Anthropology is the study of people throughout the world, their evolutionary history, how they behave, adapt to different environments, communicate and socialise with one another. The study of anthropology is concerned both with the biological features that make us human (such as physiology, genetic makeup, nutritional history and evolution) and with social aspects (such as language, culture, politics, family and religion). Whether studying a religious community in London, or human evolutionary fossils in the UAE, anthropologists are concerned with many aspects of people’s lives: the everyday practices as well as the more dramatic rituals, ceremonies and processes which define us as human beings. A few common questions posed by anthropology are: how are societies different and how are they the same? how has evolution shaped how we think? what is culture? are there human universals? By taking the time to study peoples’ lives in detail, anthropologists explore what makes us uniquely human. In doing so, anthropology aim to increase our understanding of ourselves and of each other.
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Main Branches of Anthropology
According to the subject of study, there are four divisions among the main branches are …
- Socio culture
- Physical
- Archaeological
- Linguistic
Psychological and applied anthropology is also part of the main branches of anthropology that used to be studied in modern anthropology sections.
Socio Culture
This is one of the most prominent branches of anthropology. Sociocultural anthropology is an aspect where social culture, communities, observation, and daily activities have been studied and researched to develop an idea on interaction with community members.
This collaborative approach is rooted in the concentration of people rather than providing analysis from a distance. It has sources of internal resources to gather information rather than external sources. Sociocultural anthropologists focused on employing a different field of research by implicating different methods in the humanities and other branches of social science and humanities.
Physical
Physical anthropology is also known as biological anthropology. It is an amalgamation of different academic factors like biological or social studies. There are two main concepts of this study. First, biosocial variation of human and human evolution is the two paths of physical anthropology. This is a vast area of study and one of the most exciting branches of anthropology that have been chiefly researched. It helps gather information on a tremendous amount of knowledge about past generations in the world.
Though, relatively it is one of the recently developed branches that have created a focus factor on anthropological studies and branches.
Archaeological
Archaeological anthropology is a branch that focuses on racing the evolution of culture and development over centuries. This branch has reconstructed the events from the past by employing different technologies and historical details back from many tears. In addition, it has tried to render the concept of geological process that is imprinted as the evaluation of human civilization.
Archaeological evidence has been collected through abundant deposition, mainly in excavation sites. Therefore, the primary method of gathering information in this study is by excavating to discover artefacts on the cultural history of our past.
Linguistic
It is an essential branch of anthropology, and it is a study of the evaluation of language. For several years it has grown in scope and incorporated different aspects of language. This is a study about how language primarily influenced communication exchange affects cultural beliefs, social identity, and ideologies. It also represents the building of a shared cultural representation of natural and social worlds and how it becomes essential in growing interconnectedness.
