ABSTRACT
The discipline of anthropology seeks to understand the many intricate aspects of what it means to be human. Derived from the Greek word anthropos, meaning “human,” and logia, referring to the “study of,” anthropology seeks to shed light on human behavior, biology, language, and culture in past and present contexts. Anthropology is a holistic discipline that encompasses multiple subdisciplines. The four most common subdisciplines are archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and physical/biological anthropology. These subdisciplines are not mutually exclusive, and each seeks to define and interpret various aspects of the human condition. Archaeology reconstructs the history of past populations through contextual analysis of the artifacts and structures (i.e., material culture) that these populations have left behind. Sociocultural anthropology uses observation and interviews of participants to understand cultural groups or subcultures. Linguistic anthropology investigates the origins and use of language, as well as language changes over time. Physical/biological anthropology studies human biological origins, adaptation, and variation in an evolutionary context, as well as the life histories of our nonhuman primate relatives. Each subdiscipline of anthropology is broken down further into smaller, more specialized subfields or applied areas of study that focus on specific aspects of what it means to be human. Figure 1.1 illustrates several common subfields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and physical/biological anthropology.
