Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. Anthropologists seek to understand what makes us human by studying human ancestors through archaeological excavation and by observing living cultures throughout the world.
Cultural anthropologists are anthropologists who study both past and
present cultures. They ask questions such as: Why is there social and
political inequality? How does language affect and express culture? What
can we learn about a culture from what the people leave behind?
Biological anthropologists seek to understand how humans adapt to different environments, what causes disease and early death, and how humans evolved from other animals. To do this, they study humans (living and dead), other primates such as monkeys and apes, and human ancestors (fossils).
Archaeologists study human culture by analyzing the objects people have made. They carefully remove from the ground such things as pottery and tools, and they map the locations of houses, trash pits, and burials in order to learn about the daily lives of a people.
Linguistic anthropologists study the many ways people communicate across the globe. They are interested in how language is linked to how we see the world and how we relate to each other. This can mean looking at how language works in all its different forms, and how it changes over time.
As provided by https://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2150
Interesting Anthropology News…
An international team of researchers has found evidence that hot springs existed in Olduvai Gorge — a paleoanthropological site in the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania that has yielded some of the most significant fossils of hominins, such as Paranthropus boisei, Homo habilis and Homo erectus — around 1.7 million years ago. These hydrothermal features may have provided a convenient way to cook food, for instance to boil fresh kills or certain tough tubers and roots, that would have required minimal effort.
Neanderthals may have experienced more pain than average modern humans do, according to new research led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Karolinska Institutet and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.
An international team of genetic researchers has found conclusive evidence for a single contact between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia around 1200 CE.
As provided by: Macat (Director). (2016). An introduction to the discipline of Anthropology [Video file]. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5aglbgTEig&t=26s&ab_channel=Macat
Learn about the field from Macat on Youtube!
Some entertaining comics about the life of Anthropologists and field of Anthropology.
The Anthropology Comics And Cartoons. (2020). Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.cartoonistgroup.com/subject/The-Anthropology-Comics-and-Cartoons.php
Anthropology studies the complexity and diversity of human and nonhuman life in an interconnected world. The Anthropology Department at Wesleyan offers courses on anthropological theories and methods, and topics including urban anthropology, globalization, media studies, consumer culture, archaeology, social movements and activism, development and humanitarianism, and race, gender, and sexuality. Social justice and ethical concerns have always been central to the discipline of anthropology.(5)
Maybe you’ve seen movies with crazy death-defying adventurers searching for treasure, but those scenarios don’t really capture what is means to be an anthropologist. Anthropologists study people by looking at their culture, language, biology, and evolution.
Anthropologists do a lot of different jobs. Some work at universities where they teach classes and do research. They go into the field with the people and material they’re studying to collect information. They then bring back that information to school to study more.
Others work for private groups or the government. Some help solve crimes by looking at human remains. TV shows about solving crime also ask anthropologists to help them create more accurate stories.
Anthropologists study all aspects of what it means to be human and that helps them do many different types of jobs well.
Anthropology and sociology have a number of common ancestors, and use broadly similar theoretical toolkits. However, there are a number of distinctions between the two disciplines’ histories, methodologies, and approaches. Historically, sociologists studied “modern” (Western) societies and social institutions, and anthropologists focused on “primitive” (non-Western) cultures and practices. However, since the 1970s, anthropologists have questioned the very distinction between the primitive and modern, taking the power relations between the West and the so-called Rest as an object of study.
Depending on what level of study you want to do, and what organizations you want to work with, you can do a fair amount of field work with an undergraduate degree. To get funding and bigger research grants and to submit papers to most major publications you may want to pursue a Masters or Doctorate in the field. However you can be an Anthropologist today simply by diving into the field and researching on your own.
Anthropologists made a median salary of $62,410 in 2018. The best-paid 25 percent made $80,230 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $48,020.
As provided by: Sdeviche. (2015, March 13). Top Questions. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://askananthropologist.asu.edu/top-questions
and
Anthropology College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. (2020). Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://clas.ucdenver.edu/anthropology/
Having big brains is one of the things that make us humans. Our ancestors didn’t all have big brains like we do. Our earliest ancestors had brains that were very similar to chimpanzee brains. Chimp brains are big compared to other primates, but not compared to us. As time progressed, the brains of our ancestors got bigger. Finding out why and how this change occurred is central to the study of paleoanthropology.
The leading hypothesis about “how” our brains got bigger is centered around food. Brains require a lot of energy to grow and to maintain. To have a big brain, our ancestors needed to eat food that provided a lot of energy. Scientists think that eating meat and cooking played a major role in the evolution of our brain. Meat and cooked food provide the nutrients and energy necessary to grow brain tissue. So if our ancestors could scavenge or hunt meat, for example, they could grow a larger brain. This explains how our brains got bigger, but we also want to know what the driving force was behind this increase in brain size. Why was having a large brain necessary?
Our reliance on one another, and our complex societies are what drove increases in brain size. Humans are highly social animals. Learning all of the information needed to live in our complex societies requires a long learning period. This is why humans grow for so long. It also requires large brains to store all of that social information. Scientists believe that our reliance on one another (our cooperation) became more important as climate shifted and became more unpredictable. Our ancestors had to figure out clever ways of finding food and surviving in a changing world. To do so they had to rely on one another.
Overall, there isn’t one particular reason why our brains got big. It was a result of several factors: the food we were eating, the climate we were living in, and our increasingly complex societies.
The oldest stone tools anthropologists have found so far are 3.3 million years old. They were from a site called Lomekwi 3 in Kenya. A different kind of tool: Oldowan tools, appear 2.6 million years ago.
To make them, human ancestors broke hard stones in specific ways to create sharp edges they could use. They used Oldowan tools until 1.8 million years ago, when Acheulean tools came on to the scene. These were rocks broken, or flaked, on both sides.
Acheulean tools started disappearing 500,000 years ago when a new technology called the Levallois technique was created. Then stone tools were attached to a handle to make them safer to use. Stone tools continued to be very important for humans right up until metal began being used.
It’s challenging but exciting!
In the field, anthropologists get to collect information (called data) to answer the questions they think are interesting. Different questions require different types of fieldwork. For example: You can camp in a jungle in Belize for two months studying primate groups. You can also work in the deserts of East Africa walking across dry valleys looking for fossils.
Whatever project you work on, it takes a whole team to get it done. Anthropologists, geologists, chemists and other experts all add their knowledge. Students can help too by collecting data. Local people often help organize and carry out travel, housing, and meals.
You bring all of your tools with you: a notebook to record what you see and do; a trowel, if you’re digging for fossils; binoculars if you’re watching primates in high tree tops, a camera to record primates in action. All of these things are important to fieldwork.
Working in the field allows you to travel, meet new people, work hard both mentally and physically, and dive into projects you care about.
As provided by:
What is Anthropology? (2015). Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2150
and
Welsch, R. L., & Vivanco, L. A. (2018). Cultural anthropology: Asking questions about humanity. New York, NY, NY: Oxford University Press.
Anthropologist Ranks Among Best Jobs of 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/anthropologist
Anthropology College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. (2020). Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://clas.ucdenver.edu/anthropology/
The Anthropology Comics And Cartoons. (2020). Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.cartoonistgroup.com/subject/The-Anthropology-Comics-and-Cartoons.php
Author Index. (2020). Abstracts in Anthropology, 76(8), 731-745. doi:10.1177/0001345520941125
Macat (Director). (2016). An introduction to the discipline of Anthropology [Video file]. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5aglbgTEig&t=26s&ab_channel=Macat
Sdeviche. (2015, March 13). Top Questions. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://askananthropologist.asu.edu/top-questions
Welsch, R. L., & Vivanco, L. A. (2018). Cultural anthropology: Asking questions about humanity. New York, NY, NY: Oxford University Press.
What is Anthropology? (2015). Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2150
