Anthropology: the study of differences and similarities, both biological and cultural, in

human populations. Concerned with typical biological and cultural characteristics of

human populations in all periods and in all parts of the world.
 Derived from Greek Anthropos for “man, human” and logos for “study”
 Anthropologists are interested in discovering when, where and why humans
appeared on the earth, how and why they have changed since then, and how
and why modern human populations vary in certain physical features.
 Interested in how and why societies in the past and present have varied in their
customary ideas and practices.
A Short History of Anthropology in Canada
 Fathers of Canadian ethnology were the missionaries who lived in French
Canada in the 1600s.
o Interested in knowing the lifeways and beliefs of the native people they
lived among, and they provided the detailed descriptions that were used
by modern anthropologists.
 Grew from records written by Jesuits and other missionaries, or explorer-traders,
or two centuries later from teachers in our early universities in the mid-1800s.
 Geological Survey of Canada – made records of their travels, including details
about the native people they met and observed in the course of their work.
 George Mercer Dawson – responsible for the establishment of a professional
Canadian anthropology.
 1910 – Wilfrid Laurier established a Division of Anthropology within the
Geological Survey, marking the beginning
o The Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa housed its offices
The Scope of Anthropology
 Anthropology is broader in scope, both geographically and historically.
 Concerned with all varieties of people throughout the world, not just those close
at hand or within a limited area, and they are also interested in people of all time
periods.
 Anthropology traces the development of humans
 Traditionally, anthropologists concentrated on non-Western cultures and left the
study of Western civilization and similarly complex societies, with their recorded
histories to other disciplines.
The Holistic Approach
 Anthropology takes a holistic (multi-faceted) approach to the study of human
beings.
o Study people as well as their experiences
 Many different specialities describe many aspects of human existence, both past
and present
The Anthropological Curiosity
 All-inclusive human science
 All questions asked in anthropology deal with diversity (both biological and
cultural) within and between populations in both the past and present
Four Sub-Fields of Anthropology
 Biological or physical anthropology: concerned primarily with the biological
diversity of humans, their ancestors, and closely related primates
o Seeks to answer a variety of questions about the human biological
condition in both past and present populations
o Palaeoanthropology: emergence of humans and their evolutionary
relationship with other primates
 Search for and study the buried, hardened remains or impressions,
known as fossils, of human, prehumans, and related animals.
o Primates: a member of the mammalian order, primates, divided into the
two suborders of prosimians and anthropoids
 Chimpanzees share over 95% of their genes with humans
o All living people belong to one species, Homo Sapiens, for all can
successfully interbreed
o Physical anthropologists use the principles, concepts, and techniques of at
least three other disciplines to further their understanding of human
bioligcal diversity: human genetics, population biology, epidemiology
 Archaeology: the study of past human cultures, primarily through their material
remains
o Seeks to reconstruct daily life and customs of peoples who lived in the
past and to trace cultural changes and offer possible explanations for
those changes.
o Must reconstruct history from the remains of human cultures
o Deal with the written past, the time before written records
o Historical archaeology: study of the remains of recent peoples who left
written records
o Collect materials from sites of human occupation
 Must be unearthed
 Socio-cultural anthropology: concerned with the study of recent or contemporary
cultures
o Interested in how populations or societies vary in their cultural features
o Culture: the customary ways of thinking and behaving of a particular
population or society
o Ethnologists seek to understand how and why peoples today and in the
recent past differ in their customary ways of thinking and acting
 Use data collected through observation and interviews with people
o Prehistoric: time before written records
 o Ethnographer: a person who spends some time living with, interviewing,
and observing a group of people so that he or she can describe their
customs
o Ethnohistorian: studies how the way of life of a particular group of people
has changed over time.
 Rely on reports of others
 Concerned with people who did not leave their own written records
o Cross-cultural researcher: interested in discovering why certain cultural
characteristics may be found in some societies but not in others.
 Rely on data from samples of different cultures to explain cultural
variation
o Cultural anthropology: the study of cultural variation and universals
o Ethnology: concerned with cultural patterns of behaviour and with the
ways in which these patterns differ in contemporary societies.
 Anthropological linguistics: anthropological study of languages
o Fieldwork where language did not have a written form
o Had to construct a dictionary and grammar
o Historical linguistics: the study of how languages change over time and
how they may be related

1. Anthropology is literally the study of human beings. It differs from other

disciplines concerned with people in that it is broader in scope. It is concerned
with humans in all places of the world (not simply those places close to us), and it
traces human evolution and cultural development from millions of years ago to
the present day
2. Anthropology is distinguished by it holistic approach to the study of human
beings. Anthropologists study not only all varieties of people but also all aspects
of those peoples’ experiences.
3. Anthropologists are concerned with identifying and explaining diversity within and
between human populations, both in the present and in the past.
4. There are four major sub-fields of anthropology: physical or biological
anthropology, archaeology, socio-cultural anthropology, and anthropological
linguistics
5. Physical or biological anthropology is one of the major fields of the discipline.
Physical anthropology studies the emergence of humans and their evolutionary
relationship to other primates (palaeoanthropology). It also studies how and why
contemporary human populations vary biologically.
6. Archaeologists seek to reconstruct the daily life and customs of prehistoric
peoples and trace cultural changes and offer possible explanations of those
changes. Archaeologists try to reconstruct history from the remains of human
cultures.
7. Socio-cultural anthropologists seek to understand how and why peoples of today
and the recent past differ in their customary ways of thinking and acting. One
type of ethnologist, the ethnographer, usually spends a year or so living with and
talking to a particular population and observing their customs. Later, she or he
may prepare a detailed report of the group’s behaviour, which is called an
ethnography. Another type of ethnologist, the ethnohistorian, investigates written
documents to determine how the ways of life of a particular group of people have
changed over time. A third type of ethnologist, the cross-cultural researcher,
studies data collected by ethnographers and ethnohistorians for a sample of
cultures and attempts to discover which explanations of particular customs may
be generally applicable.
8. Anthropological linguists are concerned with the emergence of language and with
the divergence of languages over time (historical linguists). They also study how
contemporary languages differ, both in construction (structural or descriptive
linguistics) and in actual speech (sociolinguistics)
9. In all four major sub-fields of anthropology, there are applied anthropologists,
people who apply anthropological knowledge to achieve more practical goals,
usually in the service of an agency outside the traditional academic setting.
10. Anthropology may help people to be more tolerant. Anthropological studies can
show us why other people are the way they are, both culturally and physically.
Customs or actions that appear improper or offensive to us may be other
people’s adaptations to particular environmental and social conditions.
11. Anthropology is also valuable in that knowledge of our past may bring us both a
feeling of humility and a sense of accomplishment. Like any other form of life, we
have no guarantee that any particular human population will perpetuate itself
indefinitely. Yet knowledge of our achievements in the past may give us
confidence in our ability to solve the problems of the future.