What is anthropology?
By definition, anthropology is the study of human societies, cultures and their development. Therefore, anthropology focuses on set of beliefs, practices, and symbols of a particular group of people. In other words, we could affirm that it concerns the observation of “what makes us humans”.
To fully understand what the study of anthropology means, it is necessary to remember an important detail: it does not study a specific culture, but rather the differences between all of them. Moreover, anthropology is not meant to define in an abstract way what is a “culture”, but rather comprehend cultural changes; how they evolve in time and how they are being passed on from generation to generation.
The word itself comes from the Greek words ánthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος, "human") and lógos (λόγος, "study"), indicating as already said the study of us humans.
In the next paragraphs we will briefly talk about the history of this discipline, and then and then we will explain the four main fields in more detail. Enjoy the reading!
Anthropology’s brief background
The study of other peoples' cultures has always existed. For example, in the Middle Ages, merchants and travellers like Marco Polo wrote detailed descriptions of the peoples from Central Asia and China they traded with, with the aim of better understanding them in order to work and do business together.
However, modern anthropology developed during the Age of Enlightenment (late 17th century), the intellectual and cultural movement that emphasized reason, science, and inquiry as the best way to reform the traditional political and religious institutions of society, relying fully on man's critical and rational capacities. These philosophers wanted to create a new science, the science of the man, and they believed in the theory of evolution (humans gradually progress from a wild, primitive state to an evolved one). Subsequently, in the early twentieth century, anthropologists emancipated themselves from this evolutionist approach and laid the foundations for the classic-anthropology still studied today.
We must also remember that anthropology was initially established for colonialist and imperialist reasons. Anthropology, in fact, arose during the years when European industrialized states were seeking new lands to militarily occupy and economically exploit. Furthermore, this imperialist policy was also justified by a supposed "civilizing mission" on cultures considered to be “primitive." Evolutionary anthropology, believed in a single evolutionary pattern, predicting that every society should achieve the model of Western societies.
Today, anthropology is very different: its researches no longer have the aim of judging or subjugating others, but only understanding and learning from them. Cultures are examined to overcome biases, and it is not uncommon to often explore topics that may challenge individual assumptions and values. Thus, we must keep an open mind and set aside personal perspectives to comprehend the ones of others.
Types of anthropology: 4 main fields
In this chapter we will try to understand more clearly what an anthropologist does. Therefore, it is necessary to explain the significant distinction between physical, cultural, linguistic anthropolog and archaeology.
1) Physical, or biological, anthropology (also considered part of the natural sciences disciplines), analyses the physical aspects of the human body, like its evolution and genetics. It studies how humans vary biologically and adapt to their changing environments, and in the last century, biological anthropology has evolved a lot.The first anthropologist were mostly interested in studying bodies and skulls in great detail, but this frequently leaded to the incorrect and oftentimes racist belief that human races existed. Today, all anthropologist agrees that there are no human races and all humans are members of the same species, the Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Currently, biological anthropology only studies the differences between people’s bodies due to factors like their environment, diet, activities they engage and so on. To summarize, we could affirm that the key questions of this science are: understanding what is our place in nature, what are our origins and what influenced our evolution/how will we continue to evolve.
2) Similarly to physical anthropology, archaeology also uses our body to understand culture and habits. Through the examination of physical remains (human fossils, preserved bones) it reconstruct and interpret past societies. Despite this, archaeological investigation also works with artifacts (remains of items made by past humans, such as tools, pottery, and buildings), and this is very important because it allows us to obtain information about societies that lived in the prehistoric period (and therefore did not leave written traces) or those whose written sources we have lost/cannot fully interpret.
3) On the other side, cultural anthropology is the branch of studies that examines human interactions and behaviours by participant observation. Through participant observation the anthropologist integrates into the culture to study and analyses it "from the inside": talking to people, taking part in rituals, experiencing the culture firsthand. A very clear and simple example that illustrates what an anthropologist does is the following. Considering a traditional mask, an artist might be interested in the techniques used to create it, the materials, and the colours. An anthropologist, on the other hand, would ask why that mask was created, in what rituals it is used, what its meaning is, and what it represents for the people who wear it.
4) Lastly, linguistic anthropology studies the development and importance of language in our culture. The ways of communicating we use reveals a great deal about our customs. Its goal is to understand how sounds have been associated with meaning, evolved over time, and even created a sense of belonging in a group of people who speak the same language. Click Next to read more about linguistic anthropology.
