Anthropology is the scientific study of humankind, spanning human biological evolution, the archaeology of past societies, the diversity of living cultures, and the structure of human languages. It grew gradually out of Enlightenment era writing rather than from one founding text, and its fieldwork methods, living for extended periods inside the community being studied, were set largely by Bronislaw Malinowski's work in the 1910s and 1920s. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Central QuestionSourced to the subject's own accountWhat do the full range of human biological variation and cultural practice, studied comparatively across every society rather than assumed from any one, reveal about what is universal to being human and what is not? 1 ScopeSourced to the subject's own accountAnthropology is the holistic study of humanity, encompassing human biology and evolution, past and present cultures and societies, and the development of language, usually organized into biological, cultural, linguistic and archaeological branches. 1 SignificanceSourced to the subject's own accountFranz Boas, trained in physics and geography before turning to ethnography, established the four-field American model of anthropology and argued against the racial hierarchies common in nineteenth century social science, insisting each culture be understood on its own terms rather than ranked against a single standard of progress. 1 Disputed
Founded YearSourced to the subject's own accountEdward Burnett Tylor's Primitive Culture (1871) established the discipline's central concept of culture and is commonly cited as founding the modern academic discipline; institutional roots reach back earlier still, to the Ethnological Society of London (1843) and the Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris (1859). Anthropology
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Founded By
Tylor's Primitive Culture, published in 1871, is the year recorded as when the field was founded.
Source History of Anthropology (Wikipedia)
Boas is credited as founder of the modern American four-field tradition rather than of anthropology as such, which has older European roots.
Source History of Anthropology (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist
Source A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (Wikipedia)
Source Alfred Russel Wallace (Wikipedia)
Source Bronislaw Malinowski (Wikipedia)
Source Cheikh Anta Diop (Wikipedia)
Source Claude Levi-Strauss (Wikipedia)
Source Dell Hymes (Wikipedia)
Source Derek Freeman (Wikipedia)
Source Donald Johanson (Wikipedia)
Source Edward Burnett Tylor (Wikipedia)
Source Francisc Rainer (Wikipedia)
Source Jane Goodall (Wikipedia)
Source Louis Leakey (Wikipedia)
Source Margaret Mead (Wikipedia)
Source Mark Stoneking (Wikipedia)
Source Mary Leakey (Wikipedia)
Source Peter Freuchen (Wikipedia)
Source Rebecca Cann (Wikipedia)
Source Richard Leakey (Wikipedia)
Source Thomas Henry Huxley (Wikipedia)
Source William Johnson Sollas, Wikipedia
Has Theory
Source Cultural Relativism (Wikipedia)
Source Ethnography (Wikipedia)
Source Kinship (Wikipedia)
Source Participant Observation (Wikipedia)
Studies
Source Cultural Relativism (Wikipedia)
Source Ethnography (Wikipedia)
Source Kinship (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. History of Anthropology (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
History of anthropology in this article refers primarily to the 18th- and 19th-century precursors of modern anthropology. The term anthropology itself, innovated as a Neo-Latin scientific word during the Renaissance, has always meant "the study of man".
- Founded By: Edward Burnett Tylor
- Founded By: Franz Boas
View the Source Rebecca Cann (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Rebecca Cann, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: Rebecca Cann, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Anthropology, genetics, ornithology
View the Source Mark Stoneking (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Mark Stoneking, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: Mark Stoneking, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Anthropology, population genetics
View the Source William Johnson Sollas, Wikipedia
Has Scientist: William Johnson Sollas, Infobox, fieldsQuote, Has Scientist: William Johnson Sollas, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: geology and anthropology
View the Source Francisc Rainer (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Francisc Rainer, Infobox, fields
Infobox fields: Pathology; Morphology; Microbiology; Kinesiology; Biological anthropology
Has Scientist: Francisc Rainer, Lead sentence
Francisc Iosif Rainer (December 28, 1874, August 4, 1944) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian pathologist, physiologist and anthropologist.
View the SourceAlfred Russel Wallace (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace, Lead sentence
Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823-7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and illustrator.
View the Source Jane Goodall (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Jane Goodall, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Jane Goodall, Lead sentence
Dame Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall ( ; 3April 19341October 2025) was an English primatologist and anthropologist.
View the Source Thomas Henry Huxley (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Thomas Henry Huxley, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Thomas Henry Huxley, Lead sentence
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825-29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialised in comparative anatomy.
View the Source Cheikh Anta Diop (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Cheikh Anta Diop, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Cheikh Anta Diop, Lead sentence
Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923-7 February 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture.
View the Source Wikipedia
WikipediaHas Scientist: Kenneth Pike, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Kenneth Pike, Lead sentence
Kenneth Lee Pike (June 9, 1912 - December 31, 2000) was an American linguist and anthropologist.
View the Source Dell Hymes (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Dell Hymes, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Dell Hymes, Lead sentence
Dell Hathaway Hymes (June 7, 1927, in Portland, Oregon, November 13, 2009, in Charlottesville, Virginia) was a linguist, sociolinguist, anthropologist, and folklorist who established disciplinary foundations for the comparative, ethnographic study of language use.
View the Source Peter Freuchen (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Peter Freuchen, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Peter Freuchen, Lead sentence
Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen (20 February 1886-2 September 1957) was a Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist.
View the Source Ethnography (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Theory: Ethnography, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Theory: Ethnography, Lead sentence
Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures.
View the Source Kinship (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Theory: Kinship, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Theory: Kinship, Lead sentence
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated.
View the Source Louis Leakey (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Louis Leakey, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Louis Leakey, Lead sentence
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903-1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary
View the Source Mary Leakey (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Mary Leakey, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Mary Leakey, Lead sentence
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913-9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape believed to be ancestral to humans.
View the Source Donald Johanson (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Scientist: Donald Johanson, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Donald Johanson, Lead sentence
Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist.
View the Source Richard Leakey (Wikipedia)
Has Scientist: Richard Leakey, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Scientist: Richard Leakey, Lead sentence
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944-2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician.
View the Source Anthropology (Wikipedia)
In Group: Mind and Behavior Sciences, LeadQuote, In Group: Mind and Behavior Sciences, Lead
is the scientific study of humanity that crosses biology and sociology, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present a
View the Source Participant Observation (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHas Theory: Participant Observation, Lead, sentence 1Quote, Has Theory: Participant Observation, Lead, sentence 1
Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography.
View the Source Cultural Relativism (Wikipedia)
WikipediaStudies: Cultural Relativism, Lead, sentence 1Quote, Studies: Cultural Relativism, Lead, sentence 1
Cultural relativism is the view that the values (such as moral values) of a culture must be understood in their own cultural context and not judged according to the standards of a different culture.
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