Four Subfields Of Anthropology Analysis

Apartheid was a racial segregation system that happened in South Africa between 1948 and 1994. Non-white people were prevented from living with white people and voting (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). This seems to be a clear case of racism and discrimination that assumed people should be treated according to their skin colour. Sometimes, lack of information about how cultural or environmental aspects may define customs and characteristics can lead to racism and discrimination. In contrast, anthropology’s approach is to understand human differences to show that each belief and practice deserve appreciation. In the Miami’s University course People of the world lecture “What is anthropology” (2014), professor Mark Peterson defines what anthropology is, presents some questions that anthropologists do, and what differences are between anthropology and other human sciences to show that there is not superior or inferior culture, but that each culture is worthy of respect. …show more content…
He also presents and defines the four subfields of anthropology, which are cultural anthropology, archaeological anthropology, biological anthropology and linguistic anthropology. However, even though anthropology is divided into four subfields, they try to answer the same question: What does make human beings unique? Peterson further explains the main aspects of anthropology and gives the difference between anthropology and other human sciences. To finish, professor Peterson points out that anthropology is defined as a perspective and holistic human study, and he gives the five characteristics of this type of study, which are relativism, empirical, adaptionalist, comparative and