What is Anthropology? Anthropology is the study of human culture and development; where humans are studied through time to measure development and the ways that development occurs. Anthropology combines various other gestalt sciences to get a sort of complete picture of the human race.
Why is Anthropology often called an eclectic science? The term eclectic is valid due to the fact that Anthropology derives much of the subject matter from its field from large and varied subjects. Anthropology delves in economics, medicine, food, biology, and anything else that is to do with humans. The term science is valid because Anthropologist use the scientific method to develop and critique ideas, theories, and hypotheses. Likewise, they conduct experiments and research data to formulate or prove their hypothesis.
Anthropology can be divided into four different subfields: Cultural, Physical, or Linguistic Anthropology and Archeology.
Archeology deals mainly with material remains and artifacts, and how these give insight on how humans lived in a particular time period. Cultural Anthropology deals with the customs and habits of human thoughts and behavior. Physical Anthropology deals with the biology of humans, and topics such as evolution, adaption to environments, and genetics. Linguistic Anthropology deals with languages. Things such as the history of a language, the formation of languages, or the culture around the language.
Sources: “Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge” by Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride. 11th edition.