What is Anthropology?

Anthropology comes from the Greek words anthropos meaning human and logia meaning study. Therefore, anthropology literally means the study of humans. Anthropologists seek to understand humans from the earliest hominids millions of years ago to people living today using many different methods. Anthropology draws on knowledge from many areas including social science, biological science, humanities and physical science. There are many areas anthropologist study including...

• Cultural Anthropology - Seeks to understand the internal logic of societies through ethnography
• Linguistic Anthropology - Seeks to explain the very nature of language and its use by humans
• Archaeology - Retrieves artifacts from the past and places them in context to understand our history and its relevance for today
• Physical Anthropology - Traces our biological origins, evolutionary development, and genetic diversity
• Forensic Anthropology - Seeks to identify skeletal, or otherwise decomposed, human remains
• Medical Anthropology - Seeks to better understand factors that influence peoples' health and well being
• Environmental Anthropology - examines the relationships between humans and their environment across space and time