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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropology | 8/10 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:09:55.121817+00:00 | kb-cron |
Evolutionary anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and the relation between hominins and non-hominin primates. Evolutionary anthropology is based in natural science and social science, combining the human development with socioeconomic factors. Evolutionary anthropology is concerned with both the biological and cultural evolution of humans, past and present. It is based on a scientific approach, and brings together fields such as archaeology, behavioral ecology, psychology, primatology, and genetics. It is a dynamic and interdisciplinary field, drawing on many lines of evidence to understand the human experience, past and present.
=== Forensic ===
Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of decomposition. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification of deceased individuals whose remains are decomposed, burned, mutilated, or otherwise unrecognizable. The adjective "forensic" refers to the application of this subfield of science to a court of law.
=== Palaeoanthropology ===
Paleoanthropology combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology. It is the study of ancient humans, as evidenced by fossil hominid remains, such as petrifacted bones and footprints. The genetics and morphology of specimens are crucial to this field. Markers on specimens, such as enamel fractures and dental decay on teeth, can also give insight into the behaviour and diet of past populations.
== Organizations == Contemporary anthropology is an established science with academic departments at most universities and colleges. The largest organization of anthropologists is the American Anthropological Association (AAA), founded in 1903. Its members are anthropologists from around the globe. In 1989, a group of European and American scholars in anthropology established the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), which serves as a major professional organization for anthropologists working in Europe. The EASA seeks to advance the status of anthropology in Europe and to increase the visibility of marginalized anthropological traditions, thereby contributing to the project of a global or world anthropology. Hundreds of other organizations exist in the various sub-fields of anthropology, sometimes divided up by nation or region, and many anthropologists work with collaborators in other disciplines, such as geology, physics, zoology, paleontology, anatomy, music theory, art history, sociology and so on, belonging to professional societies in those disciplines as well.
=== List of major organizations ===
== Ethics == As the field has matured, it has debated and arrived at ethical principles aimed at protecting both the subjects of anthropological research and the researchers themselves, and professional societies have generated codes of ethics. Anthropologists, like other researchers (especially historians and scientists engaged in field research), have over time assisted state policies and projects, especially colonialism. Some commentators have contended:
That the discipline grew out of colonialism, perhaps was in league with it, and derives some of its key notions from it, consciously or not. (See, for example, Gough, Pels, and Salemink, but cf. Lewis 2004). That ethnographic work is often ahistorical, writing about people as if they were "out of time" in an "ethnographic present" (Johannes Fabian, Time and Its Other). In his article "The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and Its Consequences," Herbert S. Lewis critiqued older anthropological works that presented other cultures as if they were strange and unusual. He argued that while those researchers' findings should not be discarded, the field should learn from its mistakes.
=== Cultural relativism === As part of their quest for scientific objectivity, present-day anthropologists typically advocate cultural relativism, which influences all subfields of anthropology. This is the notion that cultures should not be judged by another's values or viewpoints, but be examined dispassionately on their own terms. There should be no notions, in good anthropology, of one culture being better or worse than another culture. Ethical commitments in anthropology include noticing and documenting genocide, infanticide, racism, sexism, mutilation (including circumcision and subincision), and torture. Topics like racism, slavery, and human sacrifice attract anthropological attention and theories ranging from nutritional deficiencies, to genes, to acculturation, to colonialism, have been proposed to explain their origins and continued recurrences. To illustrate the depth of an anthropological approach, one can take just one of these topics, such as racism, and find thousands of anthropological references spanning all major and minor subfields.