Anthropology is known as the scientific study which seeks to end the infinite curiosity about humans(HASKINGS-WINNER, COLLISHAW, 2011, p. 7). Anthropology does not focus on one research about humans, it is a broad study seeking why, when and how people appeared on earth as well as how they have changed and got distributed around the world. Anthropologists also want to know why there is variation between people in different populations. In Anthropology there are four fields used to study humans, these fields are Biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistic and archeology. Under biological anthropology there is Paleontology and Variation. Then under cultural anthropology there is ethnology, archeology and linguistic anthropology. There is a ways in which anthropologists conduct research (ethnography and armchair).
What is Anthropology? Anthropology is the scientific study of humans, which seeks to end the questions about why are humans behaving a certain way, why are they different, why they talk differently in different places as well as how that got distributed all over the world. This study will help in making people understand each other, Thus making the world a better place,
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What is Culture? In anthropology culture refers to the shared set of behavior,ideas, beliefs and attitude in a society. Culture makes a society run it self, because those behaviors and ideas shared by adults are learned by the younger generation and it keeps on going meaning culture is passed from one generation to the next. When talking about behavior this is referring to what people do daily for example washing dishes. Belief's example is if those people are believing in God or the Ancestors. Scientists who study culture are called cultural anthropologists, they study past and present cultures.
Under culture there are 3 branches (ethnology, linguistics and archeology)
Ethnology; this branch is all about comparing cultures from different societies.
Ethnologists visit places and participate in whatever they are doing so they can learn about the different cultures people are living by. Ethnologist also want to answer questions about cultural similarities, whether it is common or they are just the same. There research shows that similarities are due to people borrowing things from one another, people visiting other places or migrating also by communicating, it also teaches people different cultures then some of them are copied(White, L.A., 1957. Evolution and diffusion. Antiquity, 31, p.214.). Deffusionism is the fact that people evolved at one place then some of them migrated to other parts of the world due to the worlds separating. Linguistic anthropology this is a branch under cultural anthropology which is more focused on languages people speak in different places, this branch focuses on how different languages evolved.archeology is the study focusing on old cultures, archeologist search for old physical remains of culture to understand how people lived back in the days. This information will then be compared to how people are living now.
Under physical anthropology(the study about human's physical appearance, how peoples body evolved to what they are now) there is paleontology and human variation.Paleontology is the study of fossils(bones and stone remains which was left many years ago) the bone example would be the skull of a chimpanzee in evolution up till the modern humans. In rock remains they look at the rocks with prints of something useful in tracing human evolution. Human variation is the differences between people, this variation is due to many factors one of them being genetic differences. This theory leads to Drawinâs theory of evolution called Darwinism, which state that people changed due to natural selection, and people are different because they are trying to adapt to the environment they are living in. People are not the same because of natural selection where the environment automatically allows those who are strong enough to live in it to live this is called survival of the fittest.
There are ways anthropologists conduct research and they are two, anthropologists go to places and live with people in that area then they observe and collect information to make theories of prove hypothesis this method is called Ethnography. Another way anthropologists collect data is through informants(people who are willing to give information to the ones seeking it) and written journals (information which has already been collected) this method is called Armchair anthropology, it does not involve anthropologists living with people in different places.
Anthropology is important because it teaches people that they are all the same it just that they come from different places which causes variation physically and mentally, off witch they are trying to survive in different places they are exposed to. People are expose to different cultured, if we learn them it would help understand why people do what they do and be able to sympathize with them the way they act. This means that everyone needs to study different cultures to prevent misunderstanding others. People need to understand other languages to improve their way of socializing as well as cultures so that the world will be a better place.
Moreover anthropology is the study helping the word to be a better place, by teaching people about each other that they are all coming from one place, a research says that all modern humans originated in Africa meaning we were all from Africa. then due to the world's physical changes, some people moved to other parts of the world. The research shows that anthropology has branches which makes it easy for one to understand humans, there is biological anthropology and cultural anthropology. If one needs to study about the evolution of human's physical appearance they should look in biological anthropology, then to understand other peopleâs culture and languages they should look in to cultural anthropology and linguistic. This research shows that it is important to learn about the other(cultures) to prevent misunderstanding other people, and be able to communicate with them and to prevent inequalities.
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