MEANING SCOPE AND HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY

-Abhideep Sarkar (M.sc in Anthropology)

Meaning of Anthropology

The world Anthropology is derived from two Greek words “Anthropos” meaning man and
“logos” meaning science. The literal meaning od Anthropology is, therefore the science of
man. Anthropology has been defined by different scholars in different ways in different
periods. According to Herskovits, Anthropology is the study of man and his works. Beals and
Hoijer remark that Anthropology is concerned with all of their works and activities. Some
others have defined it as “The science of man and his works and behaviour”. But man does
not live by himself or in isolation. He is gregarious and lives in a group. So it may be defined
as “The science of groups of men and their productions”

Unlike many other subjects such as physiology, psychology, pathology, economics,

sociology, etc. each of which confines to one aspect only, Anthropology studies various
aspects of man. Anthropologist focuses his attention on men in groups and studies the total
society consisting of different races or peoples of the world- both past and present.

Anthropology is both biological and a social science. It deals on the one hand with a man as a
member of the animal kingdom and on the other with man’s behaviour as a member of the
society. The main objective of anthropology is to “lay open to our view man as he really is, to
unfold to us the secrets of his arts, his passions, and his wants in the past and possibly in the
future”.

Scope of Anthropology

Anthropology is a discipline, which serves the infinite curiosity about human beings
wherever may he be whether on land, air or sea. Anthropology studies the human beings in
all climates and times. Men of the prehistoric as well as the historic past, men of the present
generation and also of coming future come within the purview of anthropologists. But
obviously this discipline is not concerned with a particular man as such; their attention centre
on ‘ men in group’. It perceives man not only as animal but also a social human having a
history. People irrespective of their genders, ages and occupations are considered.
Anthropologists deal with both male and female- old, middle aged and young. Doctors,
lawyers, students, agriculturists, public administrators, bureaucrats, etc. all are taken into
account. Even, the village folk and the city people are investigated with equal attention.

Man has been conceived as the creator of his cultural destiny. Therefore, anthropology is
concerned with a rounded study of man- it studies men at all levels of culture. None of the
other disciplines can be so pervasive. Approach of anthropology is unique in the study of
man. It never analyses human behaviour in peace meal manner. Rather it tries to cover all
aspects; all possible range of human behaviour.

By dint of very nature, anthropology is holistic and comparative. It is a holistic one because it
offers a total study of all aspects of culture and society in an integrated and comprehensive
manner. All aspects of culture, say for example, religion, politics, social life, family, kinship,
economics, athletics, health, technology, etc. are combined into one world. It is believed that
each aspect of culture, directly or indirectly, affects on the other aspects of culture, for better
or for worse. Anthropology is said to be comparative because it takes an account of all human
groups, all types of body, behaviour and values. The whole world is an anthropological
laboratory; it is possible to deduce certain rules of human conduct.

Since the field of anthropology is vast and complicated, it is impossible for any scholar to
acquire mastery over whole of the discipline. On the other hand, though specialization take
place, discipline of anthropology does not at all fail to retain its holistic orientation. It
remains entangled with the organic factors in one side and on the other side it reacts with
social factors. Both types of factors are equally relevant to the subject. In practice,
anthropology accepts and uses the general principal of biology and proceeds further to
formulate a scientific concept of culture. Its field of investigation is extremely dynamic. It
intends to understand the whole development of man and the wide variation of culture as a
result of change over long periods of time.

History of Anthropology

The great Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C) was the first scholar to coin the word
Anthropology. Since the 16th century onwards Anthropology had been interpreted by
different scholars in different ways. The word Anthropology was used in English in an
anonymous book published in 1655, entitled “Anthropology Abstracted”. Here Anthropology
was defined as the history of the human soul and human anatomy. In 1789 Kant, a German
idealist wrote a book entitled Anthropology wherein he said that man had probably originated
from animal. The word Anthropology was included in the British Encyclopaedia in the year
1922.

In fact Anthropology as a scientific discipline got recognition in about the middle of the 19 th
century just after the promulgation of the evolution theory by Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
and Alfred R. Wallace (1823-1913). The books of Darwin namely the origin of species
(1859) and the Descent of man (1871) brought about a great sensation in the world. At that
time the scholars were turning increasingly to the study of different cultures of man- both
primitive and advanced. The 20th century sees the rapid march of Anthropology in its diverse
fields.

History of Anthropology in India

The history of anthropological studies began in 1774 A.D. with the establishment of Asiatic
Society of Bengal. Sir William Jones was its founder president. The object of this society was
to study “nature and man” in India and under its auspices a number of research papers were
published. Since then, the British administrators, Christian missionaries, travellers and
foreign scholars made studies on non-literate people and contributed their writings to the
journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and to other journals, established later on.

Anthropology as a scholarly discipline received formal recognition in 1920 when the

University of Calcutta included the subject in its curricula. In Assam, the subject of
Anthropology was introduced for the first time in 1974 in Cotton College, Guwahati. The
establishment of the department of Anthropology under the auspices of Gauhati University in
1948 marks the beginning of scientific study of Anthropology in Asssam. In 1966 Dibrugarh
University also introduced Anthropology as the subject of study.
L.P. Vidyarthi and B.K. Rai in their book “Tribal Culture of India” in 1977 had divided the
history of Indian Anthropology into three periods such as

1) The formative period (1774-1919)

2) The constructive period (1920-1949)
3) The analytical period (1950-1990)

During the formative period some ethnographic studies were made by collecting data on
different groups of people.

The constructive period began with the sociological studies in Bombay University and the
Anthropological studies in Calcutta University. These two research centres attracted many
academicians and scholars to undertake Anthropological studies. The Anthropological Survey
of India was also established within this constructive period. Anthropology was born and
brought up by under the care of British anthropologists is said to become matured during this
period. Anthropologists during this period had undertaken ethnological and monograph
studies with emphasis on researches in kinship and social organisation.

During the analytical period Anthropology made a departure from descriptive phase to
analytical one. At this time the Anthropologists became attracted to the Government, and job
opportunities were developed.

Recently we have entered into a phase of evaluation that began in 1990. Since western
anthropology under the influence of British and American failed to explain the complexity of
Indian society, a critical appraisal and reorientation of the discipline was needed for Indian
situation. Indian scholars had developed indigenous models intending to apprehend the
cultural matrix of India. Indian Anthropology demands for an active, humanistic and critical
outlook towards the subject matter in order to overcome the barrier of intellectual colonialism
and neo-colonialism. Indian Anthropology from 1990’s have been much concerned with
problems of own society, both empirical and normative. New types of data are encountered;
the concepts, methods and theories are continually shaped and reshaped. New ways of
looking at new types of data have made Indian Anthropology much more distinctive ever
before.