Discussing Various Fields and Subfields of Anthropology

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
DISCUSSING VARIOUS FIELDS AND SUBFIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE
FORMATION OF AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
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Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
Anthropology refers to the scientific study of the human beings, the behavior as is
demonstrated by the human beings as well as the human societies that have been existent in the
past and continue to do so in the present. The subject further facilitates the study of the primates,
the early hominids and the human beings (Fabinyi, Evans & Foale, 2014). The people who
involve themselves in the discipline of anthropology are known to be the anthropologists. The
anthropologists tend to develop their researches and base them on the factors like the biological
behaviors, culture, language that are used by the humans.
The anthropologists are also observed to have been dealing with the behavior as well as
the biological features of the primates who have been inhabiting the world along with the human
beings. The study of anthropology can be divided into four distinct fields which generally come
together to form an anthropological perspective (Hicks, 2013). The following essay attempts to
shed light on the four major sub-fields of anthropology. The essay nears a conclusion with the
discussion on the contribution of each of the sub-fields of anthropology towards the formation of
the anthropological perspective.

2SOCIOLOGY
One of the major sub-fields of anthropology is the biological anthropology. The
biological anthropology deals with the conduction of the systematic studies in the field of the
various aspects of the human beings as well as species that are close to human that are non-
cultural in nature. The non-cultural aspects generally refer to the factors that are inherited by the
concerned species or the human beings and are not acquired by them in the due course of their
lives. The species that are considered to belong to the group closer to the human beings include
the animals like the apes, the monkey and the other primates. The biological anthropology
further deals with the fossil ancestors of the human beings as well (Turner et al., 2018). The key
interest that drives the biological anthropologists is the changes that were faced by the ancestors
of the human beings.
The biological anthropologists tend to deal with the issues that are related to the evolution
mechanisms that have led to the evolution of the human beings from their ancestors who are
considered to be the primates. The biological anthropologists are often observed to deal with the
three separated areas of research. The three separated research fields include paleoanthropology,
primatology and the human biology. The biological anthropologists are known to have been
dealing in one of the three aforementioned research areas during their course of work. The
human biology consists of the research on the human beings (Willermet, 2016). Primatology
deals with the studies that are conducted on the non-human primates. The field of
paleoanthropology deals with the researches on the fossil ancestors of the human race.

3SOCIOLOGY
The other major subfield in the realm of anthropology refer to the field of the cultural
anthropology. The area of cultural anthropology refers to the study and the research that is
conducted on the various cultures that are present and are followed by the people from all over
the world. The major focus of the cultural anthropology lies in the matters that are related to the
political and the social organizations that tend to influence the human lives (Orlove, Crane &
Roncoli, 2016). The cultural anthropologists further deal with the patterns of marriage, the
various kinship bonds, the patterns of economy that are followed within the society as well as the
religious beliefs that are maintained and abided by the people belonging to different schools of
religious thoughts.
It is generally observed that the cultural anthropologists tend to study the happenings of
the present-day world and society rather than deal with the lifestyles that were followed within
the societies that existed in the ancient times. The cultural anthropologists tend to deal with the
various issues and the development that is faced by the world due to the ever-changing nature of
the society as well as the cultures that are followed by the residents of the world (Wolf, 2015).
The cultural anthropologists, through their study tend to reveal that the several isolated societies
within the world have lost their identities as well as their culture due to the influence of another
dominating culture.