ANTHROPOLOGY
INRODUCTION
Man himself is the only final measure of his own
activities. To his force and faculties all other tests are in the end referred.
All sciences and arts, all pleasures and pursuits, are assigned their
respective rank in his interest by reference to those physical powers and
mental processes which are unusually the property of his own species. Hence,
the Study of Man, pursued under the guidance of accurate observation and
experimental research, embracing all his nature and all the expression of his
activity, in the past as well as in the present, the whole co-ordinated in accordance
with the inductive methods of the natural sciences—this study must in the
future unfailingly come to be regarded as the crown and completion of all
others—and this is Anthropology.
1.1.
What is Anthropology?
The term anthropology is a combination of two wordsderived from Greek
language: anthroposand logos.The term anthropos is equivalent to the word mankind orhuman being, while logos meanstudyor science.
Soputting the two words together, anthropology is the study or science of
mankind or humanity. The following are two important, simple, definitions of
anthropology.
Anthropology is not a theoretical science. It is
essentially experimental and practical, a science of observation and operative
procedures. It cannot be learned by merely reading books and attending
lectures. The student must literally put his hand to the work.For that reason
every institution for teaching Anthropology must have a Laboratory attached to
it; and in that Laboratory the best part of the work will be done.
Anthropology is a broad scientific disciplinededicated to the
comparative study of humans asa group, from its first appearance on earth to
itspresent stage of development. In a more specific term, anthropology is
science which investigates the strategies for living that are learned and
shared by people as members of human social groups.
Subject
Matter and Scope of Anthropology
The subject matter of anthropology is very
vast. The subject covers all aspects of human ways of life and culture, as
humans live in a social group relationship.Discovering the meaning, nature,
origin, and destiny of humanity is one of the key concerns of anthropology.
According to the present stage of
scientific knowledge attained in anthropology, the term humanity or mankindis a
very difficult term to define. Anthropologists seem to be unsure whether
humanity is absolutely dichotomous with other lower forms of animals. Some may
even tendto regard humanity and non-humanity as something thatis best
understood in the form of continuum. This senseof continuum may be particularly
in terms of time scale.
Thus, the farther we go in time backwards,
the narrowerbecomes the difference between humanity and nonhumanity. It has now
become a generally accepted fact inanthropology, although no full evidences are
forthcoming, that humanity is a product of theevolutionary processes, and that
humans have evolvedfrom their closest living primates.
Anthropology is interested in some of the
followingquestions and issues about humans:
• Where did human species come from (i.e.
whatare the origins of mankind)?
• Were human beings created in the image
andlikeness of God, or were they just the products ofmillions of years of the
natural, evolutionaryprocess?
• In what ways does man differ from other
animalspecies?
• How did mankind arrive at the present
stage ofbiological, intellectual, and cultural development?
Is there a common human nature, and if so,
whatis it like?
• In what ways do humans who live in
varioustimes and places differ?
• How can we explain why cultures vary?
Such and many other related questions are theconcerns of anthropology.
Anthropologists try to know and explain
about thetechnological, economic, political and intellectual development of
humanity. They attempt to discover the extent to which different human
populations vary in theirbiological and social characteristics and to
understandwhy these differences exist.
Anthropologists are, for example,
interested to know andexplain why a pregnant woman in Gumuz goes to abush to
give birth during labour, how the Nuer practicebirth control methods and why
they put horizontal linemarks on their forehead, or why the Wolayta put acircular
body mark on their cheek while the Tigreans puta cross mark on their foreheads,
etc.
Although anthropologists investigate the
distinctivefeatures of different cultures, they also study thefundamental
similarities among people throughout theworld. They try to find outwhat factors
account for the similarities in certain beliefs, practices and institutions
that are found across cultures. They grapple with explaining why cultural
universalsexist. Are these cultural similarities results of diffusion (i.e., a certain
material cultureor non-material culturecreated in a certain society diffuses to
other societiesthrough contact, war, trade, etc)? Or are they due toindependent
creation (i.e., certain cultural items createdby two or more societies without
one copying from theother)? Anthropologists have debated taking differentsides
while attempting to answer these questions.
Its
Unique Approaches
I. Anthropology is Holistic: Studying one
aspect of theways of life of a group of people by relating it to othercomplex
related aspects of life.
II. Anthropology is Relativistic:
Anthropology tries tostudy and explain a certain belief, practice orinstitution
of a group of people in its own context. Itdoes not make value judgment, i.e.,
declaring thatthis belief or practice is good’ or ‘that is bad.’
III. Anthropology is Comparative:
Anthropology studiescertain aspects of the culture of a group of people
bycomparing it across societies and different times; i.e. the present with the
past, the modern with thetraditional, etc.
Sub-fields
of Anthropology
As indicated earlier, the interests and
subject- matter ofanthropology are wide-ranging. This broad discipline
isusually divided in four main sub-fields. These are:
Physical
anthropology,
Social
cultural anthropology,
Linguistic
anthropology
Archaeological
anthropology.
Physical
Anthropology
Physical anthropology is the branch of
anthropology most closely related to the natural sciences, particularly biology;
that is why it is often called biologicalanthropology It studies the biological
dimensions of human beings, including biological evolution, the physical
variations between contemporary populations, and the biology and behaviour of
non-human primates. Physical anthropology itself is further divided into three special
fields of study: Archaeology, primatology and anthropometry.
Archaeologyis
a subspecialty in physicalanthropology which is interested in the search for
fossilremains from prehistoric times to trace the developmentof outstanding
human physical, social and cultural characteristics. Archaeology is the study
ofhuman evolution through analysis of fossil remains. Archaeologist, use a
variety of sophisticatedtechniques to date, clarify and compare fossil bones
todetermine the links between modern humans and their biological ancestors[1]
(Despite the highly acclaimed Darwinian theory of humanorigins, that humans are
evolved from lower life forms, itmay be appropriate to state that many writers
in theevolutionary circle argue that there are limits to fossilevidences and Archaeologist
has many problemsto tackle.
Primatology: The study of the
biology and behaviour ofprimates, that is, the animals that most closely look a
lot like human beings in terms of physiological andanatomical structure, is an
important field in physicalanthropology. Primatologists observe primates such
asgorillas, chimpanzees, gibbons, and orang-utans in theirnatural habitats to
ascertain the similarities anddifferences between these other primates and
humans.
Primatological research helps us
understand whathuman beings share with other animals, what makes they part of the
natural world and their unique.
fig. a woman studying an ape
Anthropometry:
The study of human variations within and among different populations in time
and space, human ecology, population genetics, etc makes up thecentral concerns
of this sub-branch of physicalanthropology.
These physical differences may be interms
of blood types, skin colours, skull shape, facialshape, hair texture, and the
like. Anthropometry shadessome light on how differing physical characteristics
havehelped human groups adapt different geographical environments.
Socio-cultural
Anthropology
This is also often called social
anthropology or cultural anthropology. It is concerned with the social and
cultural dimensions of the living peoples and with the description and analysis
of people’s lives and traditions.
Socio-culturalanthropology studies the social,
symbolic or non-material and material lives of contemporary and historically
recent human societies, taking the concept ofculture central to its goal
Cultural anthropologists conduct studies of living peoples, most often by
visiting and living among aparticular people for an extended period of time,
usually a year or longer, They conduct fieldwork among the people they study
and describe the results of their investigations in the form of books and
articlescalled ethnographies.
Cultural anthropology is also concerned
with making generalizations about, andseeking explanations for, similarities
and differences among the world's people. Those who conduct comparative studies
to achieve these theoretical goalsare called ethnologists. Thus, two important aspects of social/cultural
anthropology are, ethnography and ethnology.
The
former is more of empirical study ordescription of the culture and ways of
lives of aparticular group of people, while the latter is more of atheoretical
study of the similarities and differencesamong the human groups of the world.
fig. cultural anthropologist conducting a
research among the people.
1.5.3.
Archaeological Anthropology
Archaeology studies the ways of lives of
past peoples byexcavating and analyzing the physical remains they leftbehind. Artefacts are the material remains of
humansocieties Archaeologists also study ecofacts,
the footprints on the ecology by thepast societies. This helps reveal the way
humansocieties interacted with their local ecosystems. Tools, ornaments,
pottery, animal bones, human skeletalmaterial, and evidence of how people lived
in the distantpast are collected, and systematically analyzed. Archaeological
anthropology has three major goals:
1. Classifying and sequencing material
culture.
2. Reconstructing ancient ways of life;
3. Explainingand delineating cultural
processes
Some branches of study in archaeology
include:
Prehistoric
archaeology: Prehistoric archaeology investigates human
prehistory; that is the periods of timein a region before the art of writing
developed. Manyanthropological archaeologists study societies that did notleave
behind any written records.[2]
Prehistoric archaeology uses material remains to reconstruct prehistoric life
ways; it also studies contemporary peoples whose styles of life are analogous
and or comparable to those ofancient peoples. For example, by studying the ways
oflife of present hunter and gatherer societies, prehistoric archaeologists can
gain insights into the ways in whichthe ancient foraging peoples lived.
Ethnoarchaeology:
This
may be regarded as an aspectof prehistoric archaeology. It is an approach
toethnographic analogy in which archaeologists make theirown observation of the
contemporary cultures ratherthan relying on information provided by cultural anthropologists.
Historical
archaeology: uses the evidence provided byexcavated
remains to enhance our understanding ofhistoric peoples; that is, peoples who
had writing andabout whom written records are available. Historical
archaeologists study sites dating from historic times.Much of the work of
historical archaeologists has been tohelp preserve historical sites
Classical
archaeology: Is
an aspect of historic archaeology; it deals primarily with the
ancientcivilizations and empires of Europe and the Middle East, including
Egypt, Greece, Roman and Persia, Axum, etc.There are several other specialized
areas of study andresearch in archaeology such as industrial archaeology,
underwater archaeology, marine archaeology, cognitive archaeology, experimental
archaeology, biblical archaeological, cultural resource management, and soon.
Linguistic
Anthropology
Linguisticsis the scientific study of
language. Linguistsdescribe and analyze the sound patterns, combinations of
sounds, meanings and structure of sentence in human languages.[3]
They also attempt to determine how two or more languages are related.
Historically; modern linguists are especially interested in whether all human
languages share any universal common feature.
Some recent work suggests thathuman
infants are born with knowledge of a set ofgeneralized rules that allow them to
discover the specificrules of language around them and to formulate
newsentences by applying these rules.
The terms linguistic anthropology, and ethno
linguistics are often used interchangeably in the linguistic anthropology
literature.However, the more preferred term is linguisticanthropology. It is
defined as “the study of speech andlanguage within the context of
anthropology…. It is thestudy of language as a cultural resource and speakingas
a cultural practice.”Linguistic anthropology usually focuses on unwrittenlanguages (i.e., those
languages which have no form ofwriting, languages used by indigenous peoples of
thenon-western societies). It is especially concerned withrelations between
language and other aspects of human behaviour and thought. Linguistic
anthropologists mightdescribe and analyze a language so far unknown
tolinguistic science. The branch of linguistic anthropology, called
Sociolinguistics:
is interested in how the language is used in various social contexts.
Forexample, what speech style must one use with people ofhigher social
standing? How does a local political leaderuse language to earn people's
allegiance?
Historical
linguistics: focuses on the comparison and
classifications of different languages to discern the historical links between
them. This historical linguistic research isparticularly useful in tracing the
migration routes ofvarious societies through time.
Structural
linguistics, studies the structure of linguistic
patterns. Structural linguists compare grammatical patterns and other
linguistic elements to find out how contemporary languages aresimilar to and
different from one another.
Applied
anthropology, the application ofanthropological
knowledge, methods and approaches tothe solving of human problems, is often now
seen as afifth major branch of anthropology, although it is notwell-established
as the traditionally known four fields.
Applied anthropology involves the use of
data gatheredin other subfields of anthropology in an endeavour totackle
contemporary societal problems. Anthropologistshave increasingly become
concerned with practically dealing with human problems.
The problems may include: environmental, technological, economic,
social, political or cultural. Applied anthropologist now work in quite many
areas of relevance such as education, mass medical, medicine, development,
business, agriculture, crime and urban poverty, etc
Differences between Anthropology and Other
Disciplines
Anthropology differs from other social
sciences and the humanities by its broad scope, approach, unit of analysis and
methods used. It studies mankind in its entirety. In its approach, anthropology
studies and analyzes human ways of life holistically, comparatively and
relativistically. Its unit of analysis is small-scale society. That is, it is
interested in a group of people with more or less simple, homogenous ways of
life. In its method of research, it is unique in that extended fieldwork among
the studied community and developing intimate knowledge of the life worlds of
the community with participant observation.
Conclusion
From the foregoing, we can say that anthropology is a
broad scientific discipline, which was born lately in the 19th century, with
the major aim of scientific study and documentation of the physical,
socio-cultural and other diversities among people, past and present. It
specially studies simple, small-scale societies in the non-western world. Its
holistic, comparative and relativistic approaches, its unit of analysis and
method of study along with its broad scope make it unique. However, it shares
many things with the other sciences. The science of anthropology has many
theoretical and practical importance and contributions.
The
four main branches of anthropology are physical anthropology, socio cultural
anthropology, linguistic anthropology and archaeological anthropology. Applied
anthropology is sometimes regarded as a fifth sub-filed. Each of the major
branches of anthropology has several specialized areas of study within it.
Anthropology as a science has as its major goal the making, accumulation and
dissemination of scientific knowledge on society and culture.
BIBLOGRAPHY
Anthropology
and Ethnology. 4to, pp. 184. In Vol. I of the IconographicEncyclopædia
(Philadelphia, 1886).
Prehistoric
Archæology. 4to, pp. 116. Vol. II of the Iconographic. Encyclopædia (Philadelphia,
1886).
Races
and Peoples; Lectures on the Science of Ethnography.8vo, pp. 313 (N. D. C.
Hodges, New York, 1890).
The
American Race; a Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the
Native Tribes of North and South America.8vo, pp. 392 (N. D. C. Hodges, New
York, 1891).
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