Fields of Anthropology

Fields of Anthropology

• Applied (Practicing) Anthropology: About half of all professional anthropologists are applied, or practicing, anthropologists who may be trained in one or more of the subfields of anthropology.
• Specialization: Applied anthropologists may specialize in fields such as Economic Anthropology, Political Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Cultural Ecology, and Medical Anthropology.

The Relevance of Anthropology

• Anthropological studies can illustrate why other people are the way they are, both culturally and physically.
• To understand humans, it is essential to study humans in all times and places.

Online Activity: The Relevance of Anthropology

• Dr. Wade Davis, an anthropologist and ethnobotanist, discusses cultural relativism and the importance of anthropology in the modern age.

Part II: Definition of Sociology

• Sociology derives from the Latin word "socius" (companion) and the Greek word "logos" (speech or reason).
• Sociology is a systematic and objective study of human social life, groups, and societies.
• According to Howard Becker, sociology can best be understood as the study of people "doing things together".

Fields of Anthropology

• Biological Anthropology:
  • Human Paleontology: studies the emergence of humans and their later evolution.
  • Human Variation: studies how and why contemporary human populations vary biologically.
• Cultural Anthropology:
  • Culture refers to the customary ways that a particular population or society thinks and behaves.
  • Includes subfields such as Archaeology, Linguistics, and Ethnology.
• Archaeology:
  • Tries to reconstruct history from the remains of human cultures.
  • Most studies deal with prehistory, while some specialize in historical archaeology.
• Anthropological Linguistics:
  • Includes subfields such as Historical Linguistics, Descriptive or Structural Linguistics, and Sociolinguistics.
• Ethnology:
  • Concerned with patterns of thought and behavior.
  • Types of ethnologists include Ethnographers, Ethnohistorians, and Cross-Cultural Researchers.

The Importance of Sociology in Academia

• Sociology helps in looking deeply and neutrally into societal issues.
• It provides theoretical tools and methods for understanding social issues that affect society.

Historical Development of Sociology

• August Comte: key concepts include social static and social dynamic.
• Karl Marx: key concepts include class conflict, alienation, and historical materialism.
• Emile Durkheim: key concept includes social fact.
• Max Weber: key concepts include social action and subjective meanings.
• Herbert Spencer: key concept includes social Darwinism.
• Harriet Martineau: an active advocate of abolition of slavery and gender issues.

Subdisciplines in Sociology

• The Field of Social Organization and Theory of Social Order: focuses on institutions and groups, their formation and change, manner of functioning, relation to individuals and to each other.
• Social Control: focuses on the ways in which members of a society influence one another to maintain social order.
• Social Change: focuses on the way society and institutions change over time.
• Social Processes: focuses on the pattern in which social change takes place, and the modes of such processes.

Learn about the different fields of anthropology, including applied anthropology, and its various subfields such as economic, political, and psychological anthropology.