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The Five Fields of Anthropology Follow the Menu Items Below For Further Details
A Note On Anthropology and Ethics |
Anthropology Anthropology is the study of humanity in all its diveristy. As such it is a discipline that is made up of five broad subfields, that are listed in the menu to the left of this text. It is the study of peoples around the world, across cultures, and throughout time. It is the study of living peoples, and peoples whose ways of life may have long disappeared from living human societies. Traditionally, it has focused either on cultures of the past (through archaeology and physical anthropology) or cultures in "exotic" settings. With a few notable exceptions, this has given the discipline the reputation of being about studying "others" rather than "ourselves" (others, in time and in place). Some have even made the point in one fashion or another that sociology is about "the West," while anthropology is about "the Rest." Today, the exceptions to this "line of demarcation" have become more frequent and commonplace. Consequently it is not unusal to read about anthropology being done in "non-traditional settings," (whatever the subfield). Archaeologists have begun to dig through garbage dumps and the dumpsters of modern shopping malls, even as their colleagues continue to focus on ancient cultures; cultural anthropologists study the cultures of multi-billion dollar corporations, and decaying industrial towns, while their counterparts continue to study in more "exotic" places; physical anthropologists frequently ply their skills to unravel contemporary murder mysteries, even as other look to unravel the mysteries of human ancestry. |
