There are several different divisions of anthropology. Anthropology itself is broad— surfacing all factors of human life, culture, evolution, and behavior. There are four major categories of anthropology: biological, cultural, linguistic, and archeological. Today, we will briefly examine  each category and you will discover which class of anthropology suits you.

If human evolution and genetics peak your interest, biological anthropology may be an intriguing subject to explore. This branch focuses on the evolution and adaptations of the human species. To fully study evolution, we first study our fossil ancestors and primates. Many biological anthropologists also learned about primate behavior by observing their diets, lifestyle, and adaptations to environmental obstacles in the wild; but mostly, they analyze skeletal remains and understand the pathway of human evolution. Biological anthropology covers not only human behavior and adaptation, but investigates population differences and patterns within our current day. Some biological anthropologists also gather information from forensic consultations for law enforcement.

Cultural anthropology relates directly to societal beliefs, cultural practices, and political organizations all across the world. Originally, cultural anthropology studied and attempted to reconstruct past historical societies, but has occluded due to the lack of historical documents and records. Recently, cultural anthropology merged into researching and studying diversity that has vanished. The modern world has experienced and still is experiencing globalization, where various continents are confronted with population growth, technological advances, and more. Cultures of influential societies dominate over the more obscure, possibly resulting in around 75% of the world’s languages, and cultural practices today vanishing by the end of the 21st century. Cultural anthropologists study all societies, whether isolated or modern and well-known. This branch of anthropology has several connections to other fields of study such as political science, linguistic and prehistory anthropology, and sociology, including developing a subcategory of psychiatry: ethnopsychiatry.

Have you ever tried to communicate with a friend during class while a teacher was giving a lecture? Or even just give them a look without saying anything? You still communicated, however, it was done non-verbally. Linguistic anthropologists focus on understanding how languages mature over time, social and cultural influences on nonverbal communication, and the structure of different languages. As languages shape human culture and life, this field of study emphasizes the relationship between language and culture within various human societies. Linguists learn different languages by listening to native speakers speak their language; they then determine the rules of each sound made, what they all mean, and the structure of the sentences.

If you would like to be a detective and build assumptions from limited pieces of evidence, you might enjoy the study of archaeology. By analyzing, dating, and excavating, archaeologists are able to recover the early history of past cultures and societies. They can determine aspects of human life from as little as the food that was eaten, to how societies were formed, along with reasons for geographical migration. It is interesting to think about what you would have been like, living in this world many, many years ago. What kind of area would you and your family live in? What good would you produce and trade with others? This subdivision of anthropology consists of several types of itself as well. There are classical archaeologists, focusing on the ancient civilizations of the Middle East and Mediterranean World, historical archaeologists who are interested in recovering undocumented aspects of modern history, prehistoric archaeologists who study the ancient pre-societal aspects of human life around the world, and lastly, zooarchaeologists and underwater archaeologists. Although there are various types of archaeology, all archaeologists aspire to understand early societies and discover historical stories that are even out of a historian’s reach.

Have you figured out which field of anthropology is fit for you? Anthropology is a diverse topic, explored by many individuals that are interested in why our world is the way it is today. Here, we will explore the many paths that anthropology takes us. This blog will later deepen into the subject of ethnomusicology, so stay tuned for more posts!