Anthropology

==Fields==
{{Further|American anthropology}}

Anthropology is a global discipline involving humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Anthropology builds upon knowledge from [[natural science]]s, including the discoveries about the origin and evolution of ''[[Human|Homo sapiens]]'', human physical traits, [[human behavior]], the variations among different groups of humans, how the evolutionary past of ''Homo sapiens'' has influenced its social organization and culture, and from [[social science]]s, including the organization of human social and cultural relations, institutions, social conflicts, etc.<ref>[http://www.aaanet.org/about/WhatisAnthropology.cfm What is Anthropology – American Anthropological Association] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015065744/http://www.aaanet.org/about/WhatisAnthropology.cfm |date=15 October 2015 }}. Aaanet.org. Retrieved on 2 November 2016.</ref><ref>[https://www.livinganthropologically.com/introduction-to-anthropology/what-is-anthropology-2013/ What is Anthropology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210120808/https://www.livinganthropologically.com/introduction-to-anthropology/what-is-anthropology-2013/ |date=10 December 2018 }}. Living Anthropologically. Retrieved on 2017-17-01.</ref> Early anthropology originated in Classical Greece and Persia and studied and tried to understand observable cultural diversity, such as by [[Al-Biruni]] of the [[Islamic Golden Age]].<ref name=Ahmed>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ahmed | first1 = Akbar S. | year = 1984 | title = Al-Beruni: The First Anthropologist | journal = RAIN | volume = 60 | issue = 60| pages = 9–10 | doi = 10.2307/3033407 | jstor = 3033407 }}</ref><ref>''Understanding Other Religions: Al-Biruni's and Gadamer's "fusion of Horizons"''
By Kemal Ataman p. 59 {{ISBN?}}</ref> As such, anthropology has been central in the development of several new (late 20th century) interdisciplinary fields such as [[cognitive science]],<ref>{{cite journal |title=Language, Anthropology and Cognitive Science |author=Bloch, Maurice |author-link=Maurice Bloch |jstor=2803828 |year=1991 |pages=183–198 |volume=26 |issue=2 |journal=Man |doi=10.2307/2803828 }}</ref> [[global studies]], and various [[ethnic studies]].

According to [[Clifford Geertz]],

{{Blockquote|...anthropology is perhaps the last of the great nineteenth-century conglomerate disciplines still for the most part organizationally intact. Long after natural history, moral philosophy, philology, and political economy have dissolved into their specialized successors, it has remained a diffuse assemblage of ethnology, human biology, comparative linguistics, and prehistory, held together mainly by the vested interests, sunk costs, and administrative habits of academia, and by a romantic image of comprehensive scholarship.<ref>{{cite book|title=Unwrapping the Sacred Bundle|year=2005|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham and London|pages=Back Cover|editor1=Daniel A. Segal |editor2=Sylvia J. Yanagisako |isbn=978-0-8223-8684-1}}</ref>}}

[[Sociocultural anthropology]] has been heavily influenced by [[structuralism|structuralist]] and postmodern theories, as well as a shift toward the analysis of modern societies. During the 1970s and 1990s, there was an [[epistemological]] shift away from the [[positivist]] traditions that had largely informed the discipline.{{cn|date=November 2023}} During this shift, enduring questions about the nature and production of knowledge came to occupy a central place in cultural and social anthropology. In contrast, archaeology and biological anthropology remained largely positivist. Due to this difference in epistemology, the four sub-fields of anthropology have lacked cohesion over the last several decades.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

===Sociocultural===
{{main|Cultural anthropology|Social anthropology|Sociocultural anthropology}}
Sociocultural anthropology draws together the principal axes of [[cultural anthropology]] and [[social anthropology]]. Cultural anthropology is the comparative study of the manifold ways in which people ''make sense'' of the world around them, while social anthropology is the study of the ''relationships'' among individuals and groups.<ref name="Ingold1994pxv">{{cite encyclopedia | title=General Introduction | encyclopedia=Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology | author=Ingold, Tim |author-link=Tim Ingold| year=1994 | page=xv |publisher= Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-02137-1}}</ref> Cultural anthropology is more related to [[philosophy]], literature and [[the arts]] (how one's culture affects the experience for self and group, contributing to a more complete understanding of the people's knowledge, customs, and institutions), while social anthropology is more related to [[sociology]] and history.<ref name="Ingold1994pxv"/> In that, it helps develop an understanding of social structures, typically of others and other populations (such as minorities, subgroups, dissidents, etc.). There is no hard-and-fast distinction between them, and these categories overlap to a considerable degree.

Inquiry in sociocultural anthropology is guided in part by [[cultural relativism]], the attempt to understand other societies in terms of their own cultural symbols and values.<ref name="Ingold1994p331">{{cite encyclopedia | title=Introduction to culture | encyclopedia=Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology | author=Ingold, Tim |author-link=Tim Ingold | year=1994 | page=331 |isbn=978-0-415-02137-1}}</ref> Accepting other cultures in their own terms moderates reductionism in cross-cultural comparison.<ref name="Ingold1996p18">{{cite book | title=Key Debates in Anthropology | author=Tim Ingold | year=1996| page=18|quote=the traditional anthropological project of cross-cultural or cross-societal comparison| author-link=Tim Ingold }}</ref> This project is often accommodated in the field of [[ethnography]]. Ethnography can refer to both a methodology and the product of ethnographic research, i.e. an ethnographic [[monograph]]. As a methodology, ethnography is based upon long-term fieldwork within a community or other research site. [[Participant observation]] is one of the foundational methods of social and cultural anthropology.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernard |first=H. Russell |year=2002 |url=http://www.antropocaos.com.ar/Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology.pdf |title=Research Methods in Anthropology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104002847/http://www.antropocaos.com.ar/Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology.pdf |archive-date=4 November 2016 |publisher=[[Altamira Press]] |page=322 |isbn=978-0-7591-0868-4 }}</ref> [[Ethnology]] involves the systematic comparison of different cultures. The process of participant-observation can be especially helpful to understanding a culture from an [[emic]] (conceptual, vs. [[etic]], or technical) point of view.

The study of [[kinship]] and [[social organization]] is a central focus of sociocultural anthropology, as kinship is a [[human universal]]. Sociocultural anthropology also covers [[Economic anthropology|economic]] and [[Political anthropology|political organization]], law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, material culture, technology, infrastructure, gender relations, ethnicity, childrearing and socialization, religion, myth, symbols, values, etiquette, worldview, sports, music, nutrition, recreation, games, food, festivals, and language (which is also the object of study in linguistic anthropology).{{cn|date=September 2022}}

Comparison across cultures is a key element of method in sociocultural anthropology, including the industrialized (and de-industrialized) West. The [[Standard Cross-Cultural Sample]] (SCCS) includes 186 such cultures.<ref name="MurdockWhite1969">{{cite journal | title=Standard Cross-Cultural Sample | journal=Ethnology | author=George Peter Murdock | author2=Douglas R. White | year=1969 | volume=9 | pages=329–369 | url=http://repositories.cdlib.org/imbs/socdyn/wp/Standard_Cross-Cultural_Sample | author-link2=Douglas R. White | author-link=George Peter Murdock | access-date=1 June 2013 | archive-date=12 October 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012045111/http://repositories.cdlib.org/imbs/socdyn/wp/Standard_Cross-Cultural_Sample/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

===Biological===
{{main|Biological anthropology}}
[[File:Human remains.jpg|thumb|[[Forensic anthropology|Forensic anthropologists]] can help identify skeletonized human remains, such as these found lying in scrub in Western Australia, c. 1900–1910.]]

Biological anthropology and physical anthropology are synonymous terms to describe anthropological research focused on the study of humans and non-human primates in their biological, evolutionary, and demographic dimensions. It examines the biological and social factors that have affected the evolution of humans and other primates, and that generate, maintain or change contemporary genetic and physiological variation.<ref>{{cite web |work=[[University of Toronto]] |title=Research Subfields: Physical or Biological |access-date=14 March 2012 |url=http://anthropology.utoronto.ca/about/research/physical-or-biological |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422203737/http://www.anthropology.utoronto.ca/about/research/physical-or-biological |archive-date=22 April 2012}}</ref>

===Archaeological===
{{main|Archaeology}}
[[Archaeology]] is the study of the human past through its material remains. Artifacts, faunal remains, and human altered landscapes are evidence of the cultural and material lives of past societies. Archaeologists examine material remains in order to deduce patterns of past human behavior and cultural practices. Ethnoarchaeology is a type of archaeology that studies the practices and material remains of living human groups in order to gain a better understanding of the evidence left behind by past human groups, who are presumed to have lived in similar ways.<ref>Robbins, R.H. & Larkin, S.N. (2007). ''Cultural Anthropology: A problem-based approach''. Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.{{ISBN?}} </ref>
[[File:Rosetta Stone.svg|thumb|The [[Rosetta Stone]] was an example of ancient communication.]]

===Linguistic===
{{main|Linguistic anthropology}}
[[Linguistic anthropology]] (not to be confused with [[anthropological linguistics]]) seeks to understand the processes of human communications, verbal and non-verbal, variation in [[language]] across time and space, the social uses of language, and the relationship between language and culture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2150|title=What is Anthropology? – Advance Your Career|website=www.americananthro.org|language=en|access-date=25 August 2017|archive-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026173505/http://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2150|url-status=live}}</ref> It is the branch of anthropology that brings linguistic methods to bear on anthropological problems, linking the analysis of linguistic forms and processes to the interpretation of sociocultural processes. Linguistic anthropologists often draw on related fields including [[sociolinguistics]], [[pragmatics]], [[cognitive linguistics]], [[semiotics]], [[discourse analysis]], and [[narrative]] analysis.<ref>Salzmann, Zdeněk. (1993) ''Language, culture, and society: an introduction to linguistic anthropology''. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.</ref>

=== Ethnography ===
{{main|Ethnography}}

[[Ethnography]] is a method of analysing social or cultural interaction. It often involves [[participant observation]] though an ethnographer may also draw from texts written by participants of in social interactions. Ethnography views first-hand experience and social context as important.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Atkinson|first1=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T0PuxgEACAAJ|title=Handbook of Ethnography|last2=Coffey|first2=Amanda|last3=Delamont|first3=Sara|last4=Lofland|first4=Lyn|last5=Lofland|first5=John|last6=Lofland|first6=Professor Lyn H.|year=2001|publisher=Sage|isbn=978-0-7619-5824-6|language=en|page=4}}</ref>

[[Tim Ingold]] distinguishes ethnography from anthropology arguing that anthropology tries to construct general theories of human experience, applicable in general and novel settings, while ethnography concerns itself with fidelity. He argues that the anthropologist must make his writing consistent with their understanding of literature and other theory but notes that ethnography may be of use to the anthropologists and the fields inform one another.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ingold|first=Timothy|date=2008|title=Anthropology is not ethnography|url=https://abdn.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/anthropology-is-emnotem-ethnography|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|language=English|volume=154|pages=69–92|issn=0068-1202}}</ref>