- Origins and object of study of anthropology
- Biological anthropology
- Cultural anthropology
- Archeology
- References
The object of study of anthropology is the human being, civilization, their beliefs, morals, customs, art, law and habits of the human being in society.
To do this, he analyzes the different relationships that exist between the natural evolutionary process of man and the social phenomena that determine his behavior, also the product of an evolution of the peoples to which each man belongs and who have formed a culture.
Anthropology is a science that studies the human being in an integral way. Anthropology is a word is of Greek origin (ἄνθρωπος ánthrōpos, "man (human)", and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") and literally means knowledge of man.
To make it concrete, anthropology manages to maintain an enriching relationship between the natural sciences and the social sciences.
Origins and object of study of anthropology
At first, anthropology was understood as a science that studied primitive men (Davies, 2010). Finally, it emerged as an independent professional academic discipline in the second half of the 19th century.
This was due to a greater extent, to the extrapolation that many anthropologists made of the Theory of biological evolution to human societies, in what became known as social evolutionism. The general idea of the pioneers in anthropology was that just as animals and plants evolved, so did cultures.
With the arrival of the 20th century, anthropology undergoes a radical change. Social evolutionism was overcome and anthropology began to develop through currents closely related to philosophy.
In this sense, currents such as structuralist, structural-functionalist or Marxist anthropology emerged. Despite the fact that their differences are notorious and cause the approach to be completely opposite, modern anthropology seeks to study the human being in all its facets, integrating different sciences and techniques.
Anthropology records and documents to analyze the evolution of human behavior, in addition to comparing different groups and trying to understand what their particularities and similarities are with the rest, with support in social sciences such as history and sociology and in natural sciences such as biology.
According to the American Anthropological Association, anthropology is divided into four major fields:
Biological anthropology
As previously mentioned, the origins of anthropology are found in social evolutionism, which links the biological evolution of hominids with the hypothetical evolution manifested by societies and is reflected in cultural practices.
Although biological anthropology does not fully embrace these postulates, it does base its approaches by maintaining an evolutionary stance.
This branch is not limited to studying evolutionism, but focuses very particularly on the biological characteristics of different social and cultural groups.
What is more obvious is the skin color of the people who belong to a society, however biological anthropology goes much further.
From this branch it is possible to analyze the different physical characteristics that each group has, with special emphasis on the body modifications that can become tradition.
The field of study transcends the human body and extends to human relationships with their environment: the food they produce and consume, the animals they hunt, the climate of the area where they live, among others.
In this way, biological anthropology can also be linked to medical science and nutrition.
Cultural anthropology
Although it may be the most recently formed type of anthropology, it is quite likely the most extensive in existence.
Also known as social anthropology or ethnology, this branch studies all the characteristics of the different cultural configurations that social groups have.
Cultural anthropology is more recent in developed countries with Anglo-Saxon culture, although it has been studied for many decades in Latin cultures and developing countries such as Latin Americans.
One of its greatest exponents is the philosopher and anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, who directly relates the behavior of the individual belonging to a culture with the behavior of the culture, from which no member can escape.
One of the great objectives of cultural anthropology is the understanding of the other. For this reason, concepts such as otherness arise, which understands the other in four different ways: by difference, by diversity, by inequality and by consumption, depending on the glass with which it is viewed.
In addition to otherness, otherness breaks out as a way of understanding the other as one's own self. Through the understanding of the other, you can get the understanding of an alien society or a different culture.
Human beings, since the formation of their species, have communicated in different ways. For the realization of this communication and that it can be understood by a group, various codes evolved that constituted specific languages.
Linguistic anthropology is that branch of this science that studies the forms of human language and their relationships with each other and with their environment.
The work of anthropological linguists has evolved over time. In the beginnings of anthropology, his relationship with linguistics was restricted to studying the different linguistic families that group languages and their relationships.
However, with the emergence of structuralism as a philosophical current, languages began to be a mechanism for understanding the culture that speaks them, because they are the fundamental pillar of it.
By understanding that languages are a way of studying societies, the study arises from linguistic anthropology. Languages express a theory of the world and show the worldview that a certain social group maintains about itself and its peers.
Archeology
Probably the most famous and widespread branch of anthropology, archeology is responsible for studying the remains of the human past.
Through these remains, archaeologists are able to study the characteristics of human beings and their ancestors, as well as understand their ways of life and cultural practices.
The archaeologist's work is widely known. In the first instance, many archaeologists are engaged in excavation work, in places where ancient human remains or traces of earlier societies have been found.
In these archaeological sites the material is extracted from which it can be subsequently analyzed and investigated.
When they are especially parts of the body, including the skull, the study acquires much greater support and the analyzes carried out must maintain a higher rigor.
References
- American Anthropological Association. (sf). Anthropology: Education for the 21st Century. American Anthropological Association. Recovered from americananthro.org.
- Arribas, V., Boivin, M. and Rosato, A. (2004). Constructors of Otherness: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. EA. Recovered from antroporecursos.files.wordpress.com.
- Augé, M. and Colleyn, J. (2005). What is anthropology? Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Paidós.
- Davies, M. (2010). Anthropology for Beginners. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Era Naciente SRL.
- Discover Anthropology. (sf). What is Anthropology? Discover Anthropology. Recovered from discoveranthropologu.org.uk.
- Malinowski, B. (1973). The Argonauts of the Western Pacific: A Study on Trade and Adventure Among the Indigenous People of the Archipelagos of Melanic New Guinea Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Península.
- Wolf, E. (1980). Anthropology. WW Norton & Company.