Is Anthropology just an interesting academic discipline that is limited to the study of the origin and development of Humans, or has it a direct relevance to the business of tourism and adventure?

Is Anthropology just an interesting academic discipline that is limited to the study of the origin and development of Humans, or has it a direct relevance to the business of tourism and adventure?

Introduction

The industry of tourism continues to expand all over the world. The industry has expanded not merely in terms of the arrival numbers but has expanded in forms and types, which is why its impact and importance has increased globally, as well. Simultaneously, the study of anthropology of tourism has also grown. The study of the phenomenon of tourism is complex, especially for a discipline as ambitious as anthropology. Of its many variables and facets, anthropologists always find something to satisfy your craving for knowledge.

The emergence of new images of tourism product is established between the likes of the leisure class and the trend towards democratization-popularization of the same tastes (emulation) (Burns, 2010). That is, if we understand tourism as the need for the man to get out of their environment, it is conceivable that democratization (mass tourism) creates the need for a new exit to the collection points. Hence the constant appearance of new playgrounds and the pattern through anthropological studies remains the same, that is, discovery by a select tourism, commoditization and mass discovery.

Anthropology

Anthropology is a social science which is based on the study of the humans in holistic manners. In order to conduct such studies, the anthropology utilizes the knowledge and tools which are produced by the other social sciences. The aspirations of the discipline of anthropology are producing knowledge about humans in various areas, but always as part of a society (Smith, 2009). Thus, it attempts to cover both the biological evolution of our species, the development and the livelihoods of our ancestors, the social structures of the present diversity of expressions, the culture and the language that characterize humanity.

Anthropology was established as an independent discipline in the second half of the nineteenth century. One factor that favoured its emergence was the spread of the theory of evolution, which in the field of studies of society gave rise to social evolutionism. Early anthropologists thought that as species evolved from organisms, simple to more complex, societies and cultures of humans should follow the same process of evolution to produce complex structures as their own society (Nash, 2001).

Anthropology is, above all, an integrative science that studies man in the context of society and culture to which he belongs. It can be defined as the science that deals with the study of the origin and development of the full range of human variability and modes of behaviour through social time and space, i.e. biosocial process of existence of the human species (MacLeod & Carrier, 2010). Anthropology is divided into several sub-disciplines and specialties:

The social and cultural anthropology: the study of cultures and societies ...