History and Branches of Anthropology

Anthropology, simply speaking, is the science that studies human beings and their ancestors through time and space, relating their physical traits, culture, socio-economic conditions, etc.

As a subject, anthropology is supposed to combine natural science and humanities. The biological evolution of human beings is evident and identifiable. It is present in the other species as well. 

But, human beings have been majorly affected by culture as a medium for growth and change. They have shown qualities not directly linked to survival or ecological adaptation.

History of Anthropology

• Origins 

‘Anthropology’ was discovered in Ancient Greece with writings about human nature and society as an organisation.

Herodotus (c. 400 BC), a Greek historian, is often regarded as the foremost thinker to work broadly on the concepts which now have become the foundation of anthropology. He described the cultures of various empires the Greeks defeated during his era.

Herodotus laid down the division between white people of European descent and other people. He stated Greece as the dominant power of the west and Persia as the dominant power of the east. This concept was adopted by most anthropological writings later on. 

Ibn Khaldun (14th century AD) was another critical name with ideas and writings that helped shape the discipline. The Arab historian examined all the factors that affected the rise and fall of civilisation.

• Colonialism and Contact with Other Cultures

With the rise of colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans increased contact with people worldwide. They interacted with the new belief systems and encouraged further studies in culture.

Europeans suddenly had massive data about new cultures and unexplored territories. Thus, anthropological societies began forming. They threw themselves into research, filling museums with anthropological collections obtained from exploring new lands. 

At the end of the 19th century, we finally see anthropologists taking up academic positions in colleges and universities working as professionals, promoting anthropological knowledge for its political, commercial, and humane values. 

• The Start of Present-day Anthropology

In the 19th century, anthropology came into existence as we know it today.

Danish archaeologist Christan Thomsen suggested the theory of three long technological eras, namely,  

• The Stone Age
• The Bronze Age 
• The Iron Age in 1836

It complemented the works of geologist Sir Charles Lyell, who suggested that the earth was much older than previously believed and that it has changed a lot through many gradual stages.

In his book, “On the Origin of Species”, published in 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin presented the theory of natural selection. He argued that animal and plant species advanced under various variations within the species so that the stronger and much healthier species survived. It created new species while the old ones continued to exist or died.

During the late 1800s, many anthropologists came up with new social and biological evolution models. They showed the people of the European line as biologically and culturally superior, the most influential being American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan.

Sir Edward Tylor, a renowned scholar of British anthropology, tried to describe the development of particular kinds of customs and beliefs found across many cultures. He suggested a sequence of stages for the evolution of religion, from ‘belief in spirits’ through ‘faith in multiple gods’ and ‘supremacy of the highest power’. 

The colonial nations of Europe used culturally biassed theories of evolution to justify expansion. They stated that the colonised people were ‘backwards’ and needed to be inhabited for survival. Evolutionary theory to control political and social policy was called social Darwinism. 

• New Ideas in Research and Theory 

Anthropology developed as a serious professional and scientific subject in the 1920s — the research developed in different ways in the US and Europe. 

Under the guidance of German-born American anthropologist Franz Boas, anthropology assumed its present form as a four-field academic profession in 1920-30. Boas stressed the importance of original fieldwork and first-hand experiences with the cultures. He was also against racist and ethnocentric evolutionary theories. 

Boas urged anthropologists to study in-depth about the different cultures, rather than construct evolutionary stages for all of humankind. His theoretical approach came to be known as Historical Particularism. It forms the foundation for the fundamental anthropological concept of cultural relativism.

Many other anthropologists during Boas’s time based their research on the theories of 19th-century French sociologist Emile Durkheim. He, like Sir Edwards Tylor, was interested in religions across cultures. 

But rather than focusing on the evolution of religion, Durkheim proposed that religion existed to integrate people into groups and help in the smooth functioning of society.

In the 1950s, French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss developed structuralism.  He proposed that many common cultural patterns, such as those found in rituals and languages, are rooted in the basic structures of the mind. 

Levi-Strauss wrote about the universal tendency of the human mind to sort things into opposing categories like day and night, male and female, etc., and believed such conceptual patterns became elaborated through culture.

In the 1960s, economic and ecological approaches to understanding culture and societies became known as cultural materialism. 

In the 1970s, anthropologists stopped studying ecological and economic explanations of culture and started looking for the meaning of particular cultural symbols and rituals within cultures. This approach was called symbolic anthropology. 

Branches of Anthropology 

The main branches of Anthropology have four major components. They have their own set of distinctive qualities as well as several similarities. They are:

• Biological or Physical  Anthropology

Physical anthropologists study how humans adapted and evolved through different environments. They are interested in the relationship between biology and culture and how it has shaped our lives today.

These anthropologists find causes of early deaths and diseases. They look at human evolution from animals by studying human fossils against various primates like apes and monkeys.  

• Archaeology

Archaeology is a discipline that is supposed to study the human past using the remains of their creations. They carefully dig up pottery and tools and map outhouses, trash pits, burial grounds, etc., to learn about people’s daily lives. 

Archaeologists also study human remains like teeth and bones to get an idea about the diet and diseases suffered by the people. They collect the remains of plants, animals, soil, etc., to conclude the relationship between people and their natural environment. 

• Linguistic Anthropology

Linguistic Anthropology studies how languages influence social life and culture. Linguistic anthropologists study how people incorporate language to build and share meaning, change or form identities, and make or change power relations. 

They closely document what people say in their daily social activities to understand language as a tool for social and cultural development. 

• Cultural Anthropology

Cultural anthropology, also known as social anthropology, is the learned behaviour or groups of people responding to their environment. Socio-cultural anthropologists study the living conditions of people in different places to understand the world around them. 

They want to know the thought process of people, what rules they make and how they interact with each other. They try to understand the perspective, practices, and social structure of groups different from their own, enriching human understanding on a broader level. 

Conclusion

Anthropology studies the origin and development of human societies and cultures. The main aim of anthropologists is to research and present their human subjects in a clear and unbiased way. They look at human fossils, genetic makeup, languages, as well as living conditions to have a better understanding of humankind. 

Anthropology as a discipline studies the evolution of species and preserves our history, rooting us to our culture. It has developed through time and will continue to evolve as we make discoveries.