Anthropology, Tenth Edition
William Haviland,
University of Vermont
Part 1,
The Study Of Humankind
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Chapter 1
The Nature of Anthropology
Chapter 2
Methods of Studying the Human Past
Chapter 3
Biology and Evolution
Chapter 1
The Nature of Anthropology
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What is anthropology?
What do anthropologists do?
How do anthropologists do what they do?
What Is Anthropology?
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The study of humankind everywhere,
throughout time.
Seeks knowledge about what makes people
different and about what they all have in
common.
What Do Anthropologists Do?
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Study humans as biological organisms.
Trace the evolutionary development
of humans.
Investigate biological variation past and
present.
How Do Anthropologists Work?
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Formulate and test hypotheses to develop
reliable theories supported by data.
Anthropologists do fieldwork to become familiar
with situations so they can recognize patterns
in the data.
Through fieldwork, anthropologists test existing
hypotheses and explain what is going on.
The Development Of Anthropology
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Anthropology as a distinct field is a relatively
recent product of Western civilization.
When Europeans sought to extend their trade
and political domination they encountered
unknown peoples
They began to study human differences and
how to learn about themselves through people
of other cultures.
Four Fields of Anthropology
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Physical Anthropology
Three branches of cultural anthropology
– Archaeology
– Linguistic Anthropology
– Ethnology
Physical Anthropology
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Also called biological anthropology.
Focuses on humans as biological organisms,
evolution, and human variation.
Analyze fossils and observe living primates to
reconstruct the ancestry of the human species.
Cultural Anthropology
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Culture is the unconscious standards by which
societies operate.
Cultural anthropologists study the whole of
humanity in all times and places.
Archaeology
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Studies material remains in order to describe
and explain human behavior.
Study tools, pottery, and other features such as
hearths and enclosures that remain as the
testimony of earlier cultures.
Linguistic Anthropology
Studies human languages:
 Description of a language - the way a sentence
is formed or a verb conjugated.
 History of languages - the way languages
develop and change over time.
 The study of language in its social setting.
Ethnology
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Also called sociocultural anthropology.
Concentrates human ideas and practices as
they can be seen and experienced.
When possible, the ethnologist becomes
ethnographer by living among the people under
study.
Difficulties Using the Scientific
Approach with Anthropology
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Objectivity: It is difficult for someone who grew
up in one culture to frame objective hypotheses
about other cultures.
Validity:The reliability or completeness of the
ethnographer’s account is not easily validated.
Questions Of Ethics
Anthropologists have obligations to:
 Those whom they study.
 Those who fund the research.
 Those in the profession who expect a study to
be published so they can further the research
in the field.