Scope of Anthropology

Anthropology is a field of social science that conducts a scientific study of human behaviour, human biology, culture, societies, and linguistics in both past and present, including previous human species. Anthropology is further divided into four subdisciplines: Social anthropology, linguistic anthropology, Cultural anthropology, and physical/biological anthropology.

Social anthropology studies the behaviour of humans; cultural anthropology focuses on the cultural aspects of human evolution; linguistic anthropology studies how languages are formed and what are its influences in our life; biological anthropology studies and biological development of humans.

Scope of Anthropology

The scope of anthropology is universal because it tries to understand how humans evolve biologically, physically, and socially. It combines all these aspects and tries to understand how humans evolved to what they are today. 

Anthropology examines humans as organisms and tries to explain their origin And how various other factors contributed to their evolution. It tries to understand how cultures came into existence and civilisations were formed and destroyed, how languages were created or how gender roles were defined during history.

It tries to understand what humans do and why they do it. Every aspect of human existence on earth and its species before that is included in the study of anthropology.

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There are four subdisciplines in anthropology

Social Anthropology

It studies the different ways in which people behave in different social and cultural settings across the globe throughout the history of humanity. Societies worldwide behave differently in various civilisations, how they organise themselves, their cultural practices, their religions, or their political arrangements. 

Social anthropologists study all these variations in their complexity to contribute to a broader understanding of humankind and its diversity.

Cultural Anthropology 

As the name suggests, cultural anthropology focuses on studying cultures and people’s beliefs, practices, and social organisations of human groups.

Cultural anthropologists try to understand how people control systems to organise and change the physical and social world around them and then adapt to those ideas, behaviours, and other factors.

The most crucial part of cultural Anthropology is the concept of culture itself. The meaning of the word culture depends on the person you ask; everyone has a different iteration for it, but all we have in common is that culture is the way of life for society. 

It includes what language they speak, what kind of food they eat, their dressing manners, rituals, what sortarchaeological of arts they like, and many other things.

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Linguistic Anthropology

Linguistic anthropology tries to understand how languages influence social life. The study of linguistic anthropology started with the motive to document endangered languages and slowly, over time, has broadened its scope to understand various other aspects of language.

It studies how language affects the social lives of individuals and communities and its role in communication. Language plays a vital role in shaping ideologies, forming civilizations, and creating social identity.

Unlike linguists, linguistic anthropologists Do not study just the language but also the culture and social structures.

For example, people in Kerala speak Malayalam, which makes them unique. The people of karela may speak other languages from different parts of the world, But this unique language gives them their cultural identity.

Biological Anthropology 

Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline that studies human beings’ biological and behavioural attributes and their other extinct hominin ancestors and related non-human primates to understand evolution.

It is a study that involves both social science and biological science. The two primary concepts That biological anthropologists work on are human evolution and human biosocial variation; there are many other concepts involved, but biological anthropology tends to revolve around these two concepts.

We use different types of archaeological techniques to uncover the skeletal remains of humans or other closely related primates from the past. We try to understand how our ancestors gathered food and how different parts of the world had diseases exclusive to that geographical location. It also explains how our ancestors survived in harsh climates like the Eskimos in the Arctic or the native tribes of Africa.

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Some of the other essential disciplines of anthropology are:

Archaeological Anthropology

Archaeological anthropology studies historical cultures and past human beings through material remains obtained by excavation. It involves analysing and interpreting artefacts, soils, and cultural processes.

The primary focus of archaeological anthropology is to understand humans and culture long before the written history. Archaeology has become a very crucial part of anthropology. Without archeological evidence and materials, it wouldn’t be possible for physical anthropologists to determine the nature of human beings before recorded history.

Ethnography 

It is a discipline of anthropology that involves the study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject. Social research examines participants’ behaviour in a particular social situation. It usually involves fieldwork which comprises observation of a subject and interviews, then studying the written account of a person.

A student of ethnography believes that their research process is different from other academic disciplines; it is participant observation. They observe their subject by involving in their rituals to get a better insight, hold formal or informal interviews, create focus groups, or use audio/visual recording. Fieldwork is considered of utmost importance in the field of Ethnography.

Conclusion

Through this study material on the scope of anthropology, we gain knowledge about anthropology and its different types. It also helps us understand that anthropology is a study of how human beings evolved and how different cultures and societies came into existence. It tells us how languages were formed, and you have forgotten how humans have evolved from primates to such an advanced species that has travelled to the moon.