Anthropology meaning: the study of what makes us human

Definition of anthropology in plain words

To define anthropology briefly: it is the study of people in all their variety. Other subjects take one slice of human life. Economics looks at money, psychology at the mind, history at written records. Anthropology tries to see the whole picture, asking how biology, environment, language and customs fit together in a given group.

Its signature method is fieldwork. Researchers live among the people they study, take part in daily life and take careful notes. This is called participant observation, and the written account that results is an ethnography.

The four branches

In the United States the subject is usually split into four fields. Universities in Britain and India often group things differently, using names such as social anthropology, but the same areas appear.

1. Cultural (or social) anthropology: beliefs, family life, rituals, economics and power in living communities.
2. Biological (or physical) anthropology: human evolution, genetics, bones, health and our relationship with other primates.
3. Linguistic anthropology: how language shapes and reflects social life, identity and thought.
4. Archaeology: past societies, studied through tools, buildings, graves and other remains.

Newer applied areas include medical anthropology, forensic anthropology (identifying human remains for courts) and the study of workplaces and digital communities.

Where the word came from

Anthropology is built from two Greek pieces: anthropos, human being, and -logia, a branch of study, the same ending found in biology and geology. English used the word from the 1590s, at first for the study of human nature and the link between body and mind. Anthropologist and anthropological were both in print by 1800. The idea of a fieldwork-based science of cultures grew later, during the 1800s and early 1900s.

Anthropology in example sentences

• My sister switched from engineering to anthropology after a summer volunteering in a remote mountain village.
• The museum's anthropology wing displays fishing nets, masks and cooking pots from five continents.
• A forensic anthropologist helped the police estimate the age of the skeleton.
• The company hired an anthropologist to watch how families actually use their kitchens.
• From an anthropological point of view, a wedding is full of signals about status and belonging.

Anthropology meaning compared with related fields

Sociology and anthropology overlap heavily. A rough rule: sociologists often use surveys and statistics, anthropologists often use long fieldwork and deep description. Key terms you will meet along the way include culture, ethnicity and indigenous.

Using the word correctly

Anthropology is the field; an anthropologist is the person; anthropological describes things linked to the field (anthropological research). Do not confuse it with anthropomorphism, which means giving human traits to animals or objects, or with philanthropy, which shares the Greek root for human but means giving to good causes.

It is usually written without a capital letter unless it starts a sentence or names a specific department. For more terms from research and study, see the science and ideas section.