Anthropology is a holistic discipline, meaning that it searches for interrelationships among all parts of its subject. We look for these things trying to see how they relate to other things.
Anthropology is also a comparative discipline, which seeks to understand what makes people different and what they all have in common.
Cool Facts!
- The first anthropology program in the United States was established at the University of Pennyslvania in 1886.
- The study of foreign peoples and cultures could not flourish until improved modes of transportation and communication developed.
- The invention of the magnetic compass allowed seafarers on better-equipped sailing ships to travel to truly faraway places and to meet people who differed radically from themselves.
- Europeans gradually recognized "savages" as fellow members of one species.
- Anthropology is distinct because of its focus on the interconnections and interdependence of all aspects of the human experience in all places and times.
- Anthropologists are prepared to understand how these bodies of knowledge relate to color-naming practices in different human societies.
- It is a discipline concerned with unbiased evaluation of diverse human systems.