interviews"]interviews[/URL] and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_survey"]surveys[/URL]. Their research is often called [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieldwork"]fieldwork[/URL] because it involves the anthropologist spending an extended period of time at the research location.[/quote]
Have you ever heard of Margaret Mead? This is what she dabbled in. To sum it all up, cultural anthropologists go out into the field to study and live amongst the local people, usually a group who is not as modern as us.
Participant observation is when the participant (or the anthropologist doing the fieldwork) participates in a group's customs. For example, Margaret Mead lived with the Samoans for a number of years. During this time she spoke their language, ate their food and participated in their activities. She observed the Samoans then actively interviewed 68 people between the ages of 9 and 20.
[B][U]Archaeology[/U][/B]
[quote][B]Archaeology[/B], or [B]archeology[/B][SUP][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology#cite_note-0"][/URL][/SUP], is the study of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human"]human[/URL] [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society"]society[/URL], primarily through the recovery and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis"]analysis[/URL] of the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_culture"]material culture[/URL] and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_%28archaeology%29"]artifacts[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture"]architecture[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofact_%28archaeology%29"]biofacts[/URL] and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_landscapes"]cultural landscapes[/URL] (the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_record"]archaeological record[/URL]). Because archaeology employs a wide range of different procedures, it can be considered to be both a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science"]science[/URL] and a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanities"]humanity[/URL],[SUP][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology#cite_note-Renfrew_Bahn1991-2"][/URL][/SUP] and in the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"]United States[/URL] it is thought of as a branch of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology"]anthropology[/URL],[SUP][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology#cite_note-Haviland_et_al_2005-3"][/URL][/SUP] although in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe"]Europe[/URL] it is viewed as a separate discipline.[/quote]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology]Because this is such a broad discipline, here is the link for further reading.[/url]
Digging up bones and skeletons sure is fun, isn't it? Finding them is even more fun. Archaeologists will go to where humans lived before (usually in Africa but newer fossils have been found in Asia and Europe), find fossils and other remains and ship them off to a lab to be analyzed by biological anthropologists before being preserved.
[img]http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/toumai.jpg[/img]
Say hello to Toumai, or more formally, Sahelanthropus tchadensis. He is perceived to be our common ancestor, dating to around seven million years ago.
[img]http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/files/2009/01/lucy.jpg[/img]
Here's a more famous fossil: Lucy. She is an almost complete specimen of the Australopithecus afarensis. She dates to 3.2 million years ago.
[B][U]Biological Anthropology[/U][/B]
[quote][B]Biological anthropology[/B] (also called [B]physical anthropology[/B]) is that branch of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology"]anthropology[/URL] that studies the physical development of the human species. It plays an important part in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoanthropology"]paleoanthropology[/URL] (the study of human origins) and in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_anthropology"]forensic anthropology[/URL] (the analysis and identification of human remains for legal purposes). It draws upon human [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropometrics"]anthropometrics[/URL] (body measurements), [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genetics"]human genetics[/URL] ([URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_anthropology"]molecular anthropology[/URL]) and human [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteology"]osteology[/URL] (the study of bones) and includes [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroanthropology"]neuroanthropology[/URL], the study of human brain evolution, and of culture as neurological adaptation to environment.[/quote]
Pretty straightforward. This sub-discipline focuses on the physical aspect of all humans and ancestors, studying remains and other areas of physical being, such as brain size. It pairs pretty well with a biology class, as biological anthropology focuses on things like genetics, osteology (study of bones) and the brain.
About the brain: our skulls got bigger and better over time (duh). Let me present a graph.
[img]http://disjointedthinking.jeffhughes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/brainEvolution.jpg[/img]
As you can see, our brains got bigger over time, going from 500 cubic centimeters to 1500 cubic centimeters. We progressively got smarter, made tools, discovered how to use fire, discovered technology and so on. Our skulls increased in size with our brains too, so as to house the bigger brains.
[highlight]A little bit of info about our skeletons...[/highlight]
You know how when a cat walks, it's eyes point forward? If a human got on all fours they'd be looking at the ground. This is important information. Apes are like any other four-footed animal, their heads point forward when on all fours. One apes decided to look over tall grass to look for predators and get fruit off of a tree by standing on two legs. He then decided to walk with his fruit on two legs. This requires less energy, and thus is not as tired as he usually would have been. We're bipedal thanks to this one ape.
[B][U]Conclusion[/U][/B]
That's that. The study of anthropology in a nutshell. It's too broad of a subject to compress any further.
In case you want my sources, there is an obvious one: Wikipedia. There's also Google images for the pictures. However, if you want to really get into it, there are videos you can watch and it is from these videos you will hear what I have reiterated here but in further detail. We watched these in anthropology and I was surprised at how much info I retained from it all.
[url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/archive/int_anth.html]Nova PBS series on anthropology.[/url]
There are also pictures of preserved bodies called bog bodies. Look it up on Wikipedia, it's all interesting.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology]Wikipedia article on anthropology.[/url]
Bones would be a better show if it was about a skeleton who solved crimes.
[editline]18th August 2011[/editline]
But keep Hodgins I like Hodgins.
Uh, cool I guess. Good to see someone who is truly interested in something scholastic. You should pursue this in college.
[QUOTE=urbanmonkey;31797972]Uh, cool I guess. Good to see someone who is truly interested in something scholastic. You should pursue this in college.[/QUOTE]
I'm going to. I don't know if it should be a major in history and a minor in anthropology or vice versa, or a major in anthropology.
Decisions, decisions.
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