Anthropology

===Commonalities between fields===
Because anthropology developed from so many different enterprises (see [[History of anthropology]]), including but not limited to [[Fossil collecting|fossil-hunting]], [[Exploration|exploring]], documentary film-making, [[paleontology]], [[primatology]], antiquity dealings and curatorship, [[philology]], [[etymology]], [[genetics]], regional analysis, [[ethnology]], history, [[philosophy]], and [[religious studies]],<ref>Erickson, Paul A. and Liam D. Murphy (2003). ''A History of Anthropological Theory''. Broadview Press. pp.&nbsp;11–12. {{ISBN|1-4426-0110-8}}.</ref><ref>Stocking, George (1992) "Paradigmatic Traditions in the History of Anthropology", pp. 342–361 in George Stocking, ''The Ethnographer's Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. {{ISBN|0-299-13414-8}}.</ref> it is difficult to characterize the entire field in a brief article, although attempts to write histories of the entire field have been made.<ref>Leaf, Murray (1979). ''Man, Mind and Science: A History of Anthropology.'' Columbia University Press.</ref>

Some authors argue that anthropology originated and developed as the study of "other cultures", both in terms of time (past societies) and space (non-European/non-Western societies).<ref>See the many essays relating to this in Prem Poddar and David Johnson, Historical Companion to Postcolonial Thought in English, Edinburgh University Press, 2004. See also Prem Poddar et al., Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures&nbsp;– Continental Europe and its Empires, Edinburgh University Press, 2008</ref> For example, the classic of [[urban anthropology]], [[Ulf Hannerz]] in the introduction to his seminal ''Exploring the City: Inquiries Toward an Urban Anthropology'' mentions that the "[[Third World]]" had habitually received most of attention; anthropologists who traditionally specialized in "other cultures" looked for them far away and started to look "across the tracks" only in late 1960s.<ref name=Hannerz>[[Ulf Hannerz|Hannerz, Ulf]] (1980) ''Exploring the City: Inquiries Toward an Urban Anthropology'', {{ISBN|0-231-08376-9}}, p. 1. Columbia University Press.</ref>

Now there exist many works focusing on peoples and topics very close to the author's "home".<ref name="Lewis">Lewis, Herbert S. (1998) ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/682051 The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and its Consequences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403010337/http://www.jstor.org/stable/682051 |date=3 April 2017 }}'' ''[[American Anthropologist]]'' "100:" 716–731</ref> It is also argued that other fields of study, like History and [[Sociology]], on the contrary focus disproportionately on the West.<ref>[[Jack Goody|Goody, Jack]] (2007) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jo1UVi48KywC The Theft of History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319071011/http://books.google.com/books?id=jo1UVi48KywC |date=19 March 2015 }}''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-87069-0}}</ref>

In France, the study of Western societies has been traditionally left to [[sociologist]]s, but this is increasingly changing,<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Abélès | first1 = Marc | title = How the Anthropology of France Has Changed Anthropology in France: Assessing New Directions in the Field |journal = [[Cultural Anthropology (journal)|Cultural Anthropology]] | volume = 1999 | page = 407 | jstor = 08867356 }}</ref> starting in the 1970s from scholars like Isac Chiva and journals like ''[[Terrain (journal)|Terrain]]'' ("fieldwork") and developing with the center founded by [[Marc Augé]] (''[[École des hautes études en sciences sociales|Le Centre d'anthropologie des mondes contemporains]]'', the Anthropological Research Center of Contemporary Societies).

Since the 1980s it has become common for social and cultural anthropologists to set ethnographic research in the North Atlantic region, frequently examining the connections between locations rather than limiting research to a single locale. There has also been a related shift toward broadening the focus beyond the daily life of ordinary people; increasingly, research is set in settings such as scientific laboratories, social movements, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and businesses.<ref>Fischer, Michael M. J. (2003) ''Emergent Forms of Life and the Anthropological Voice''. Duke University Press.</ref>