ANTHROPOLOGY

ORIGIN/EVOLUTION

 The science of the origins and development of human beings and their cultures is called
anthropology. The word anthropology is derived from two Greek words: anthropos meaning
“man” or “human” and logos, meaning “thought” or “reason.” Anthropologists investigate the
whole range of human development and behavior, including biological variation, geographic
distribution, evolutionary history, cultural history, and social relationships. Anthropologists aim
to study and present their human subjects in a clear and unbiased way. They attempt to achieve
this by observing subjects in their local environment. Anthropologists then describe interactions
and customs, a process known as ethnography. By participating in the everyday life of their
subjects, anthropologists can better understand and explain the purpose of local institutions,
culture, and practices. This process is known as participant-observation.

BIOLOGICAL/PHYSICAL

 Description

Biological anthropology is the study of the historical and present development of the
human species. It is particularly interested in figuring out the reasons behind the current
diversity of the human population. A wide range of disciplines, including human paleontology,
evolutionary biology, genetics, comparative anatomy and physiology, primate behavior, human
behavioral ecology, and human biology are included within this broad description.

The study of physical anthropology has largely concentrated on figuring out where
humans fit into the natural order, contrasting them with lesser monkeys, and examining the
distinctions between modern humans and their hominin and nonhuman predecessors. The field
formerly focused on categorizing people into what were considered to be unique types known
as "races," but discoveries of genetics and elements like blood type in the late 20th century
showed that the concept of race has no biological basis. Physical anthropologists now focus on
the gradual changes in a particular physical trait in human populations spread over a region or
environment. Physical anthropology has drawn on the fields of comparative anatomy, evolution,
genetics, and archaeology to achieve its objectives.

Physical or biological anthropology deals with the evolution of humans, their variability,
and adaptations to environmental stresses. Using an evolutionary perspective, we examine not
only the physical form of humans - the bones, muscles, and organs - but also how it functions to
allow survival and reproduction.

PHYSIOLOGICAL

 Description
Physiological anthropology aims ultimately at biological elucidation of human nature.
Until recently, physiological anthropologists studied human nature from various viewpoints
including the variability and adaptability of humans. There has been a traditional stream of
physiological study in anthropology. Physiological anthropology clarifies this point and
emphasizes its importance. We have to admit that we live in an environment that is completely
different from that in which our ancestors lived.
Development and spread of artificial lighting and air conditioning contributed to
improvement of some aspects of our living environment but they created problems such as a
lifestyle characterized by reversal of day and night, and cooling disorder. Mechanization of
production equipment and transportation facilities caused noise pollution, vibration pollution
and atmospheric contamination.
Physiological anthropology has attracted much attention because it has been expected
to bring about clear solutions to these challenges faced by human beings

HISTORIA OF ANTHROPOLOGIA

Age of Enlightenment

- Many scholars argue that modern anthropology developed during the Age of
Enlightenment, a cultural movement of 18th century Europe that focused on the
power of reason to advance society and knowledge. Enlightenment scholars aimed
to understand human behavior and society as phenomena that followed defined
principles. A History of Anthropology is an unparalleled account of theoretical
developments in anthropology from the 1920s to the present, including
functionalism, structuralism, hermeneutics, neo-Marxism and discourse analysis.

Evolutionary Origin

- The purpose of anthropology is to understand the evolutionary origin. The genetic

material, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), contains information about the evolutionary history of
life. Both the relationships amongst organisms and the times of their divergence can be inferred
from DNA sequences. Anthropological geneticists use DNA sequences to infer the evolutionary
history of humans and their primate relatives. We review the basic methodology used to infer
these relationships. We then review the anthropological genetic evidence for modern human
origins. We conclude that modern humans evolved recently in Africa and then left to colonize
the rest of the world within the last 50,000 years, largely replacing the other human groups that
they encountered. Modern humans likely exchanged genes with Neanderthals prior to or early
during their expansion out of Africa.

Distinctiveness

- The purpose of anthropology is to know our distinctiveness as a species. Human

distinctiveness in all its facets is best understood as an evolving uniqueness that emerged over
time in response to the convergence of diverse factors, development, situations and challenges.
A particularly significant factor is that this was not purely biological factors but is a result of the
interaction of cultural and biological factors. These diverse biological and cultural evolutionary
adaptations coalesced to produce a qualitative difference.6 The evolution of complex morality is
probably particularly to be associated with development of symbolic thought, human self-
reflection, larger social formations and increased interaction between different groups of
humans. Symbolic thought enables reflection on abstract concepts, while increased social
interaction within larger social formation requires common understandings of appropriate and
inappropriate behaviour.

Diversity

- The purpose of anthropology is to understand the great diversity in our forms of

social existence across the world and through time. In that Anthropology is
concerned with the unity and diversity of humanity (and related primates) and
of human culture and society from a comparative and global perspective, the
question of human diversity, and the responsibility of humans to one another, is at
the very core of the discipline. Yet anthropologists today recognize the long history
of the ways in which our research practices, past and present, are complicit in – and
at times active perpetrators of – the domination, exploitation, and colonization of
fellow humans. In light of this legacy we have a pronounced responsibility to address
the ways that anthropology, as a social science and humanistic scholarly practice
contributes to, re-inscribes, or enacts discriminatory and colonial violence. It is for
this reason that the Department of Anthropology chartered, at the behest of the
graduate student body, a Diversity and Decolonization Committee, in order to
determine and take a course of action.
Any attempt to address the reproduction of inequality in contemporary anthropology
must engage the discipline’s history of entanglement with colonialism and the fabrication of
categories of race, sex, gender, and ability that we live with today. The growth of anthropology
as a discipline was long marked by ambivalence towards reigning power structures, and very
often
 defined more by collaboration with the projects of empire. While we celebrate
forebearers such as Zora Neale Hurston, whose literary ethnographic work and its attention to
themes of justice, equity, and inclusion are celebrated across disciplines, there have been many
who built careers in anthropology through colonial administration, advancing the trope of the
“disappearing native” in public discourse, theory-making in the service of cold-war geopolitics,
or through other weaponizations of anthropological knowledge.