Compare And Contrast The Four Approaches To The Study Of Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of the human race throughout time. It is linked to many other social sciences especially human biology, sociology, psychology, etc. Although they may have things in common, anthropology focuses mainly on the connections and interrelationships of all human aspects. Also, anthropology focuses on non-western people and cultures while other social sciences tend to concentrate more on American and European areas. This holistic perspective allows anthropologists to make their cultural perceptions and beliefs from misleading them from their research.
Anthropology is an interdisciplinary subject that consists of four primary sub-fields; physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. These four approaches unite the sciences and humanities together. The two major goals of anthropology are understanding the uniqueness and the diversity in humans and to discover the shared similarities in every individual.
Physical anthropology is the first of the sub-disciplines. It is principally concerned with humans as a biological nature. It is also closely related to the natural and biological sciences. Today, there is a field of study called molecular anthropology that helps with the understanding of human evolution and adaption. These comparisons between …show more content…
The traces left on these material products can reveal information about an individual. In addition, archaeologists also use these traces of skeletal remains and material products to investigate human migration patterns and life ways in broad areas. For example: the shallow cut on any material or skeletal remains can determined many characteristics of a certain individual. There are also sub-disciplines of archaeology and they are as follows: bioarchaeology, historical and pre-historical archaeology and contemporary