Anthropology
The study of humankind in all times and places.
Holistic perspective
A fundamental principle of anthropology: that the various parts of human culture and biology must be viewed in the broadest possible context in order to understand their interconnections and interdependence.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that the ways of one's culture are the only proper ones.
Culture-bound
Looking at the world and reality based on the assumptions and values of one's own culture.
Co-sleeping
Worldwide sleeping arrangement (not typical in the US) where the baby sleeps with its parents or mother. Lowers risk of SIDS.
Applied antrhopology
The use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems, often for a specific client.
Medical anthropology
A specialization in anthropology that combines theoretical and applied approaches from cultural and biological anthropology with the study of human health and disease.
Physical anthropology
The systematic study of humans as biological organisms; also known as biological anthropology.
Molecular anthropology
A branch of biological anthropology that uses genetic and biochemical techniques to test hypotheses about human evolution, adaption, and variation.
Paleoanthropology
The study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species; the study of human evolution.
Biocultural
Focusing on the interaction of biology and culture.
Primataology
The study of living and fossil primates.
Forensic anthropology
Applied sub field of physical anthropology that specializes in the identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes.
Cultural anthropology
Also known as sociocultural anthropology. The study of customary patterns in human behavior, thought and feelings. It focuses on humans as culture-producing and culture-reproducing creatures.
Culture
A society's shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior and are reflected in that behavior.
Ethnography
A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork.
Fieldwork
The term anthropologists use for on-location research.
Participant observation
In ethnography, the technique of learning a people's culture through social participation and personal observation within the community being studied, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended period of tim
Ethnology
The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative or historical point of view, utilizing ethnographic accounts and developing anthropological theories that help explain why certain important differences or similarities occur among groups.
Linguistic anthropology
The study of human languages- looking at their structure, history, and relation to social and cultural aspects.
Discourse
An extended communication on a particular subject.
Archaeology
The study of human cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data.
Bioarchaeology
The archaeological study of human remains, emphasizing the preservation of cultural and social processes in the skeleton.
Cultural resource management
A branch of archaeology tied to government policies or for the protection of cultural resources and involving surveying and/or excavating archaeological and historical remains threatened by construction or development.
Empirical
Based on observations rather than on intuition or faith.
Hypothesis
A tentative explanation of the relationships between certain phenomena.
Theory
In science, an explanation of natural phenomena, supported by a reliable body of data.
Franz Boas
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Matilda Coxe Stevenson
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HIV in Africa
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Informed consent
Formal recorded agreement to participate in research; federally mandated for all research in the United States and Europe.
American Anthropological Association (AAA)
Formalized 1971, revised 1998 and 2009. Created a code of Ethics that lays out the rules and ideals applicable to anthropologists in all subdisciplines. "... must do everything in their power to ensure that their research does not harm the safety, dignity
Globalization
Worldwide interconnectedness, evidenced in global movements of natural resources, trade goods, human labor, finance capital, information, and infectious diseases.
Organ trade in India
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State
Politically organized territory that is internationally recognized.
Nation
Socially organized body of people who share ethnicity; a common origin, language, and cultural heritage.