The four fields of anthropology
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Transcript of The four fields of anthropology
ANTHROPOLOGY’S FOUR FIELDS4
What Is Anthropology?Anthropology is the scientific study of what it means to be human
What Is Anthropology?As a scholarly discipline, anthropology straddles the sciences, social studies and humanities.
What Is Anthropology?What makes anthropology unique is its holistic approach: the notion that hard sciences, social sciences and humanities can all speak to one another within the same disciplinary tradition.
Anthropology recognizes that almost all
phenomena “are simultaneously real, like
nature, narrated, like discourse, and collective,
like society.”
The Four Fields
Human Characteristic Anthropological Subfield
Humans shape their material environment
Archaeology
Humans differ in their physical form Physical/Biological Anthropology
Humans have a unique communication system
Linguistic Anthropology
Humans act according to learned knowledge systems
Cultural Anthropology
What makes human beings unique?
Archaeology
Studies the ways humans manipulate their material environment
Examines material environment of past societies for clues about their lives
Physical Anthropology
Examines the ways humans are biologically similar to and different from other animals
Primatology Human Evolution
Linguistic Anthropology
How humans use language to communicate
The spread and transformation of language
Language acquisition Language revitalization
Cultural Anthropology
Describes and analyzes the beliefs people have about their social and material worlds, and the ways these affect human action
Interdisciplinarity & Holism
Cultural
Physical
Linguistic
Archaeology