ANTHROPOLOGY - deals with the study of origin, evolution and development of man and his society.
SCIENCES AND DISCIPLINE
1. Social Sciences - deals with human behavior in its social and cultural aspects, which include the following disciplines; history, economics, humanities, social work, philosophy, psychology, political science and those areas of education that deal with social contexts of learning and the relation of the school to the social environment.
2. History - is the chronological record of past and significant events that affects the nation or its institutions, usually including explanation of their causes. In the explanation of the causes of historical events, sociologists and anthropologists attempt to show the social and cultural patterns, and motivations that brought such historical events.
3. Humanities - Emphasizes human subjectivity and dramatizes the human experiences containing the records of human ideals, values, goals, aspirations, experiences, and sentiments that are ultimately expressed in human feelings and thoughts.
4. Political Science - sociologists and anthropologists study the political behavior of man that focuses on the different aspects of government, political institutions, its processes and political parties.
5. Economics - sociologists and anthropologist study the management of resources in society and its various dimensions such as the determination and distribution of wealth, and wealth sources/ generation of the nation also the production, distribution and consumption of goods, and services in the market sociologists and anthropologists are also interested in the technology and the economic values that greatly affect the general welfare of society.
6. Psychology - the study of mental processes and human behavior closely unites psychology to sociology and anthropology, and also when these common concerns (social behavior, perceptions, values, etc) are merged.
7. Biology - a more recent field of sociobiology has emerged in the study of society and culture. Socio-biologists do not only focus on the biological and evolutionary bases of human behavior but also study the processes on how heredity influences cultural transmissions.
8. Cyber Technology - does modern technology (computer, cell-phone, digital equipment, etc.) affect or alter the traditional processes in sociology such as in socialization, communication, and interaction?
Characteristics of anthropology
1. Culture - Anthropologists study the cultures of many societies in man's history. According to the University of Idaho, culture is the primary component of the study of anthropology. Defined as a group of people and the organizational structure of its society, culture involves a system of symbols that help to organize values for this group. It is also defined as the primary influence on how people in a society act.
2. Holistic Approach 3. Field Work Interviewing, sampling, observing people. 4. Multiply Theories - there are as many ways to study and understand culture, i.e., theories, as there are ways culture can be constructed in the human experience. 5. Purposes of Anthropology - anthropology seeks to understand the human conditions throughout time and in the contemporary, and apply that knowledge to improve the human condition. Theory of evolution Theory of evolution is a scientific theory that explains the evolution of things around us. The famous theory of evolution is from Charles Darwins five theories: 1. Evolution: species come and go through time, while they exist they change. 2. Common descent: organisms are descended from one, or several common ancestors and have diversified from this original stock 3. Species multiply: the diversification of life involves populations of one species diverging until they become two separate species; this has probably occurred billions of times on earth 4. Gradualism: evolutionary change occurs through incremental small changes within populations; new species are not created suddenly. 5. Natural selection: evolutionary changes occurs through variation between individuals; some variants give the individual an extra survival probability. Difference between Man and Animals 1. Self-reflect 2. Knowledge about good and bad 3. Intellect 4. Morality Culture - Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Characteristics of Culture 1. Culture is learned. It is not biological; we do not inherit it. Much of learning culture is unconscious. We learn culture from families, peers, institutions, and media. The process of learning culture is known as enculturation. While all humans have basic biological needs such as food, sleep, and sex, the way we fulfill those needs varies cross-culturally. 2. Culture is shared. Because we share culture with other members of our group, we are able to act in socially appropriate ways as well as predict how others will act. Despite the shared nature of culture, that doesnt mean that culture is homogenous (the same). The multiple cultural worlds that exist in any society are discussed in detail below. 3. Culture is based on symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else. Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. They only have meaning when people in a culture agree on their use. Language, money and art are all symbols. Language is the most important symbolic component of culture. 4. Culture is integrated. This is known as holism, or the various parts of a culture being interconnected. All aspects of a culture are related to one another and to truly understand a culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not only a few. 5. Culture is dynamic. This simply means that cultures interact and change. Because most cultures are in contact with other cultures, they exchange ideas and symbols. All cultures change, otherwise, they would have problems adapting to changing environments. And because cultures are integrated, if one component in the system changes, it is likely that the entire system must adjust.
Components of culture
Cognitive Culture 1. Symbol - anything that represents something else. It can be either a material object (a flag, a cross) or a non-material element (a sound, a gesture). As members of a culture, we are constantly and thoroughly surrounded by symbols: when we stop at the red light, we obey a symbolic command. Symbols carry shared meanings among people and they can be used to produce loyalty or hostility. 2. Language - Language is essential to give members of society a sense of identity
Normative Culture 1. Norms - guides or models of behavior which tell what is proper and what is not, appropriate or inappropriate, right or wrong. 2. Values - are general abstract moral principles defining what is right or wrong, good or evil, desirable or undesirable. In other words, values often come in pairs of positive and negative terms: we value freedom and dislike oppression, we value education and dislike ignorance or we value individualism and fear collectivism.
Sociology vs. Anthropology By meaning Sociology is the development, structure, interaction and behavior of organized groups of human beings while Anthropology in the other hand is the study of human beings and their ancestor through time in terms of physical character, environmental and social relations and culture.
By Specializations Sociology specializes on Social institutions (economic life, education, family, politics, and religion), Social stratification (by age, gender, race, ethnicity, and social class) social change, and social problems. Also specialize on complex and modern societies while Anthropology specializes on Sociocultural, linguistic, physical, and archaeological. Simple, traditional and non-industrialized societies.
Why anthropology related to History? History is the outline of things that have happened over time. Not necessarily meaty, but it provides a framework for the other two studies.
Sociology and anthropology are basically the same except that sociology studies current social issues and anthropology focuses on ancient civilization. History is necessary to put these studies in perspective in that it provides a timeline.