What is Anthropology? Before diving into the four subdivisions, Anthropology is the study of what makes us human; this science is essential to understanding past and present human beings. The four types of Anthropology are archaeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic.
Archaeology is the most popular subdivision of anthropology. Archaeology examines people and cultures of the past, able to excavate evidence from up to 6 million years ago. Overall it studies humanity, what we are, who we are, and how we act on the world, through artifacts left behind. Archaeologists accomplish these feats through dug up artifacts including pottery, foundations of houses, fragments of bones, and translate it into an understanding of the past.
Biological Anthropology is the second subdivision specializing in evolution, genetics, and health. This subdivision strives to understand evolutionary origins and consequences of human biology variations. These anthropologists aim to investigate the effects of culture and ecology on human adaptation, development and health with other primates. They do this by drawing from non – human primate data comparatively to identify human traits that are shared or unique with other primates.
The final two subdivisions of anthropology are tightly woven. Cultural anthropology studies human societies and elements of cultural life focusing on all forms of inequality, especially those based on race / ethnicity, class, age, gender / sexuality, religion, and nationality. More simply this form explores causes, forms, expressions, and contentions of inequality, at local and global levels. It does this through investigating ways that different groups construct, reproduce, and contest their disparages. Another way it accomplished its goal is examining the political economies inequalities as they are historically produced. The final subdivision in anthropology is a subdivision of cultural anthropology. Linguistic anthropology is its own subdivision that overlaps and roots its message in cultural anthropology. Linguistics concentration of cultural anthropology focuses on language in society. Linguistics empacizes, qualitative approaches to the study of language in society, with particular attention to the roles of verbal and written expression in social inequality, political economy, language ideology, immigration, law, colonialism, race, ethnicity, gender, generation, and class.
Anthropology is essential to human life; without history we have nothing. What subdivision, in your opinion, is the most important? Which is the most interesting?
