Summary:

Intro to Anthropology
1. Anthropology is literally the study of human beings.
Differs from other disciplines concerned with people in that it is broader
in scope
Concerned with humans in all places of the world
Traces human evolution and cultural development from millions of years
ago to the present day.

2. Another distinguishing feature of anthropology is its holistic approach to the
study of human beings.
Studies all varieties of people
Includes all aspects of those peoples experiences.

3. Anthropologists are concerned with identifying and explaining typical
characteristics (traits, customs) of particular human populations.

4. Biological or physical Anthropology is one of the major fields of Anthropology.
Studies the emergence of humans and their later physical evolution (this
focus is called human paleontology).
Studies how and why contemporary human populations vary biologically
(this focus is called human variation).

5. Cultural Anthropology is another broad area of concern to Anthropology it
has 3 sub-fields:
Archaeology
Anthropological Linguistics
Ethnology (also referred to as cultural anthropology)
-all deal with aspects of human culture, that is, with the customary ways of
thinking and behaving of particular societies.

6. Archaeologists
Reconstruct the daily life and customs of pre-historic peoples
Trace cultural changes and offer possible explanations for those changes
Try to reconstruct history from the remains of human cultures.

7. Anthropological Linguists
Are concerned with the emergence of language and with the divergence
of languages over time (also known as historical linguistics).
Also study how contemporary language differ both in construction
(descriptive or structural linguistics) and in actual speech
(sociolinguistics).

8. The ethnologist (now often called simply a cultural anthropologist)
Seeks to understand how and why peoples of today and the recent past
differ in their customary ways of thinking and acting.

o Ethnographer spends some time living with and talking to a

particular population and observing their customs.
A detailed report of the groups behavior is called an
ethnography.
o Ethnohistorian investigates written documents to determine
how the ways of life of a particular group of people have changed
over time.
o Cross-cultural researcher studies data collected by
ethnographers and ethnohistorians for a sample of cultures and
attempts to discover which explanations of particular customs
may be generally applicable.

9. In all four major sub-disciplines of anthropology, there are applied
anthropologists, people who apply anthropological knowledge to achieve more
practical goals usually in the service of an agency outside the traditional
academic setting.

10. Anthropology may help people to be more tolerant.
Studies can show why other people are the way they are, both culturally
and physically.
Customs or actions that appear to be improper or offensive to us may be
other peoples adaptations to particular environmental and social
conditions.

11. Anthropology is also valuable in that knowledge of our past may bring us
both a feeling of humility and a sense of accomplishment. Like any other form
of life, we have no guarantee that any particular human population will
perpetuate itself indefinitely. Yet knowledge of our achievements in the past
may give us confidence in our ability to solve the problems of the future.