Cultural Anthropology : Physical Anthropology

What is anthropology? This is a question that can be answered in numerous ways, but we are going to define it as simple as possible. If we break the word down into its two components it means the study of human beings. “Anthropo” means human beings or human kind and “logy” or “logia” is Greek for the study or knowledge of something. When we put it all together, it is the study of human beings which can be very broad. Anthropology can be broken down into four subfields: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Anthropology is something we should value because it allows us as human beings to learn about our origins and also to understand the cultures in the world outside of our own. Anthropology uses many techniques to learn and study such cultures that we do not understand. Ethnography is the gathering and interpretation of information based on intensive firsthand study of a participation culture -or- the written report of this study.

Anthropology is holistic. Humans are social beings more than anything, but with underlying psychological, biological and cultural connotations. The field of anthropology encompasses everything and anything having to do with humankind throughout history. Anthropology attempts to answer the tough questions about the human condition. What influences our actions? How has our species changed? Why do we look down on other cultures or societies? The questions are endless. It is the anthropologists’ job to try and answer them with unbiased subjectivity in order to come analytical conclusions about us as humans. (Kottak 14). To understand humans and the complexity of our cultures anthropology uses knowledge not only from the social and biological sciences, but also the physical sciences and humanities. In order to cover such a wide base of human history and interaction, anthropology itself has been split up into four different subsets that allow us to delve deeper into the understanding of the human condition. What is common throughout all the subsets is the application of knowledge in an effort to solve human problems. Throughout history though, the problems we have faced as humans have not always been the same. In fact they often change from generation to generation. For anthropology to keep up with these changes it’s had to

In society today, the discipline of anthropology has made a tremendous shift from the practices it employed years ago. Anthropologists of today have a very different focus from their predecessors, who would focus on relating problems of distant peoples to the Western world. In more modern times, their goal has become much more local, in focusing on human problems and issues within the societies they live.

“The Tall and the Short of It” by Barry Bogin in 1998 show the prime example for applying anthropological theories in order to understand the evolution of the human process. This article show how anthropology is used to reaffirm and or disapproves the scientific theories about human development. Bogin shows through Biology Anthropology by explaining the characteristics of genetic of the mother along with the environment can change over time. In “The Tall and the short of It” Bogin show how the different concepts of anthropology (Biological anthropology) is used to show how the external environment along with the internal environment process help shapes human development.

The study of cultural variation among humans and collecting data regarding the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities is the cultural anthropology branch of anthropology. (Wikipedia, 2013).

Evolution is not about orthogenesis, the belief that evolution is moving in a straight direction due to a driving force.

Anthropology is a word derived from the Greek words anthropos and logia. The word anthropos means human, and the word logia, in basic terms, means the study of. Therefore an anthropologist is a person who studies humans. Anthropologists study humans to gain and spread knowledge for the greater good of humanity, so we as a people can understand one another. To study anthropology as an anthropologist involves extensive research. Furthermore, to gather any credible research a person must follow a set guideline, especially when using and gathering research from another person. This guideline is in place to protect one's personal freedom because many cases involving human research have been unethical, unmoral, and unjust.

Biology anthropology, which is also known as physical anthropology, is meant to examine the process of human evolution and human biosocial variation. Once these topics are better understood, an anthropologist is able to help with issues such as, nutrition, health in societies, genetics within the human population, and adaptations. Anthropology also crosses into the topic of history, because today’s anthropologists are trying to disprove the thought process of people. In the past, many strongly believed that people were set apart by the physical, such as their appearance or the way they spoke. But today, anthropologists want individuals to better understand that race is not a reason to divide people like we use to in the past.

Out of the four main subfields in anthropology, biological, or physical anthropology, sparked an immediate interest while studying this field. Besides focusing on just primates in general, this particular subfield also centers on ancient human behaviors, genetics, and early human evolution. What amazes me is that physical anthropology presents how primates such as chimpanzees, gorillas, apes, and monkeys share 99.9% of human DNA and how they possess many abilities and characteristics as they do. I’m also familiar with Dr. Jane Goodall’s researches on how the natural behaviors of all primates affect the environment following her first observations more than 5 decades ago. I’m very eager to look into more detail of physical anthropology along with learning about the behaviors of

Anthropology is defined, in the most basic terms, as the study of other cultures. This field can subsequently be divided into more specific sects, and contain more precise defining characteristics, but this definition is essentially all that is needed. Anthropology is a science that attempts to look at other cultures and draw conclusions to questions that are raised while studying. An anthropologist is someone who accepts what is presented before them and is driven by an urge to understand each presentation as thoroughly as possible. Once the concept of anthropology is accepted, one must identify the means of reaching the goal of this field. In the sect of social anthropology, this vehicle is known as

Physical anthropology is concerned with the evolution of humans, their origin, diversity, as well as adaptations to environmental stresses.

The four subfields of anthropology are physical anthropology, archeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology examines the evolution of humans and their variability, and adaptations to their environment due to natural selection. Archeology is the historical examination of human life through remnants or artifacts of human past. These artifacts can be used to reconstruct human behavior before written records or to explore the more recent past of humans. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life in the past and present. Cultural anthropology is the branch of anthropology that focuses on the cultural variations among humans and their

Cultural anthropology is one of the four fields of anthropology. It looks for patterns of beliefs or behaviours in a group and how they are connected. Anthropologist looks at differences and similarities between different groups and different cultures. They obtain their data through field work. There is actually two method of for anthropologist to study a culture of a group; ethnography and ethnology. Ethnography is a detailed description of a particular group based on the information you get with field work. Most anthropologist actually go live with this particular group for a certain amount of time to get the more information possible and write the most detailed and accurate description of this group. The other method, ethnology, is a study of different cultures from cross cultural comparison. In this method, they generalized a lot and they using the information of some ethnographic studies already done.

Politically we are confronted with a host of issues ranging from matters pertaining to local taxation, planning, and zoning to regional (if not global) terrorism and other manifestations of conflict. The study of geography allows us to participate and enjoy our planet. Geography gives us a sense of reference to where we live and where we may be going in relationship to where we have been. Its appreciation of the world we live in. Anthropology is the study of human kind and culture, everybody wants to know where and how humans came to be. Some examples we can apply anthropology in our daily lives would be in relating to our families, friends, co-workers, in understanding work dynamics, in understanding and communicating with teens,, and in proposing new ideas, and plans. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations been the distinctive concept of culture.