Introduction to Anthropology

Associate Professor Dr. Md. Faruk Shah

Adjunct Faculty Member
Department of Development Studies
Bangladesh University of Professionals
 Understanding Anthropology
• The word anthropology origins from Greek words anthropos means man or
human and logos means study. Thus anthropology is the scientific study of
humankind.
• Anthropology explores human diversity in time and space (Kottak, 2000)
• As a discipline, it seeks to produce useful generalizations about humankind, their
behavior and culture (Haviland, 1990).
• It focuses both on the biological and cultural aspects of humans.
• Anthropology has methodological tools to arrive at trustworthy understanding of
human diversity, adaptation and change.
• Thus anthropology covers all aspects of humans of past, present and future.
 The Four-field Approach in Anthropology

oPhysical anthropology studies humans systematically as biological

organisms.
oSocial/Cultural anthropology focuses the sociocultural aspects of
human beings.
oLinguistic anthropology studies the relationship between language
and society.
oArcheology describes and explains of past human behavior and
culture through material remains (Kottak, 2000)
Physical/Biological Anthropology
This field basically focuses on:
o Human evolution
o Human genetics
o Human growth and development
o Human biological plasticity
o Other non-human primates (Kottak, 2000)
 Social/Cultural Anthropology
This field studies society and culture and engages in two kinds of
activity:
o Ethnography: provides a detailed description of a community, society
or culture
o Ethnology: analyses and compares of cultures of people
Ethnography Ethnology
Description of culture Difference in cultures
Descriptive in nature Comparative in nature
Single views about culture General views across cultures
Requires fieldwork to collect data Uses data of others
Group specific Cross-cultural
 Linguistic Anthropology

Linguistic anthropology studies human language as part of human

culture. Branches of this field are:
Descriptive or structural linguistics
Historical Linguistics
Socio Linguistics
 Archaeology

“The archeologist seeks not only to reconstruct the daily life and customs
of peoples who lived in the past but also to trace cultural changes in their
societies and to offer possible explanations of those changes” (Ember &
Ember, 1990:5).
 Sub-Fields of Anthropology…
• Economic Anthropology: focuses on human economic behavior
• Political Anthropology: political organization, political system and power structure
• Ecological Anthropology: relation between environment and humans.
• Symbolic and Interpretative Anthropology: meaning and significance of symbols in a
given society or community
• Psychological Anthropology: interaction of cultural and mental process
• Medical Anthropology: human perceptions about health and illness, health seeking
behavior, etc.
• Anthropology of Rural Society: sociocultural and economic aspects of rural community
• Urban Anthropology: impacts of urban environment on human behavior
• Legal Anthropology: cross-cultural study of social ordering
• Educational Anthropology: relation between education and culture
 Sub-field of Anthropology: Applied
Anthropology
• Applied Anthropology refers to the application of anthropological data,
perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve social problems.
• “Applied anthropologists ...play role in making plans, implementing those, and
thus initiate change in societies they study” (Mair, 1968).
• They Identify the needs for change that local people perceive.
• Applied anthropologists may protect local people from harmful policies and
projects.
• Thus they contribute to development in many ways including critics to modernity,
policy researcher, evaluator, impact assessor, planner, needs assessor, trainer,
advocate, cultural broker.
• Cultural brokering is the act of bridging, linking, or mediating between groups or
persons of different cultural backgrounds for the purpose of reducing conflict or
producing change (Jezewski, 1990)
 Anthropology Vs Sociology
Sociology deals with society and anthropology with culture.
Question: is there any society without culture?
Is there any culture without society?

Anthropology
Focuses on micro society
Emphasizes on culture and communities
Provide comparative picture
Sociology
Focuses on macro society
Emphasizes on social institutions and
problems
Tendency to generalization

Studies any part of a society as a whole Studies parts of a society

(holistic)
Participant observation is the tradition of To a large extent sociologists use survey and
anthropological research statistical methods
Thank You and Questions???