What is Anthropology?

First things first: Anthropology in its simplest terms is anything and everything that has to do with human life on earth. How humans cope with life and death, how humans survive in the world, or how different groups of humans interact, differ, and are similar are just a few of the countless things that an anthropologist can study.

Indiana Jones as a professor--how most
real archaeologists survive.

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with an emphasis in Archaeology, which, in the American school of Anthropology, is one of the four main branches of the field of anthropology: Archaeology, Socio-cultural Anthropology, Biological or Physical Anthropology, and Linguistic Anthropology. Archaeologists study the remains of cultures of the past. Physical or biological anthropologists study the physical attributes of humans, and linguistic anthropologists study human language and how it defines and is defined by culture. Socio-cultural anthropologists, are those who immerse themselves in a particular culture to learn more about it, usually to learn about a specific aspect of that culture. Each one of these four branches of anthropology consists of countless paths to follow in the never-ending exploration of the human condition. There is a niche for just about everyone.

Anthropology is defined by a single, pervasive question: “What does it mean to be human?”