Anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is a social science that studies human beings in a holistic manner. To cover the subject of the study, anthropology uses tools and knowledge produced by the natural sciences and social sciences. The aspiration of the discipline of anthropology is to produce knowledge about human beings in various areas, but always as part of a society . Thus, attempts to encompass both the biological evolution of our species , development and livelihoods of people who have disappeared. The science studies the social structures of today and the diversity of cultural expressions and languages that characterize humanity.

Anthropology is the scientific study of humankind; it strives for a comprehensive understanding of and proper appreciation for our species within the earth's history. As such, anthropology is grounded in the empirical facts of the special sciences and the logical argumentation of critical thought. Furthermore, scientific evidence is supplemented with rational speculation, especially when facts are lacking. Ongoing advances in science and technology continuously add new information to the growing discipline of anthropology, thereby strengthening some concepts and hypotheses, while modifying or dismissing others. However, socio-cultural anthropologists work closely with anthropological linguists in studying other societies with different cultures (particularly non-literate peoples with a “primitive” technology). One goal is to derive meaningful concepts and generalizations from the vast range of empirical evidence.

Social evolution refers to social or cultural change over relatively long periods of time. By social is meant having to do with two or more organisms of the same species engaged-directly or indirectly-in pattern interaction; by cultural is meant having to do with the way of life of a social group, insofar as that way of life is a social rather than a biological acquisition. If the price of gasoline goes up, that is a social change (specifically, an economic one). If the price goes high enough and stays high, people's travel habits may actually change; that would be a cultural change. If the means of transportation themselves undergo significant change, that would be a cultural evolutionary change.

The various facets of the human being is involved in the specialization of anthropology. Each of the fields of human study is involved in the development of disciplines that are now considered independent sciences, although they maintain have constant dialogue between them. This is the Physical Anthropology , the archeology , the linguistic and social anthropology . Very often, the term applies only to Anthropology, which in turn has diversified into many branches, depending on theoretical orientation. The subject of the study is a result of interaction between social anthropology and other disciplines (Tylor, 2011).

Anthropology was established as an independent discipline during the second half of the nineteenth century. One factor that favored its emergence was the spread of the theory of evolution , which was presented by Herbert Spencer. The first anthropologists thought that as the species became more complex with time, societies and cultures of humans should also follow the same process of evolution to produce complex structures. A number of anthropologists pioneers ...