antropology

Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. It seeks to understand the diversity of cultures, languages, biological variation, and the ways people live, think, and organize themselves across time and space.

Its traditional subfields are cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and biological (physical) anthropology. Cultural anthropology examines social norms, beliefs, and practices; linguistic anthropology studies how language shapes and reflects social life; archaeology investigates past material remains to reconstruct lifeways; biological anthropology focuses on human evolution, genetics, anatomy, and variation.

Fieldwork and qualitative methods are central, especially ethnography and participant observation. Other methods include comparative analysis, surveys, artifact analysis, and laboratory techniques such as genetics, osteology, and dating methods used in physical anthropology.

Anthropology emerged as a modern discipline in the 19th century and expanded through the 20th century. Notable contributors include Franz Boas, Bronisław Malinowski, Margaret Mead, and Claude Lévi-Strauss, who advanced approaches in culture, social structure, and human thought. Ethical concerns and reflexivity have shaped contemporary practice.

Today anthropology is interdisciplinary and applied, engaging with globalization, migration, health, development, heritage preservation, and human rights. Its aim is to provide holistic, comparative explanations of human life that account for local particularities as well as broad patterns.