Introduction
ANTHROPOLOGY:
A DISCIPLINE OF INFINITE
CURIOSITY ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS
THE DISCIPLINE
• THE SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
• THE HOLISTIC APPROACH
• ANTHROPOLOGY & SCIENCE
• THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL
CURIOSITY
A sample of Questions that
Anthropology ponders:
• Why can human beings throw baseballs?
• Why do we stand up on two fragile limbs when so
many other animals sensibly move about on all four?
• Why are we relatively hairless (and, thus, get
sunburn)?
• Why do we speak, form societies, fight wars?
• Why do we think about our own impending deaths?
• How long have human beings been around?
• When did people first start farming, or forming
states?
“First Contact”
• What types of questions would you ask?
• How would you respond to these people?
• What types of things would you look for
while observing these people?
• The anthropologist may also experience
"culture shock”
– a psychological reaction that ranges from
mild to severe when we experience a
different culture
SPECIFIC FIELDS OF STUDY
– PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• ONE MAJOR FIELD
– CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• ARCHAEOLOGY
• LINGUISTICS
• ETHNOLOGY
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY or
PALEOANTHROPOLOGY
HUMAN VARIATION
HUMAN GENETICS
POPULATION BIOLOGY
EPIDEMIOLOGY
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ARCHAEOLOGY
PREHISTORY
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
LINGUISTICS
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
ETHNOLOGY
ETHNOGRAPHY
ETHNOLOGY
• ETHNOGRAPHER
• ETHNOHISTORIAN
• CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCHER
METHODS
• WITHIN-CULTURE
COMPARISONS
• NONHISTORICAL CONTROLLED
COMPARISON
• CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH
• HISTORICAL RESEARCH
APPLIED
ANTHROPOLOGY
• ALL FOUR SUBDISCIPLINES
REPRESENTED
– Utilize anthropological knowledge to
achieve practical goals
• EXAMPLES
– Museum work
– Forensics
– Bilingual education
– Community development
THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
• provides orderly and supported explanations
• a logical system used to evaluate data that are
obtained by systematic observation
• science theories are falsifiable
– scientific explanations are testable, tentative, and
subject to change
• The scientific method rests on the faith that
the universe possesses order and this order
can be discerned and interpreted
THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD (cont.)
• Two ways of generating testable
propositions or what are called
hypotheses:
– inductive method
• begins with specific observations from which you
then draw conclusions or make generalizations
– deductive method
• begins with a generalization or theory and from
it you predict specific observations, actions, or
applications
SUMMARY
• Eric Wolf has called anthropology "the
most scientific of the humanities and
the most humanist of the sciences."