What is Anthropology?

The term ‘anthropology’ is derived from the Greek words anthropos, meaning ‘human’, and logos, meaning ‘study of’. But finding a definition for Anthropology and placing its origin in time is not so easy: as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects, through archaeological, biological, ethnological, and linguistic research, from the past to the present, Anthropology is a ‘science without time’: it can be considered an extraordinary result of a knowledge which belongs to different contexts, temporally and spatially separated. The question about ‘when’ to begin speaking of Anthropology indeed is still open: since a category like ‘man’ is so wide, it is impossible to date back this science. Maybe the roots can be found among Greek philosophers, or other ancient civilisations of the world. In Europe, originally there had been the “Sociètè des Observateurs de l’Homme” of Paris, founded in 1799 by Louis-François Jauffret (1770-1850). It lasted only a few short years, but its statute contains most of the principal topics of modern anthropological sciences.
M. Freedman (1978, L’antropologia culturale. Laterza, Roma-Bari) wrote that if Anthropology should be considered a global discipline – as the study of culture and of cultures, of society and of societies, etc. – it would be impossible to find somebody who can practise it. More simply, Clyde Kluckhohn, (1949, Mirror for Man. New York: McGraw-Hill) said that anthropology must be considered as a mirror where any individual can see an image of himself watching the people of the world with their marvellous diversity.

The mission of Anthropology

Anthropology is a social science. The mission of Anthropology is to advance the understanding of human biological variation and to compare different cultures. There is no culture in the world that should deserve no interest for Anthropology, for any society and any individual represents an important and irreplaceable source of knowledge.
Anthropology is also a biological science that deals with the adaptations, variability, and evolution of human beings and their living and fossil relatives. We share our genetic heredity with all the people of the world: the perspectives on the first stages of human evolution demonstrated that the oldest forms of mankind – our ancestors – most likely inhabited East Africa.
Africa is the country whose people mostly suffered for racism and slavery. So, the anthropological evolutionary perspective can represent a powerful way to counteract growing racist attitudes and apartheid. Any anthropologist is then a citizen of the world, and Anthropology is one of the sciences that can play a primary role in defending human rights.

The Anthropology sub-fields

Anthropology has a number of sub-fields with different aims and specialties.

Physical Anthropology: Physical anthropology is a biological science that deals with the adaptations, variability, and evolution of human beings and their living and fossil relatives. Because it studies human biology in the context of human culture and behaviour, physical anthropology is also a social science (see: AAPA-American Association of Physical Anthropologists: http://www.physanth.org/).

Medical Anthropology. Medical Anthropology is the study of the relationship between human behaviour, social life, and health within an anthropological context. It is a sub-field of anthropology that draws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand the factors which influence health and well being (broadly defined), the experience and distribution of illness, the prevention and treatment of sickness, healing processes, the social relations of therapy management, and the cultural importance of using pluralistic medical systems. It encompasses studies of ethnomedicine and history of medicine, nutrition, human development in relation to health and disease, health-care services, public health and health policy, and the language and speech of medicine. The discipline of medical anthropology deals with popular health culture and the social construction of knowledge and politics of science and technology. Medical anthropologists examine how the health of individuals, societies, and the environment are affected by interrelationships between humans and other species. (see: http://www.medanth.org/; http://www.medanthro.net/definition.html; see also the mission statement of the Society for Medical Anthropology's journal, the Medical Anthropology Quarterly. )

Forensic Anthropology. Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology to the legal process. The identification of skeletal, badly decomposed, burned, or otherwise unidentified human remains is important for both legal and humanitarian reasons. Forensic anthropologists apply standard scientific techniques developed in physical anthropology to identify human remains and to assist in the crime scene. Forensic anthropologists frequently work in conjunction with forensic pathologists, odontologists, taphonomists and homicide investigators to discover evidence of crime, to identify a dead body, to find out the causes of death, and to trace back the time of death. In addition, forensic anthropologists work to suggest the sex, age, ancestry, stature, body proportions and unique features of a dead from the skeleton.
(see http://www.csuchico.edu/anth/ABFA/ )

Cultural Anthropology (synonym: Social Anthropology). Cultural Anthropology is the branch of anthropology that deals with human culture and society. In Europe, Cultural Anthropology is referred to as social anthropology. A subdiscipline of anthropology, it concerns with the non-biological, behavioral aspects of society; i.e. the social, linguistic, and technological components underlying human behavior. Two important branches of cultural anthropology are ethnography (the study of living cultures and their artefacts, or ‘material’ culture) and ethnology (which attempts to compare cultures using ethnographic evidence). The term ‘etnology’ is derived from the Greek words ethnos, meaning ‘people’, and logos, meaning ‘study of’. Cultural Anthropology can also be defined as a major division of anthropology that deals with the study of culture in all of its aspects and that uses the methods, concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography and ethnology, folklore, and linguistics in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world.
(see:http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/ cultural+anthropology; http://www.britannica.com/.)