anthropology
Anthropology is divided primarily into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology focuses basically on the problems of human evolution, including human paleontology and the study ofraceand of body build or constitution (somatology). It uses the methods ofanthropometry, as well as those of genetics, physiology, and ecology. Cultural anthropology includesarchaeology, which studies the material remains of prehistoric and extinct cultures; ethnography, the descriptive study of living cultures;ethnology, which utilizes the data furnished by ethnography, the recording of living cultures, and archaeology, to analyze and compare the various cultures of humanity; social anthropology, which evolves broader generalizations based partly on the findings of the other social sciences; andlinguistics, the science of language. Applied anthropology is the practical application of anthropological techniques to areas such as industrial relations and minority-group problems. In Europe the term anthropology usually refers to physical anthropology alone.
See A. L. Kroeber,Anthropology(1948; repr. in 2 vol., 1963); C. Kluckhohn,Mirror for Man(1949, repr. 1963); M. J. Herskovits,Cultural Anthropology(1955, repr. 1963); M. Mead and R. L. Bunzel, ed.,The Golden Age of American Anthropology(1960);m·哈里斯The Rise of Anthropological Theory(1968); G. M. Foster,Applied Anthropology(1969);Culture, Man, and Nature(1971); M. J. Leaf,Man, Mind, and Science: A History of Anthropology(1979); A. Kuper,The Invention of Primitive Society: Transformations of an Illusion(1988); P. Rosenau,Post-modernism and the Social Sciences: Insights, Inroads, and Intrusions(1992).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,6th ed. Copyright © 2022, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on:Anthropology: Terms and Concepts