The word Anthropology, derived from the Greek words “anthropos” and “logia”, is defined as the study of human societies, cultures and development, and is used in multiple aspects of daily life whether you know it or not!
Modern anthropology is said to have developed in the 17 and 18 century during the “Age Of Enlightenment”, a period of time where ideas concerning God, humanity etc. were solidified. Although this is when anthropology is said to have been developed, concepts of anthropology can date all the way back to ancient Greek times, as they too had a curiosity about human habits and interactions. It can be argued that, as the world is becoming increasingly global, anthropology is more important than ever. This is as in the world there is more (economic) development nowadays and more interaction between different cultures, meaning that anthropology can draw conclusions about, as stated by the University of Princeton, both local and global modern-day problems.
There are many famous anthropologists, most of whom I assure you haven’t heard of, but all of whom have had a large impact on our world. One famous anthropologist you may have heard of is Jane Goodall. Primarily known for her work on understanding primate interactions, Dame Jane Goodall revolutionized social-cultural anthropology through her work on understanding chimpanzee behaviour, which helped develop the understanding that chimpanzees and humans share many similar behaviours, whereas before it was thought that human behaviour is exclusive and unique to any other mammals. Another famous anthropologist, who is often referred to as the “father of anthropology”, was Franz Boas. Ahead of his time, Boas became famous by challenging the past traditionalist views, especially concerning of cultural superiority, which is the view that Western culture was dominant over all other cultures. He aimed to point out the similarities between different cultures, thus debunking that one is better than the other.
As the research into anthropology is, in theory endless, because it concerns the future, past and present, it is split into four branches: physical, socio-cultural, archaeological and linguistic anthropology, all of which concern a different aspect of anthropology. For example, physical anthropology deals with the evolution of the human species as well as nature, a big area in this is the development in the understanding of Homo sapiens, man's close relative who died out around 900,000 years ago. On the other hand, linguistic anthropology works on understanding the emergence of languages and communication.
As you can see, anthropology’s role in the modern world is not to be overlooked, as without it we would be stuck with outdated views and no knowledge of human development as well as many other things.
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