Anthropology Vs Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology and archaeology are two fields of study that have plenty in common with each other along with uncommon with each other. Both archeology and cultural anthropology focus on studying culture, the difference is these fields study them in different ways (Waweru). Cultural anthropology is a term that is in everyday lives and topics. When thinking of anthropology one may think of the study of extinct human cultures or the study of past human cultures commonly referred to as archaeology (Goodenough). However, cultural anthropology is every where and consist of the study of living people of all walks of life. Cultural anthropologist can explore cultural facts, their meanings and provide realistic solutions personally. This …show more content…
Having said that, we read Nigel Barley’s “The Innocent Anthropologist” to get a rough overview about how cultural anthropologist study living and historic cultures. With this new knowledge, it was now possible to distinguish the similarities and differences between the cultural anthropology field and the archaeology field. In the book “The Innocent Anthropologist”, Nigel Barley, and British anthropologist, speaks on his experience when he goes to West Africa to live with the Dowayo. The Dowayo are a pagan tribe in the mountains of Northern Cameroon. During this journey, Barley learns a lot about the Dowayo people such as rituals, history, economic structures, culture, and just their way of life in general. Throughout this book, Barley describes his experiences with disaster, illness, and quite hostile experiences. He also points out many difficulties that he discovered in …show more content…
Language may be the most remarkable and the most important characteristic of all human creation (Duranti). In cultural anthropology, studying phonology, the study of language and sounds, and how its written and spoken is a much more accurate learning process as you are learning straight from the source itself (Dilley). Nigel Barley learned that the Dowayos language was tonal. Tonal language is that each word has different tones in which it is spoken and the tones affects its meaning (Dilley). The Dowayos had four tones which is very confusing for someone who is foreign to the language (Barley). One can only learn this and learn this correctly through actually being around Dowayos. Even though archaeologist don’t have this luxury, they break down language through hints, pieces of evidence, and then fill in the gaps as best as possible to come up with an understanding of a certain language. Many times, this is accurate but there will never be concrete evidence on if they are interpreting these languages accurately since no one actually lived with that