Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/, from Greek: ἄνθρωπος, anthropos, "human being"; and λόγος, logos, "reason" or "speech," lit. grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion to talk about human beings) is the study of humanity. Homo is the Genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of The humanities are academic disciplines which study the Human condition, using methods that are primarily Analytic, Critical, or Speculative The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies ^[1] Ethnography is both one of its primary methods and the text that is written as a result of the practice of anthropology and its elements. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive

Since the work of Franz Boas and Bronisław Malinowski in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social anthropology has been distinguished from other social science disciplines by its emphasis on in-depth examination of context, cross-cultural comparisons (socio-cultural anthropology is by nature a comparative discipline), and the importance it places on long-term, experiential immersion in the area of research, often known as participant-observation. Franz Boas ( July 9, 1858 &ndash December 21, 1942) was a German - American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. Cross-cultural comparisons take several forms One is comparison of case studies another is controlled comparison among variants of a common derivation and a third is comparison within a sample Participant observation is a set of Research strategies which aim to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious occupational Cultural anthropology in particular has emphasized cultural relativity and the use of findings to frame cultural critiques. Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual Human 's Beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own Culture. This has been particularly prominent in the United States, from Boas's arguments against 19th-century racial ideology, through Margaret Mead's advocacy for gender equality and sexual liberation, to current criticisms of post-colonial oppression and promotion of multiculturalism. Margaret Mead ( December 16, 1901, Philadelphia &ndash November 15, 1978, New York City) was an American Postcolonialism ( postcolonial theory, post-colonial theory) is an intellectual discourse that holds together a set of theories found among the texts and The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified

Contents 1 Historical and institutional context 2 Anthropology by country 2.1 Anthropology in Britain 2.2 Anthropology in the United States 2.2.1 1800s to 1940s 2.2.2 Boasian anthropology 2.3 Anthropology in Canada 2.4 Anthropology in France 2.5 Other countries 3 Anthropology after World War II: Increasing dialogue in Anglophone anthropology 4 Approaches to anthropology 4.1 The "four field" approach 5 Controversies about the history of anthropology 5.1 Anthropology and the military 6 Major discussions about anthropology 6.1 Focus on "other cultures" 7 References 8 Bibliography 8.1 Fieldnotes and memoirs of anthropologists 8.2 History of anthropology 8.3 Textbooks and key theoretical works 9 See also 10 External links 10.1 Organizations 10.2 Resources 10.3 Texts and tutorials

Historical and institutional context

Main article: History of anthropology

The anthropologist Eric Wolf once described anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the sciences. This article appears to require substantial work to meet Wikipedia's standards Eric R Wolf ( February 1, 1923 &ndash March 6, 1999) was an Anthropologist, best known for his studies of Peasants, Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding " Contemporary anthropologists claim a number of earlier thinkers as their forebears, and the discipline has several sources; Claude Lévi-Strauss, for example, claimed Montaigne and Rousseau as important influences. Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers

Ancient and medieval writers and scholars may be considered forerunners of anthropology, insofar as they conducted or wrote detailed studies of the customs of different peoples, including the Greek writer Herodotus, often called the "father of history" and the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote many of our only surviving contemporary accounts of several ancient Celtic and Germanic peoples. A candidate for one of the first scholars to carry out comparative ethnographic-type studies in person was the medieval Persian scholar Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century, who wrote about the peoples, customs, and religions of the Indian subcontinent,^[2] and wrote detailed comparative studies on the religions and cultures in the Middle East, Mediterranean and South Asia. layout and formatting it should ensure no clashes with the top of the infobox This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia For geopolitical treatments see South Asia. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. The Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. ^[3][4] None of these scholars' activities, however, led to the establishment of a sustained tradition of comparative study of customs, beliefs, and the ways that human behavior and experience are shaped by participation in a particular group of people with a shared history.

Most scholars consider modern anthropology as an outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment, a period when Europeans attempted systematically to study human behavior, the known varieties of which had been increasing since the 15th century as a result of the first European colonization wave. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century The first European colonization wave took place from the early 15th century until the early 19th century and primarily involved the European colonization of the Americas, though The traditions of jurisprudence, history, philology, and sociology then evolved into something more closely resembling the modern views of these disciplines and informed the development of the social sciences, of which anthropology was a part. Jurisprudence is the Theory and Philosophy of Law. Scholars of jurisprudence or legal philosophers hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies Developments in systematic study of ancient civilizations through the disciplines of Classics and Egyptology informed both archaeology and eventually social anthropology, as did the study of East and South Asian languages and cultures. "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek grc -λογία -logia. علم المصريات مصر شناسی is a major field of Archaeology At the same time, the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment produced thinkers, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and later Wilhelm Dilthey, whose work formed the basis for the "culture concept," which is central to the discipline. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Johann Gottfried von Herder ( August 25, 1744 December 18, 1803) was a German philosopher, Poet, and Literary Wilhelm Dilthey (ˈdɪltaɪ November 19, 1833 &ndash October 1, 1911) was a German Historian, Psychologist

Institutionally, anthropology emerged from the development of natural history (expounded by authors such as Buffon) that occurred during the European colonization of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Cyclopaedia or A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences ( folio, 2 vols Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods Georges-Louis Leclerc fr Comte de Buffon ( September 7, 1707 April 16, 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician biologist Programs of ethnographic study originated in this era as the study of the "human primitives" overseen by colonial administrations. There was a tendency in late 18th century Enlightenment thought to understand human society as natural phenomena that behaved in accordance with certain principles and that could be observed empirically. In some ways, studying the language, culture, physiology, and artifacts of European colonies was not unlike studying the flora and fauna of those places.

Early anthropology was divided between proponents of unilinealism, who argued that all societies passed through a single evolutionary process, from the most primitive to the most advanced, and various forms of non-lineal theorists, who tended to subscribe to ideas such as diffusionism. Unilineal evolution (also referred to as classical social evolution) is a 19th century Social theory about the Evolution of societies and Cultures Cultural diffusion, as first conceptualized by Alfred L Kroeber in his influential 1940 paper Stimulus Diffusion, or trans-cultural diffusion in later reformulations ^[5] Most 19th-century social theorists, including anthropologists, viewed non-European societies as windows onto the pre-industrial human past. As academic disciplines began to differentiate over the course of the 19th century, anthropology grew increasingly distinct from the biological approach of natural history, on the one hand, and from purely historical or literary fields such as Classics, on the other. A common criticism has been that many social science scholars (such as economists, sociologists, and psychologists) in Western countries focus disproportionately on Western subjects, while anthropology focuses disproportionately on the "Other"^[6]; this has changed over the last part of the 20th century as anthropologists increasingly also study Western subjects, particularly variation across class, region, or ethnicity within Western societies, and other social scientists increasingly take a global view of their fields.

In the twentieth century, academic disciplines have often been institutionally divided into three broad domains. The natural and biological sciences seek to derive general laws through reproducible and verifiable experiments. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding The humanities generally study local traditions, through their history, literature, music, and arts, with an emphasis on understanding particular individuals, events, or eras. The humanities are academic disciplines which study the Human condition, using methods that are primarily Analytic, Critical, or Speculative History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual The social sciences have generally attempted to develop scientific methods to understand social phenomena in a generalizable way, though usually with methods distinct from those of the natural sciences. The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies In particular, social sciences often develop statistical descriptions rather than the general laws derived in physics or chemistry, or they may explain individual cases through more general principles, as in many fields of psychology. Anthropology (like some fields of history) does not easily fit into one of these categories, and different branches of anthropology draw on one or more of these domains. ^[7]

Anthropology as it emerged among the colonial powers (mentioned above) has generally taken a different path than that in the countries of southern and central Europe (Italy, Greece, and the successors to the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires). Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish In the former, the encounter with multiple, distinct cultures, often very different in organization and language from those of Europe, has led to a continuing emphasis on cross-cultural comparison and a receptiveness to certain kinds of cultural relativism. Cross-cultural comparisons take several forms One is comparison of case studies another is controlled comparison among variants of a common derivation and a third is comparison within a sample ^[8] In the successor states of continental Europe, on the other hand, anthropologists often joined with folklorists and linguists in the nationalist/nation-building enterprise. Ethnologists in these countries tended to focus on differentiating among local ethnolinguistic groups, documenting local folk culture, and representing the prehistory of the nation through museums and other forms of public education. ^[9] In this scheme, Russia occupied a middle position. On the one hand, it had a large Asian region of highly distinct, pre-industrial, often non-literate peoples, similar to the situation in the Americas; on the other hand, Russia also participated to some degree in the nationalist discourses of Central and Eastern Europe. After the Revolution of 1917, anthropology in the USSR and later the Soviet Bloc countries were highly shaped by the need to conform to Marxist theories of social evolution. ^[10]

Anthropology by country

Anthropology in Britain

E. B. Tylor ( 2 October 1832 – 2 January 1917) and James George Frazer ( 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) are generally considered the antecedents to modern social anthropology in Britain. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor ( October 2 1832 &ndash January 2 1917) was an English Anthropologist. Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1854 ( MDCCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year Events 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups Though Tylor undertook a field trip to Mexico, both he and Frazer derived most of the material for their comparative studies through extensive reading not fieldwork: Classics (literature and history of Greece and Rome), the work of the early European folklorists, and reports from missionaries, travelers, and contemporaneous ethnologists. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Tylor advocated strongly for unilinealism and a form of "uniformity of mankind". ^[11] Tylor in particular laid the groundwork for theories of cultural diffusionism, stating that there are three ways that different groups can have similar cultural forms or technologies: "independent invention, inheritance from ancestors in a distant region, transmission from one race [sic] to another. "^[12] Tylor formulated one of the early and influential anthropological conceptions of culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic "^[13] However, as Stocking notes, Tylor mainly concerned himself with describing and mapping the distribution of particular elements of culture, rather than with the larger function, and generally seemed to assume a Victorian idea of progress rather than the idea of non-directional, multilineal cultural development proposed by later anthropologists. Tylor also theorized about the origins of religious feelings in human beings, proposing a theory of animism as the earliest stage, and noting that "religion" has many components, of which he believed the most important to be belief in supernatural beings (as opposed to moral systems, cosmology, etc. Animism (from Latin anima ( Soul, Life) commonly refers to a religious belief that Souls or Spirits exist in Animals ). Frazer, a Scottish scholar with a broad knowledge of Classics, also concerned himself with religion, myth, and magic. His comparative studies, most influentially in the numerous editions of The Golden Bough, analyzed similarities in religious belief and symbolism worldwide. The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging comparative study of Mythology and Religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir

Neither Tylor nor Frazer, however, were particularly interested in fieldwork, nor were they interested in examining how the cultural elements and institutions fit together. This article is about the scientific method For the military term see Field fortifications under Fortification. Toward the turn of the twentieth century, a number of anthropologists became dissatisfied with this categorization of cultural elements; historical reconstructions also came to seem increasingly speculative. Under the influence of several younger scholars, a new approach came to predominate among British anthropologists, concerned with analyzing how societies held together in the present (synchronic analysis, rather than diachronic or historical analysis), and emphasizing long-term (one to several years) immersion fieldwork. Cambridge University financed a multidisciplinary expedition to the Torres Strait Islands in 1898, organized by Alfred Court Haddon and including a physician-anthropologist, W. H. R. Rivers, as well as a linguist, a botanist, other specialists. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small Islands which lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape William Halse Rivers Rivers, FRCP, FRS, ( -) was an English Anthropologist, Neurologist, The findings of the expedition set new standards for ethnographic description.

A decade and a half later, Polish-born anthropology student Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942) was beginning what he expected to be a brief period of fieldwork in the old model, collecting lists of cultural items, when the outbreak of the First World War stranded him in New Guinea. For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. This article is about the scientific method For the military term see Field fortifications under Fortification. New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the world's second largest island, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known As a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire resident on a British colonial possession, he was effectively confined to New Guinea for several years. ^[14] He made use of the time by undertaking far more intensive fieldwork than had been done by British anthropologists, and his classic ethnography, [[Argonauts of the Western Pacific]] (1922) advocated an approach to fieldwork that became standard in the field: getting "the native's point of view" through participant observation. This article is about the scientific method For the military term see Field fortifications under Fortification. Participant observation is a set of Research strategies which aim to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious occupational Theoretically, he advocated a functionalist interpretation, which examined how social institutions functioned to meet individual needs. In the Social sciences, specifically Sociology and Sociocultural anthropology, functionalism (also called functional analysis) is a Sociological

British social anthropology had an expansive moment in the Interwar period, with key contributors as Bronisław Malinowski and Meyer Fortes^[15]

A. R. Radcliffe-Brown also published a seminal work in 1922. For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. Meyer Fortes (1906-1983 was a South African -born Anthropologist, best known for his work among the Tallensi and Ashanti in Ghana Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (born 17 January 1881 in Birmingham - died 24 October 1955 in London) was an English He had carried out his initial fieldwork in the Andaman Islands in the old style of historical reconstruction. The Andaman Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. However, after reading the work of French sociologists Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, Radcliffe-Brown published an account of his research (entitled simply The Andaman Islanders) that paid close attention to the meaning and purpose of rituals and myths. Émile Durkheim ( April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French Sociologist whose contributions were instrumental Marcel Mauss ( May 10, 1872 &ndash February 10, 1950) was a French Sociologist. Over time, he developed an approach known as structural-functionalism, which focused on how institutions in societies worked to balance out or create an equilibrium in the social system to keep it functioning harmoniously. Structural functionalism also known as a social systems paradigm is a Sociological paradigm which addresses what Social functions various elements (This contrasted with Malinowski's functionalism, and was quite different from the later French structuralism, which examined the conceptual structures in language and symbolism. For the use of structuralism in biology see Structuralism (biology Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze )

Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown's influence stemmed from the fact that they, like Boas, actively trained students and aggressively built up institutions that furthered their programmatic ambitions. This was particularly the case with Radcliffe-Brown, who spread his agenda for "Social Anthropology" by teaching at universities across the British Commonwealth. From the late 1930s until the postwar period appeared a string of monographs and edited volumes that cemented the paradigm of British Social Anthropology (BSA). Famous ethnographies include The Nuer, by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, and The Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi, by Meyer Fortes; well-known edited volumes include African Systems of Kinship and Marriage and African Political Systems. Sir Edward Evan (E E Evans-Pritchard ( September 21, 1902 – September 11, 1973) was a British anthropologist instrumental Meyer Fortes (1906-1983 was a South African -born Anthropologist, best known for his work among the Tallensi and Ashanti in Ghana

Max Gluckman, together with many of his colleagues at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute and students at Manchester University, collectively known as the Manchester School, took BSA in new directions through their introduction of explicitly Marxist-informed theory, their emphasis on conflicts and conflict resolution, and their attention to the ways in which individuals negotiate and make use of the social structural possibilities. (Herman Max Gluckman ( 26 January 1911 &ndash 13 April 1975) was a South African born British social anthropologist The University of Manchester is a " red brick " civic University located in Manchester, England. The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, founded by Max Gluckman in 1947 became known among anthropologists and other social scientists

In Britain, anthropology had a great intellectual impact, it "contributed to the erosion of Christianity, the growth of cultural relativism, an awareness of the survival of the primitive in modern life, and the replacement of diachronic modes of analysis with synchronic, all of which are central to modern culture. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual Human 's Beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own Culture. "^[16]

Later in the 1960s and 1970s, Edmund Leach and his students Mary Douglas and Nur Yalman, among others, introduced French structuralism in the style of Lévi-Strauss; while British anthropology has continued to emphasize social organization and economics over purely symbolic or literary topics, differences among British, French, and American sociocultural anthropologies have diminished with increasing dialogue and borrowing of both theory and methods. Sir Edmund Ronald Leach ( November 7, 1910 &ndash January 6, 1989) was a British social anthropologist. Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA ( 25 March 1921 &ndash 16 May 2007) was a British Anthropologist, known for Nur Yalman is a leading social anthropologist and professor at Harvard University. Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. Today, social anthropology in Britain engages internationally with many other social theories and has branched in many directions.

In countries of the British Commonwealth, social anthropology has often been institutionally separate from physical anthropology and primatology, which may be connected with departments of biology or zoology; and from archaeology, which may be connected with departments of Classics, Egyptology, and the like. Biological anthropology, or physical anthropology is a branch of Anthropology that studies the mechanisms of biological Evolution, genetic inheritance Primatology is the study of Primates It is a diverse Discipline and primatologists can be found in departments of Biology, Anthropology "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek grc -λογία -logia. علم المصريات مصر شناسی is a major field of Archaeology In other countries (and in some, particularly smaller, British and North American universities), anthropologists have also found themselves institutionally linked with scholars of folklore, museum studies, human geography, sociology, social relations, ethnic studies, cultural studies, and social work. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Museology (also called museum studies) is the study of how to organize and manage Museums and museum collections. Human geography is a branch of Geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment with particular reference to Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Social relation can refer to a multitude of Social interactions regulated by Social norms between two or more people with each having a Social position Ethnic studies is an academic discipline dedicated to the study of Ethnicity. Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines Political economy, Communication, Sociology, Social theory, Literary theory Social work is a discipline involving the application of Social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people groups and societies

Anthropology in the United States

1800s to 1940s

From its beginnings in the early 19th century through the early 20th century, anthropology in the United States was influenced by the presence of Native American societies. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States

Cultural anthropology in the United States was influenced greatly by the ready availability of Native American societies as ethnographic subjects. Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of Anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) as it developed in the United States. The field was pioneered by staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology, men such as John Wesley Powell and Frank Hamilton Cushing. History Although the bureau which was called the Office of Indian Affairs was formed in 1824 similar agencies had existed in the U The Bureau of American Ethnology (originally Bureau of Ethnology was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives records and materials John Wesley Powell ( March 24, 1834 - September 23, 1902) was a U Frank Hamilton Cushing July 22, 1857 - April 10, 1900 was born in Northeastern Pennsylvania later moving with his family to western New Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), a lawyer from Rochester, New York, became an advocate for and ethnological scholar of the Iroquois. Lewis Henry Morgan ( November 21, 1818 &ndash December 17, 1881) was an American Ethnologist, Anthropologist and Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York State, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the "League of Peace and Power" the "Five Nations" the "Six Nations" or the "People of the Longhouse His comparative analyses of religion, government, material culture, and especially kinship patterns proved to be influential contributions to the field of anthropology. Like other scholars of his day (such as Edward Tylor), Morgan argued that human societies could be classified into categories of cultural evolution on a scale of progression that ranged from savagery, to barbarism, to civilization. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor ( October 2 1832 &ndash January 2 1917) was an English Anthropologist. Generally, Morgan used technology (such as bowmaking or pottery) as an indicator of position on this scale. ^[17]

Boasian anthropology

Franz Boas established academic anthropology in the United States in opposition to this sort of evolutionary perspective. Franz Boas ( July 9, 1858 &ndash December 21, 1942) was a German - American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern Boasian anthropology was politically active and suspicious of research dictated by the U. S. government and wealthy patrons. It was rigorously empirical and skeptical of overgeneralizations and attempts to establish universal laws. Boas studied immigrant children to demonstrate that biological race was not immutable, and that human conduct and behavior resulted from nurture, rather than nature.

Influenced by the German tradition, Boas argued that the world was full of distinct cultures, rather than societies whose evolution could be measured by how much or how little "civilization" they had. He believed that each culture has to be studied in its particularity, and argued that cross-cultural generalizations, like those made in the natural sciences, were not possible. In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of In doing so, he fought discrimination against immigrants, African Americans, and Native North Americans. ^[18] Many American anthropologists adopted his agenda for social reform, and theories of race continue to be popular targets for anthropologists today. The so-called "Four Field Approach" has its origins in Boasian Anthropology, dividing the discipline in the four crucial and interrelated fields of sociocultural, biological, linguistic, and prehistoric anthropology (i. e. , archaeology). Anthropology in the U. S. continues to be deeply influenced by the Boasian tradition, especially its emphasis on culture.

Boas used his positions at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History to train and develop multiple generations of students. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. The American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH) located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA is one of the largest and most His first generation of students included Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Edward Sapir and Ruth Benedict, who each produced richly detailed studies of indigenous North American cultures. Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11 1876&ndashOctober 5 1960 was one of the most influential figures in American Anthropology in the first half of the twentieth Robert Henry Lowie ( June 12, 1883 &ndash September 21, 1957) was an Austrian born American Anthropologist. Edward Sapir (səˈpɪər ( January 26 1884 &ndash February 4 1939) was a Jewish German - American Ruth Benedict (born Ruth Fulton, June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American Anthropologist. They provided a wealth of details used to attack the theory of a single evolutionary process. Kroeber and Sapir's focus on Native American languages helped establish linguistics as a truly general science and free it from its historical focus on Indo-European languages. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields

The publication of Alfred Kroeber's textbook, Anthropology, marked a turning point in American anthropology. Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11 1876&ndashOctober 5 1960 was one of the most influential figures in American Anthropology in the first half of the twentieth After three decades of amassing material, Boasians felt a growing urge to generalize. This was most obvious in the 'Culture and Personality' studies carried out by younger Boasians such as Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. Margaret Mead ( December 16, 1901, Philadelphia &ndash November 15, 1978, New York City) was an American Ruth Benedict (born Ruth Fulton, June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American Anthropologist. Influenced by psychoanalytic psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, these authors sought to understand the way that individual personalities were shaped by the wider cultural and social forces in which they grew up. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Though such works as Coming of Age in Samoa and The Chrysanthemum and the Sword remain popular with the American public, Mead and Benedict never had the impact on the discipline of anthropology that some expected. Boas had planned for Ruth Benedict to succeed him as chair of Columbia's anthropology department, but she was sidelined by Ralph Linton, and Mead was limited to her offices at the AMNH. Ralph Linton ( Philadelphia, 27 February 1893 - New Haven, 24 December 1953 was one of the best-known American Anthropologists of the mid-twentieth century The American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH) located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA is one of the largest and most

Anthropology in Canada

Canadian anthropology began, as in other parts of the Colonial world, as ethnological data in the records of travellers and missionaries. In Canada, Jesuit missionaries such as Fathers LeClercq, Le Jeune and Sagard, in the 1600s, provide the oldest ethnographic records of native tribes in what was then the Domain of Canada. The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order A missionary is a member of a Religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith someone who proselytizes.

True anthropology began with a Government department: the Geological Survey of Canada, and George Mercer Dawson (director in 1895). A government agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the Machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC (Commission Géologique du Canada (CGC is part of the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada. George Mercer Dawson ( August 1 1849 &ndash March 2 1901) was a Canadian scientist and surveyor. Dawson's support for anthropology created impetus for the profession in Canada. This was expanded upon by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, who established a Division of Anthropology within the Geological Survey in 1910. Anthropologists were recruited from England and the USA, setting the foundation for the unique Canadian style of anthropology. Early scholars include the brilliant linguist and Boasian, Edward Sapir, also Oxford graduates Marius Barbeau and Diamond Jenness. Edward Sapir (səˈpɪər ( January 26 1884 &ndash February 4 1939) was a Jewish German - American Oxford is currently bidding for the 2010 Wikimania Conference Oxford () is a city, and the County town of Oxfordshire, Charles Marius Barbeau ( March 5, 1883 &ndash February 27, 1969) also known as C Diamond Jenness CC (February 10 1886 Wellington, New Zealand &ndash November 29 1969 Chelsea Quebec, Canada) was one of Canada's Born in rural Québec, Barbeau became a Rhodes scholar and eventually a classmate of Jenness. The two studied under Tylor and Marett at Oxford. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor ( October 2 1832 &ndash January 2 1917) was an English Anthropologist. Marett is a surname and may be Robert Pipon Marett, Jersey poet Robert Ranulph Marett, anthropologist and his son In Canada, Barbeau and Jenness worked at the National Museum (as it became known later). In 1944, Canada's first home-grown anthropologist established the archive which has become a key source of ethnographic and folklore material. ^[19]

Following George Mercer Dawson (of McGill, Montreal) and Franz Boas, Sapir and Barbeau conducted ethnographic research and collected material culture from the peoples of the Northwest Coast, especially Haida. The Haida (19th C-early 20th C Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. Jenness is best known for his research in the Arctic among the Copper Inuit. However, in actuality, they all worked in a variety of areas in Canada, recording traditions and songs, studying languages, and collecting artifacts for the museum. They essentially had sole responsibility for the development of the profession in Canada from 1910 until 1925 when Sapir left. The development was slow relative to expansion (due to the colonizing needs) of Britain and the USA.

The first academic position in anthropology at a Canadian university was awarded to Thomas McIlwraith at the University of Toronto in 1925. This article is about the University of Toronto's St George Campus The next universities to hire anthropologists, UBC and McGill, did so only in 1947. The first PhD in anthropology was granted in 1956, with only a few more being granted until the late 1960s. The 1970s brought a boom in university development and in professional anthropology, and by 1980 about 400 people with doctorates in anthropology were employed in Canada, and many more with a master's degree. Harry Hawthorne built the department at UBC and set a standard for the use of anthropological research as a guide to public policy in his classic report to the federal government, coauthored by M. -A. Tremblay, "A Survey of the Contemporary Indians of Canada" (1966, 1967).

Canadian Anthropology is characterized by a combination of Americanist Boasian-influenced interest in Native American tribes and peoples, British Anthropological concerns with social function and process, and Francophone concerns with small, rural and ethnically isolated community studies. Issues of disparity, continuity and change, political-economy, environment and cultural ecology, and personality, culture and symbolism predominated the discourse from World War I to the Vietnam War era.

Anthropology in France

Anthropology in France has a less clear genealogy than the British and American traditions, in part because many French writers influential in anthropology have been trained or held faculty positions in sociology, philosophy, or other fields rather than in anthropology. Most commentators consider Marcel Mauss (1872-1950), nephew of the influential sociologist Émile Durkheim to be the founder of the French anthropological tradition. Marcel Mauss ( May 10, 1872 &ndash February 10, 1950) was a French Sociologist. Émile Durkheim ( April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French Sociologist whose contributions were instrumental Mauss belonged to Durkheim's Année Sociologique group; and while Durkheim and others examined the state of modern societies, Mauss and his collaborators (such as Henri Hubert and Robert Hertz) drew on ethnography and philology to analyze societies which were not as 'differentiated' as European nation states. L'Année Sociologique was a sociology journal founded in 1898 by Émile Durkheim, who also served as its editor Henri Hubert ( Paris June 23, 1872 - May 25, 1927) was an archaeologist and sociologist of Comparative Robert Hertz (1881-1915 was a French sociologist whose life was cut tragically short when he was killed in World War I. Two works by Mauss in particular proved to have enduring relevance: Essay on the Gift a seminal analysis of exchange and reciprocity, and his Huxley lecture on the notion of the person, the first comparative study of notions of person and selfhood cross-culturally. The Gift is a short book by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss and is best known for being one of the earliest and most important studies of Reciprocity Trade is the willing exchange of goods, services, or both Trade is also called Commerce. In Cultural anthropology and Sociology, reciprocity is a way of defining people's informal Exchange of goods and labour; that ^[20]

Throughout the interwar years, French interest in anthropology often dovetailed with wider cultural movements such as surrealism and primitivism which drew on ethnography for inspiration. Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members Primitivism refers to a an artistic movement in particular which originated as a reaction to the Enlightenment, or b the general tendency to idealize any social behavior Marcel Griaule and Michel Leiris are examples of people who combined anthropology with the French avant-garde. Marcel Griaule (1898 &ndash 1956 was a French anthropologist known for his studies of the Dogon people of West Africa, and for pioneering Julien Michel Leiris ( April 20 1901 in Paris &ndash September 30 1990 in Saint-Hilaire Essonne) was a French During this time most of what is known as ethnologie was restricted to museums, such as the Musée de l'Homme founded by Paul Rivet, and anthropology had a close relationship with studies of folklore. The Musée de l'Homme ( French for "Museum of Man" was created in 1937 by Paul Rivet, for the event of the Exposition Internationale Paul Rivet (1876 &ndash 1958) was a French Ethnologist, who founded the Musée de l'Homme in 1937 History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological

Above all, however, it was Claude Lévi-Strauss who helped institutionalize anthropology in France. Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. In addition to the enormous influence his structuralism exerted across multiple disciplines, Lévi-Strauss established ties with American and British anthropologists. For the use of structuralism in biology see Structuralism (biology Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze At the same time he established centers and laboratories within France to provide an institutional context within anthropology while training influential students such as Maurice Godelier and Françoise Héritier who would prove influential in the world of French anthropology. in Cambrai, France in 1934 Maurice Godelier is one of the most influential names in French Anthropology. Françoise Héritier is a French anthropologist and successor to Claude Lévi-Strauss at the Collège de France (Chair of Comparative Studies Much of the distinct character of France's anthropology today is a result of the fact that most anthropology is carried out in nationally funded research laboratories (CNRS) rather than academic departments in universities.

Other influential writers in the 1970s include Pierre Clastres, who explains in his books on the Guayaki tribe in Paraguay that "primitive societies" actively oppose the institution of the state. Pierre Clastres, (1934-1977 was a French anthropologist and ethnographer. The Aché (pronounced Ah·CHAY Indians are a traditional Hunter-gatherer tribe living in Eastern Paraguay. Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay ( Spanish: República del Paraguay; Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái) is one of the only A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. Therefore, these stateless societies are not less evolved than societies with states, but took the active choice of conjuring the institution of authority as a separate function from society. In Politics, authority ( Latin Auctoritas, used in Roman law as opposed to Potestas and Imperium The leader is only a spokesperson for the group when it has to deal with other groups ("international relations") but has no inside authority, and may be violently removed if he attempts to abuse this position. The word leadership can refer to Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading

The most important French social theorist since Foucault and Lévi-Strauss is Pierre Bourdieu, who trained formally in philosophy and sociology and eventually held the Chair of Sociology at the Collège de France. Pierre Bourdieu ( August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was an acclaimed French Sociologist and writer known for his Like Mauss and others before him, however, he worked on topics both in sociology and anthropology. His fieldwork among the Kabyles of Algeria places him solidly in anthropology, while his analysis of the function and reproduction of fashion and cultural capital in European societies places him as solidly in sociology.

Other countries

Anthropology in Greece and Portugal is much influenced by British anthropology. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. In Greece, there was since the 19th century a science of the folklore called laographia (laography), in the form of "a science of the interior", although theoretically weak; but the connotation of the field deeply changed after World War II, when a wave of Anglo-American anthropologists introduced a science "of the outside". Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological ^[21] In Italy, the development of ethnology and related studies did not receive as much attention as other branches of learning. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "habit custom convention" is the branch of Anthropology that compares and ^[22]

Germany and Norway are the countries that showed the most division and conflict between scholars focusing on domestic socio-cultural issues and scholars focusing on "other" societies. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional

Anthropology after World War II: Increasing dialogue in Anglophone anthropology

Before WWII British 'social anthropology' and American 'cultural anthropology' were still distinct traditions. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including After the war, enough British and American anthropologists borrowed ideas and methodlogical approaches from each other that some began to speak of them collectively as 'sociocultural' anthropology.

In the 1950s and mid-1960s anthropology tended increasingly to model itself after the natural sciences. In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of Some anthropologists, such as Lloyd Fallers and Clifford Geertz, focused on processes of modernization by which newly independent states could develop. Clifford James Geertz ( August 23 1926, San Francisco – October 30 2006, Philadelphia) was an American Others, such as Julian Steward and Leslie White, focused on how societies evolve and fit their ecological niche—an approach popularized by Marvin Harris. Julian Haynes Steward ( January 31, 1902 &ndash February 6, 1972) was an American anthropologist best known for his role in the development Leslie Alvin White ( 19 January 1900, Salida Colorado &ndash 31 March 1975, Lone Pine California) was an American Marvin Harris ( August 18, 1927 &ndash October 25, 2001) was an American Anthropologist. Economic anthropology as influenced by Karl Polanyi and practiced by Marshall Sahlins and George Dalton challenged standard neoclassical economics to take account of cultural and social factors, and also employed Marxian analysis into anthropological study. Economic anthropology is a scholarly field that attempts to explain human economic behavior using the tools of both Economics and Anthropology. Karl Paul Polanyi ( October 25, 1886, Vienna, Austria — April 23, 1964, Pickering Ontario) was a Hungarian Marshall David Sahlins (born December 27, 1930, Chicago, Illinois is a prominent American Anthropologist. George Dalton (born 1947 is an American Playwright. He was born in Pana Illinois. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. In England, British Social Anthropology's paradigm began to fragment as Max Gluckman and Peter Worsley experimented with Marxism and authors such as Rodney Needham and Edmund Leach incorporated Lévi-Strauss's structuralism into their work. (Herman Max Gluckman ( 26 January 1911 &ndash 13 April 1975) was a South African born British social anthropologist Rodney Needham ( 15 May 1923 - 4 December 2006 in Oxford, United Kingdom) was one of the leading British Sir Edmund Ronald Leach ( November 7, 1910 &ndash January 6, 1989) was a British social anthropologist.

Structuralism also influenced a number of developments in 1960s and 1970s, including cognitive anthropology and componential analysis. Psychological anthropology is a highly interdisciplinary subfield of anthropology that studies the interaction of cultural and mental processes. Authors such as David Schneider, Clifford Geertz, and Marshall Sahlins developed a more fleshed-out concept of culture as a web of meaning or signification, which proved very popular within and beyond the discipline. David Murray Schneider (November 11 1918 Brooklyn New York - October 30, 1995, Santa Cruz California) was an American Cultural anthropologist Clifford James Geertz ( August 23 1926, San Francisco – October 30 2006, Philadelphia) was an American Marshall David Sahlins (born December 27, 1930, Chicago, Illinois is a prominent American Anthropologist. In keeping with the times, much of anthropology became politicized through the Algerian War of Independence and opposition to the Vietnam War;^[23] Marxism became a more and more popular theoretical approach in the discipline. The Algerian War ( French: Guerre d'Algérie; 1954-1962 also known as Algerian War of Independence, led to Algeria 's independence from The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ^[24] By the 1970s the authors of volumes such as Reinventing Anthropology worried about anthropology's relevance.

Since the 1980s issues of power, such as those examined in Eric Wolf's Europe and the People Without History, have been central to the discipline. Eric R Wolf ( February 1, 1923 &ndash March 6, 1999) was an Anthropologist, best known for his studies of Peasants, Europe and the People Without History is a book by anthropologist Eric Wolf. In the 80s books like Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter pondered anthropology's ties to colonial inequality, while the immense popularity of theorists such as Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault moved issues of power and hegemony into the spotlight. Antonio Gramsci ('ɡramʃi ( January 23, 1891 &ndash April 27, 1937) was an Italian Philosopher, Writer, Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist. Hegemony (hɨˈdʒɛməni (Amer /hɨˈɡɛməni/ (Brit (ἡγεμονία hēgemonía) is a concept that has been used to describe and explain the dominance of one social Gender and sexuality became popular topics, as did the relationship between history and anthropology, influenced by Marshall Sahlins (again), who drew on Lévi-Strauss and Fernand Braudel to examine the relationship between social structure and individual agency. Marshall David Sahlins (born December 27, 1930, Chicago, Illinois is a prominent American Anthropologist. Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. Fernand Braudel ( August 24 1902 &ndash November 27 1985) was the foremost French historian of the postwar era Also influential in these issues were Nietzsche, Heidegger, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Derrida and Lacan. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy. Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French ʒak lakɑ̃ ( April 13, 1901 &ndash September 9, 1981) was a French Psychoanalyst ^[25]

In the late 1980s and 1990s authors such as George Marcus and James Clifford pondered ethnographic authority, particularly how and why anthropological knowledge was possible and authoritative. They were reflecting trends in research and discourse initiated by Feminists in the academy, although they excused themselves from commenting specifically on those pioneering critics. ^[26] Nevertheless, key aspects of feminist theorsing and methods became de rigueur as part of the 'post-modern moment' in anthropology: Ethnographies became more reflexive, explicitly addressing the author's methodology, cultural, gender and racial positioning, and their influence on his or her ethnographic analysis. This was part of a more general trend of postmodernism that was popular contemporaneously. Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism ^[27] Currently anthropologists pay attention to a wide variety of issues pertaining to the contemporary world, including globalization, medicine and biotechnology, indigenous rights, virtual communities, and the anthropology of industrialized societies. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Biotechnology is Technology based on Biology, especially when used in Agriculture, Food science, and Medicine. The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as Newsletters In Sociology, industrial society refers to a society with a modern societal structure

Approaches to anthropology

The "four field" approach

Principally in the United States,^[28] anthropology is often defined as being "holistic" and based on a "four-field" approach. Distinguish from the suffix -holism, which describes addictions There is an ongoing dispute as to whether this makes sense theoretically or pragmatically in the structure of American academic institutions. Supporters^[29] consider anthropology holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all human beings across times and places, and with all dimensions of humanity (evolutionary, biophysical, sociopolitical, economic, cultural, linguistic, psychological, etc. ); also many academic programs following this approach take a "four-field" approach to anthropology that encompasses physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology or social anthropology. Biological anthropology, or physical anthropology is a branch of Anthropology that studies the mechanisms of biological Evolution, genetic inheritance Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of Anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) as it developed in the United States. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups The definition of anthropology as holistic and the "four-field" approach are disputed by some leading anthropologists,^[30][31][32] that consider those as artifacts from 19th century social evolutionary thought that inappropriately impose scientific positivism upon cultural anthropology in particular. Distinguish from the suffix -holism, which describes addictions Sociocultural evolution(ism is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and Social evolution, describing how Cultures and societies Positivism is the Philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is knowledge that is based on actual sense experience Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of Anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) as it developed in the United States. ^[30] The pressure for the "integration" of socio-cultural anthropology (inherently associated with the humanities), with "biological-physical anthropology" (inherently associated with the natural sciences), has been criticized as an inappropriate imposition of positivism (the belief that the only proper knowledge is that derived from the scientific method) upon cultural anthropology. The humanities are academic disciplines which study the Human condition, using methods that are primarily Analytic, Critical, or Speculative In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of Positivism is the Philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is knowledge that is based on actual sense experience Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of Anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) as it developed in the United States. ^[30] This criticism argument has been raised towards the development of sociobiology in the late 1960s (by cultural anthropologists such as Marshall Sahlins), and towards the "four field holism" of American Anthropology. Sociobiology is a neo-Darwinian and Socialism Synthesis of Scientific disciplines that attempts to explain Social behavior Marshall David Sahlins (born December 27, 1930, Chicago, Illinois is a prominent American Anthropologist. ^[30] While originating in the US, both the four field approach and debates concerning it have been exported internationally under American academic influence. ^[33] (for more details see the section on the relations with the natural sciences and the Humanities)

The four fields are:

• Biological or physical anthropology seeks to understand the physical human being through the study of human evolution and adaptability, population genetics, and primatology. Biological anthropology, or physical anthropology is a branch of Anthropology that studies the mechanisms of biological Evolution, genetic inheritance eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 An adaptation is a characteristic of an Organism that has been favored by Natural selection and Population genetics is the study of the Allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces Natural selection, Genetic Primatology is the study of Primates It is a diverse Discipline and primatologists can be found in departments of Biology, Anthropology Subfields or related fields include paleoanthropology (study of evolutionary history of the human species), anthropometrics, forensic anthropology, osteology, and nutritional anthropology. Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of Paleontology and Physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in Fossil hominid Anthropometry ( Greek άνθρωπος man and μέτρον measure literally meaning "measurement of humans" in Physical anthropology, refers to the Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of Physical anthropology and human Osteology (the study of the Human skeleton) in a legal setting Osteology is the scientific study of Bones. A Subdiscipline of Anthropology and Archeology, osteology is a detailed study On the basis of Tinbergen's four questions a framework of reference or "periodic table" of all fields of anthropological research (including humanities) can be established. When asked questions of animal and human behavior such as why these creatures see even elementary school children can answer that vision helps them find food and avoid danger
• Socio-cultural anthropology is the investigation, often through long term, intensive field studies (including participant-observation methods), of the culture and social organization of a particular people: language, economic and political organization, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, kinship and family structure, gender relations, childrearing and socialization, religion, mythology, symbolism, etc. Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin through either biological cultural or historical descent (U. S. universities more often use the term cultural anthropology; British universities have tended to call the corresponding field social anthropology, and for much of the 20th century emphasized the analysis of social organization more than cultural symbolism. Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of Anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) as it developed in the United States. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups ) In some European countries, socio-cultural anthropology is known as ethnology (a term coined and defined by Adam F. Kollár in 1783^[34] that is also used in English-speaking countries to denote the comparative aspect of socio-cultural anthropology. Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "habit custom convention" is the branch of Anthropology that compares and Adam František Kollár (1718-1783 − Adam Franz Kollár in older English sources a Slovak lower nobleman, was a historian ethnologist and as ) Subfields and related fields include psychological anthropology, folklore, anthropology of religion, ethnic studies, cultural studies, anthropology of media and cyberspace, and study of the diffusion of social practices and cultural forms. Psychological anthropology is a highly interdisciplinary subfield of anthropology that studies the interaction of cultural and mental processes. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological The anthropology of religion involves the study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across Cultures Ethnic studies is an academic discipline dedicated to the study of Ethnicity. Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines Political economy, Communication, Sociology, Social theory, Literary theory Anthropology of media (also anthropology of mass media, media anthropology) is an area of study within social or Cultural anthropology that The anthropology of cyberspace is a minor subbranch of sociocultural anthropology that deals with cybernetic systems the culturally informed interrelationships between human Cultural diffusion, as first conceptualized by Alfred L Kroeber in his influential 1940 paper Stimulus Diffusion, or trans-cultural diffusion in later reformulations
• Linguistic anthropology 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. Linguistic anthropology is that branch of Anthropology that brings linguistic methods to bear on anthropological problems linking the analysis of Semiotic A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them 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 anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, semiotics, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology cognition and language Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of Society, including cultural norms expectations and context on the way Language is used Pragmatics is the study of the ability of Natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated In Linguistics and Cognitive science, cognitive linguistics (CL refers to the school of linguistics that understands language creation learning and usage Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Discourse analysis (DA or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written spoken or signed language use A narrative or story is a construct created in a suitable format (written spoken poetry prose images song Theater, or Dance) that describes a sequence of ^[35]
• Archaeology studies the contemporary distribution and form of artifacts (materials modified by past human activities), with the intent of understanding distribution and movement of ancient populations, development of human social organization, and relationships among contemporary populations; it also contributes significantly to the work of population geneticists, historical linguists, and many historians. Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos In Archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological Archaeology involves a wide variety of field techniques (remote sensing, survey, geophysical studies, coring, excavation) and laboratory procedures (compositional analyses, dating studies (radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence dating), measures of formal variability, examination of wear patterns, residue analyses, etc. Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a Radioactive isotope of Carbon discovered on February 27, 1940, by Optical dating is a method of determining how long ago Minerals were last exposed to daylight ). Archaeologists predominantly study materials produced by prehistoric groups but also includes modern, historical and ethnographic populations. Archaeology is usually regarded as a separate (but related) field outside North America, although closely related to the anthropological field of material culture, which deals with physical objects created or used within a living or past group as a means of understanding its cultural values. In addition to its usual meaning in Social science, in Archaeology, the term culture is also used in reference to several related concepts unique to

A number of subfields or modes of anthropology cut across these divisions. For example, medical anthropology is often considered a subfield of socio-cultural anthropology; however, many anthropologists who study medical topics also look at biological variation in populations or the interaction of culture and biology. Medical anthropology is a subfield of social and Cultural anthropology. They may also use linguistic analysis to understand communication around health and illness, or archaeological techniques to understand health and illness in historical or prehistorical populations. Similarly, forensic anthropologists may use both techniques from both physical anthropology and archaeology, and may also practice as medical anthropologists. Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of Physical anthropology and human Osteology (the study of the Human skeleton) in a legal setting Environmental or ecological anthropology, a growing subfield concerned with the relationships between humans and their environment, is another example that brings cultural and biological—and at times, archaeological—approaches together, as it can deal with a broad range of topics from environmentalist movements to wildlife or habitat conservation to traditional ecological knowledge and practices. Ecological anthropology is a subfield of Anthropology that deals with Human - environmental ( Culture -nature relationships over time and space Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and Social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment. "Conservation Biology" redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Conservation Biology (journal. To conserve habitat life for wild species and prevent their Extinction or reduction in range is a priority of a great many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms Biocultural anthropology is a broad term used to describe syntheses of cultural and biological perspectives. Biocultural anthropology is the Scientific exploration of the relationships between Human biology and Culture. Applied anthropology is perhaps better considered an emphasis than a subfield in the same sense as the standard four; applied anthropologists may work for government agencies, nongovernmental agencies, or private industry, using techniques from any of the subfields to address matters such as policy implementation, impact assessments, education, marketing research, or product development. Applied anthropology refers to the application of method and theory in anthropology to the analysis and solution of practical problems

More recently, anthropology programs at several prominent U. S. universities have begun dividing the field into two: one emphasizing the humanities, critical theory, and interpretive or semiotic approaches; the other emphasizing evolutionary theory, quantitive methods, and explicit theory testing (over idiographic description),^[36] though there have also been institutional pressures to rejoin at least one high-profile split department. The humanities are academic disciplines which study the Human condition, using methods that are primarily Analytic, Critical, or Speculative In the Humanities and Social sciences, critical theory is the examination and critique of Society and Literature, drawing from knowledge across ^[37] At some universitities, biological anthropology and archaeology programs have also moved from departments of anthropology to departments of biology or other related fields. This has occasioned much discussion within the American Anthropological Association, and it remains to be seen whether some form of the four-field organization will persist in North American universities. Founded in 1902 the American Anthropological Association (AAA is the world’s largest professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of Anthropology.

As might be inferred from the above list of subfields, anthropology is a methodologically diverse discipline, incorporating both qualitative methods and quantitative methods. Qualitative research is a field of inquiry that crosscuts disciplines and subject matters. Quantitative research is the systematic scientific investigation of Quantitative properties and Phenomena and their relationships The objective of quantitative Ethnographies—intensive case studies based on field research—have historically had a central place in the literature of sociocultural and linguistic anthropology, but are increasingly supplemented by mixed-methods approaches. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive Multimethodology, or mixed methods research, is an approach to professional Research that combines the collection and analysis of quantitative and Currently, technological advancements are spurring methodological innovation across anthropology's subfields. Radiocarbon dating, population genetics, GPS, and digital video- and audio-recording are just a few of the many technologies spurring new developments in anthropological research. Radiocarbon dating is a Radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring Radioisotope Carbon-14 (14C to determine the age of Population genetics is the study of the Allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces Natural selection, Genetic Basic concept of GPS operation A GPS receiver calculates its position by carefully timing the signals sent by the constellation of GPS Satellites high above the Earth

Controversies about the history of anthropology

Anthropologists, like other researchers (esp. historians and scientists engaged in field research), have over time assisted state policies and projects, especially colonialism. ^[38][39]

Some commentators have contended:

• That the discipline grew out of colonialism, perhaps was in league with it, and derived some of its key notions from it, consciously or not. (See, for example, Gough, Pels and Salemink, but cf. Lewis 2004). ^[40]

• That anthropologists typically have more power than the people they study and hence their knowledge-making is a form of theft in which the anthropologist gains something for him or herself at the expense of informants.

• That ethnographic work was often ahistorical, writing about people as if they were "out of time" in an "ethnographic present" (Johannes Fabian, Time and Its Other).

Anthropology and the military

Anthropologists’ involvement with the U. S. government, in particular, has caused bitter controversy within the discipline. Franz Boas publicly objected to US participation in World War I, and after the war he published a brief expose and condemnation of the participation of several American archeologists in espionage in Mexico under their cover as scientists. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All But by the 1940s, many of Boas' anthropologist contemporaries were active in the allied war effort against the "Axis" (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan). Many served in the armed forces but others worked in intelligence (for example, Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Office of War Information). The Office of Strategic Services ( OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. The United States Office of War Information (OWI was a US government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services At the same time, David H. Price's work on American anthropology during the Cold War provides detailed accounts of the pursuit and dismissal of several anthropologists from their jobs for communist sympathies.

Attempts to accuse anthropologists of complicity with the CIA and government intelligence activities during the Vietnam War years have turned up surprisingly little (although anthropologist Hugo Nutini was active in the stillborn Project Camelot). Project Camelot was a Social science research project of the United States Army in 1964. ^[41] Many anthropologists (students and teachers) were active in the antiwar movement and a great many resolutions condemning the war in all its aspects were passed overwhelmingly at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Founded in 1902 the American Anthropological Association (AAA is the world’s largest professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of Anthropology. In the decades since the Vietnam war the tone of cultural and social anthropology, at least, has been increasingly politicized, with the dominant liberal tone of earlier generations replaced with one more radical, a mix of, and varying degrees of, Marxist, feminist, anarchist, post-colonial, post-modern, Saidian, Foucauldian, identity-based, and more. ^[42]

Professional anthropological bodies often object to the use of anthropology for the benefit of the state. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. Their codes of ethics or statements may proscribe anthropologists from giving secret briefings. The Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth (ASA ) has called certain scholarships ethically dangerous. The AAA's current 'Statement of Professional Responsibility' clearly states that "in relation with their own government and with host governments … no secret research, no secret reports or debriefings of any kind should be agreed to or given. "

However, anthropologists, along with other social scientists, are once again being used in warfare as part of the US Army's strategy in Afghanistan. The Christian Science Monitor reports that "Counterinsurgency efforts focus on better grasping and meeting local needs" in Afghanistan, under the rubric of Human Terrain Team (HTT). The Christian Science Monitor (CSM is an international Newspaper published daily Monday through Friday The War in Afghanistan, which began on October 7 2001 as the U A rubric is a scoring tool for subjective assessments It is a set of Criteria and standards linked to learning

Major discussions about anthropology

Focus on "other cultures"

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). The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings 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. Urban anthropology is a branch of Anthropology that focuses on cultural and social processes in Urban areas A relatively new subfield that emerged in the 1960s Ulf Hannerz is a professor of Social anthropology at Stockholm University, a Honorary doctor at The Faculty of Social Sciences (2005 University of Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically ^[43] Now there exist many works focusing on peoples and topics very close to the author's "home". ^[25] It is also argued that other fields of study, like History and Sociology, on the contrary focus disproportionately on the West. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" ^[44]

In France, the study of existing contemporary society has been traditionally left to sociologists, but this is increasingly changing,^[45] starting in the 1970s from scholars like Isac Chiva and journals like Terrain ("fieldwork"), and developing with the center founded by Marc Augé (Le Centre d'anthropologie des mondes contemporains, the Anthropological Research Center of Contemporary Societies). Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Terrain is a French Academic journal of Ethnology, social and cultural Anthropology (the three terms are not clearly distinguished Marc Augé (born 1935 in Poitiers) is a French Anthropologist. The École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( French for " School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences " EHESS) is a French The same approach of focusing on "modern world" topics by Terrain, was also present in the British Manchester School of the 1950s. The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, founded by Max Gluckman in 1947 became known among anthropologists and other social scientists

It has been reported that there has been an "institutional and academic apartheid" between the two sorts of anthropology, the one focusing on the "Other" and the one focusing on the "Self" contemporary society; an apartheid ranging from a "no contact" status to even open conflict. The countries where this was greater were Germany and Norway, but it was also significant in the 1980s France.

References

Bibliography

Fieldnotes and memoirs of anthropologists

• Barley, Nigel (1983) The innocent anthropologist: notes from a mud hut. London: British Museum Publications.
• Geertz, Clifford (1995) After the fact: two countries, four decades, one anthropologist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1967) Tristes tropiques. Translated from the French by John Russell. New York: Atheneum.
• Malinowski, Bronisław (1967) A diary in the strict sense of the term. Translated by Norbert Guterman. New York, Harcourt, Brace & World.
• Rabinow, Paul. (1977) Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco.

History of anthropology

• Asad, Talal, ed. (1973) Anthropology & the Colonial Encounter. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
• Barth, Fredrik, Andre Gingrich, Robert Parkin, and Sydel Silverman. 2005. One Discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French, and American anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• D'Andrade, R. "The Sad Story of Anthropology: 1950-1999. " In E. L. Cerroni-Long, ed. Anthropological Theory in North America. Westport: Berin & Garvey 1999. download
• Darnell, Regna. (2001) Invisible Genealogies: A History of Americanist Anthropology. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
• Deeb, Benjamin. (2007) Anthropology and Social Problems: A Manual of Change.
• Harris, Marvin. (2001[1968]) The rise of anthropological theory: a history of theories of culture. AltaMira Press. Walnut Creek, CA.
• Kehoe, Alice B. (1998) The Land of Prehistory: A Critical History of American Archaeology.
• Lewis, Herbert S. (1998) "The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and its Consequences. " American Anthropologist, 100: 716-731.
• Lewis, Herbert S. (2004) "Imagining Anthropology's History. " Reviews in Anthropology, v. 33.
• Lewis, Herbert S. (2005) "Anthropology, the Cold War, and Intellectual History. In R. Darnell & F. W. Gleach, eds. Histories of Anthropology Annual, Vol. I.
• Pels, Peter & Oscar Salemink, eds. (2000) Colonial Subjects: Essays on the Practical History of Anthropology.
• Price, David. (2004) Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists.
• Stocking, George, Jr. (1968) Race, Culture and Evolution. New York: Free Press.
• Trencher, Susan. (2000) Mirrored Images: American Anthropology and American Culture, 1960-1980.

Textbooks and key theoretical works

• Clifford, James and George E. Marcus (1986) Writing culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Geertz, Clifford (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
• Harris, Marvin (1997) Culture, People, Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology (7th Edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon
• Salzmann, Zdeněk. (1993) Language, culture, and society: an introduction to linguistic anthropology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Shweder, Richard A. , and Robert A. LeVine, eds. (1984) Culture Theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

See also

• Anthropological Index Online (AIO)
• Anthropologists
• Anthrozoology
• Ethnology
• Folklore
• Human evolution
• Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Madison Grant
• Memetics
• Philosophical anthropology
• Sociology
• Theological anthropology, which is not part of anthropology but a subfield of theology
• Prehistoric medicine

External links

• Anthropology.net Community orientated anthropology web portal with user run blogs, forums, tags, and a wiki. The Anthropological Index Online ( AIO) is a searchable online database of periodicals held in the Centre for Anthropology at the British Museum in London Anthrozoology is the study of human - Animal interaction ("animal" referring to all non-human animals also described as the science focusing on Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "habit custom convention" is the branch of Anthropology that compares and History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Human evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the part of biological Evolution concerning the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct Species The notion of intangible cultural heritage (ICH emerged in the 90s as a counter part to the World Heritage that focusses mainly on tangible aspects of culture Madison Grant ( November 19, 1865 &ndash May 30, 1937) was an American Lawyer, known primarily for his work as a This article is related to the study of self-replicating units of culture not to be confused with Mimetics Memetics is a neo-Darwinian approach Philosophical anthropology is the attempt to unify disparate ways of understanding behaviour of Humans as both creatures of their Social environments and creators of Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Theological anthropology is the branch of Theology which is concerned with the study of humankind or Anthropology, in relation to the divine Prehistoric medicine is a term used to describe the use of Medicine before the invention of writing
• University of Pennsylvania's "What is Ethnography?" Penn's Public Interest Anthropology Web Site

Organizations

• American Anthropological Association Homepage Home page of largest professional organization of anthropologists
• American Association of Physical Anthropologists
• The Royal Anthropological Institute Homepage—The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI)
• National Association for the Practice of Anthropology
• European Association of Social Anthropologists
• The Society for Applied Anthropology

Resources

• Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History Online collections database with detailed description and digital images for over 160,000 ethnographic artifacts.
• The Anthropological Index Online Online biblographic database.
• National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution Collects and preserves historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world's cultures and the history of anthropology
• Online Dictionary of Anthropology
• Anthropology departments around the world

Texts and tutorials

• Anthrobase.com—Collection of anthropological texts
• Palomar College Anthropology Tutorials—Tutorials on anthropological topics such as economic systems, kinship, subsistence, religion, and evolution

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic