Friday, August 27, 2010

Diversity in anthropolgy

Discussion requirements:
Discuss how ethnology, anthropological linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology each study change in human beings and human culture over time.

Response:

Ethnology is essentially the study of culture. Culture is what an individual picks up from their society. So, ethnology seeks to understand the practices, habits, rituals an so forth, of a society.

Anthropological linguistics specialize in language and its mode of transmission. They seek to understand how it is that a common culture can be subdivided by different languages. And what the impact of this subdivision is on the future of the various languages. Or the opposite could be true. Why do two different cultures use the same language. It has been said that England and America are two nations divided by a common language.

Archeology is similar to ethnology but looks at the remnants of past cultures to discern how and why people lived the way they did. As explained in the PowerPoint, it is not the seeking of fossils but rather the things that were discarded, abandoned or simply left behind by people.

Physical anthropology looks at the physical evolution of the body. It attempts to identify stages of development and the reasons for such changes. For example, people who carry things on their had-do they have flatter parietal bones of skull? What about those people who lived in cold environments-were they hairier than those from warmer climates?

No comments:

Post a Comment