 Anthropology is the study of humankind in all
times and places.
 Focuses on the interconnectedness and
interdependence of all aspects of the human experience
in all places, in the present and deep into the past.
 Anthropologists use the “holistic perspective,” which
asks anthropologists to look at the “whole picture” to see
all of these interconnections.
Physical Anthropology Focuses on humans as biological organisms;
 Deals with a much greater time span than other branches of
anthropology.
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Paleoanthropology
Human Growth, Adaptation, and Variation
Primatology
Forensic Anthropology
Archaeology Focuses on details of material and environmental remains in order to
reconstruct a cultural story.
Linguistic Anthropology Study human language to determine the past and present, and the
relation between language and culture.
Cultural Anthropology Study of customary patterns of behavior, thought, and feelings as
humans are culture producing and culture re-producing beings.
 Ethnography
 Ethnology
 Paleoanthropology- study of human evolution; how,
when, and why we became the kind of organisms we
are today.
 Takes a biocultural approach– focuses on interaction of
biology and culture
 Human adaptation:
 Environmental Extremes
 Developmental Adaptations
 Ex: Why eyebrows?
 Physiological Adaptations
 Ex: Changes in responses when moving into high altitude.
 Primatology- study of living and fossil primates
 Studying the anatomy and behavior of primates helps us
understand what we share with our closest living
relatives and what makes us unique.
Asian and African Apes
Lemurs
Lorises
Monkeys
Tarsiers
 Forensic Anthropology- the identification of human
skeletal remains for legal purposes.
 Called upon by law enforcement authorities to identify
murder victims
 Investigate human rights abuses like genocide,
terrorism, and war crimes
 Use details of skeleton to determine age, sex, stature,
race, right/left-handed, children, etc.
 Studies human cultures through the recovery and
analysis of remains
 I.e. tools, pottery, cultural remains, fossils, etc.
 What people say they do versus what they actually do.
 Contemporary-prehistoric findings; prior to written
history, creating our own story.
INDIANA JONES AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Myths of Indiana Jones
 These things are not (always) hidden in pyramids with
traps
 They take many long days to uncover
 Artifacts need delicate care and proper tools
 Treasure? Nah. Not the kind we all think it is.
 Most distinctive feature of the human species
 No other creature has established such a complex
system of symbols, gestures, sounds, and words quite
like us.
 Work out relationships among languages
 History- where and how the speakers of ancestral
languages originated
 Helped revive surpressed minority languages
 Helped create written form of oral languages
 Cultural slang
 What aspects of language are universal in every
language?
 What are the first things you learn when learning a new
language?
Hunter-Gathering Societies vs. Americans
 Study of customary patterns of behavior, thought,
and feelings as humans are culture producing and
culture re-producing beings.
 Culture- Conscious and unconscious standards by which
societies operate  socially learned
 Has two main components:
Ethnography
2. Ethnology
1.
 Ethnography Uses participant observation (submerging themselves in
a culture in order to gain information)
 Example: By living with war-like people, an ethnographer
should be able to understand how warfare fits into the
overall cultural framework.
 Discovers how all aspects of culture relate to one
another in order to truly understand a society’s cultural
system.
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Social
Political
Economic
Religious
 What is Ace trying to uncover?
 Why go live with the culture?
Guano
 Ethnology Uses the raw data from ethnography in order to make
comparisons and connections across cultures.
 Helps explain differences and similarities among separate
groups.
 Helps determine the function and operation of cultural
practices in all times and places.
Anthropologists Working Together
 What three fields of Anthropology are used in
this clip?
 In groups of 4 or 5, work collaboratively to create a
movie poster for one of the fields of Anthropology.
 Your movie poster must have the following:
A captivating image that is either literal or
metaphorical explaining the duties/importance of the
field.
2. A slogan or phrase that cleverly describes the field.
1.
*** Added Bonus: ***
Use a pre-existing movie/TV show
to alter and mold into a field of Anthropology.