This collection of anthropology research paper topics is aimed to provide students and researchers with a comprehensive list of topics within this vast field of study. This list classifies main topics in anthropology into 12 categories:
Some topics may appear in more than one category.
Anthropology is the scientific study of humankind’s origin, biology, and culture. It encompasses a vast—and some might say, untidy—body of knowledge that has rarely been organized. In real-life terms, an informal but yawning gap has existed between those who study culture, especially of present and past historically known societies, and those who wrestle with the issues of human origin.
Anthropology Research Paper Topics
Applied Anthropology Research Paper Topics
- Action anthropology
- Aesthetic appreciation
- Affirmative action
- ALFRED: The ALlele FREquency Database
- Alternative health care
- Anthropology and business
- Anthropology and the Third World
- Artificial intelligence
- Bioethics and anthropology
- Bioinformatics
- Biomedicine
- Biometrics
- Carbon-14 dating
- Careeers in anthropology
- Clinical anthropology
- Counseling
- Dating techniques
- Demography
- Dendrochronology
- Dispute resolution
- DNA testing
- Ecology and anthropology
- Economic anthropology
- Economics and anthropology
- Environmental ethics
- Ethics and anthropology
- Ethnoecology
- Ethnomedicine
- Ethnopharmacology
- Ethnopsychiatry
- Ethnoscience
- Ethnosemantics
- Field methods
- Forensic anthropology
- Forensic artists
- Geomagnetism
- History of anthropology
- Human behavioral ecology
- Human rights and anthropology
- Human rights in the global society
- Intercultural education
- Irrigation
- Justice and anthropology
- Law and anthropology
- Law and society
- Medical genetics
- Multiculturalism
- Museums
- Native studies
- New dating techniques
- Paleomagnetism
- Political anthropology
- Political economy
- Potassium-Argon dating
- Practicing anthropology
- Radiometric dating techniques
- Relative dating techniques
- Rights of indigenous peoples today
- Social Anthropology
- Tutankhamun and Zahi Hawass
- Twin studies
- United Nations and anthropology
- Uranium-Lead dating
- Urban anthropology
- Urban ecology
- Visual Anthropology
- Women’s studies
- Y-STR DNA
- Zoos
Applied anthropology, in its broader sense, is distinguished primarily from academic anthropology as anthropological methods and data put to use outside of the classroom. This is not to say that all anthropological methods and data put to use outside of the classroom is applied anthropology; field research also is anthropological methods and data put to use outside of the classroom, but it can be used for academic purposes, as well as for practical application. Applied anthropology is used to solve practical problems outside of the academic world, and it has appeared under such names as action anthropology, development anthropology, practicing anthropology, and advocacy anthropology among others. Rear more about applied anthropology.
Archaeology Research Paper Topics
- Abu Simbel
- Acheulean culture
- Acropolis
- Altamira cave
- Ancient Crete
- Ancient Egypt
- Ancient Rome
- Angkor Wat
- Archaeology
- Archaeology and gender studies
- Archaeology of war
- Architectural anthropology
- Atapuerca
- Aurignacian culture
- Aztec agriculture
- Babylon
- Biblical archaeology
- Blombos cave
- Burial mounds
- Cave art
- Celtic Europe
- Chichen Itza
- Clovis culture
- Coliseum
- Copper age
- Egyptology
- Environmental archaeology
- Eoliths
- Excavation
- Fa Hien cave
- Fayoum culture
- Folsom culture
- Ghost towns
- Graves
- Great Wall of China
- Hand axes
- Harappa
- Historicism
- History of Anthropology
- History of city
- Indus civilization
- Iron age
- Jarmo
- Koba
- Lascaux cave
- Lazaret cave
- Levalloisian tradition
- Llano culture
- Machu Picchu
- Maritime archaeology
- Mayas
- Medieval archaeology
- Mesolithic cultures
- Mesopotamian civilization
- Metallurgy
- Middens
- Modjokerto
- Mohenjo Daro
- Monte Verde
- Mummies and mummification
- Museums
- National Museum of Anthropology
- Natufian culture
- Nazca culture
- Neandertal burials
- Neandertal evidence
- Neandertal sites
- Neolithic cultures
- Ochre
- Ohio Hopewell
- Oldowan culture
- Olduvai Gorge
- Olmecs
- Orce
- Petra
- Petroglyphs
- Pictographs
- Pottery and ceramics
- Prehistory
- Pu’uhonua o Honaunau
- Pyramids
- Ramses II
- Rapa Nui
- Rock art
- Sahara anthropology
- Salvage archaeology
- Sangiran
- Shanidar cave
- Stonehenge
- Sumerian civilization
- Taj Mahal
- Technology
- Temples
- Tenoctitlan
- Terra Amata
- Tikal
- Tiwanaku [Tiahuanaco]
- Tools and evolution
- Troy
- Tutankhamun and Zahi Hawass
- Ubirr
- Ur
- Urbanism in ancient Egypt
- Uxmal
- Venus of Willendorf
- Vikings
- Zafarraya cave
- Ziggurats
- Zooarchaeology
Archaeology is the study of human cultures through the study of material and environmental remains. The word, derived from ancient Greek, means “the study of antiquity.” Archaeology is one of the four subfields of anthropology, together with biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and social/cultural anthropology. Archaeological remains can take many forms, two of the basic ones being artifacts (any object altered by human hands) and faunal remains, or midden (food remnants such as bone and shell). Artifacts can be anything from simple flaked stone tools and pottery sherds to the most elaborate and priceless objects found in such treasure troves as the tomb of Tutankhamun. These finds constitute the archaeological record, which archaeologists then piece together to interpret as much as they can about the cultures they are studying. Read more about archaeology.
Cultural and Social Anthropology Research Paper Topics
- Aborigines
- Agricultural revolution
- Aleuts
- Algonguians
- Altamira cave
- Anasazi
- Anthropology of war
- Aotearoa (New Zealand)
- Ape culture
- Argentina
- Asante
- Asia
- Athabascan
- Australia
- Australian aborigines
- Aymara
- Balkans
- Baluchistan
- Berdache
- Brazil
- Bride price
- Cannibalism
- Caribs
- Caste system
- Celtic Europe
- Chachapoya Indians
- Chants
- Characteristics of culture
- Childhood
- Childhood studies
- Clans
- Class societies
- Collectors
- Complex Societies
- Configurationalism
- Copper Age
- Cross-cultural research
- Cuba
- Cults
- Cultural adaptation
- Cultural conservation
- Cultural constraints
- Cultural convergence
- Cultural ecology
- Cultural relativism
- Cultural traits
- Cultural tree of life
- Culture
- Culture and personality
- Culture area concept
- Culture change
- Culture of poverty
- Culture shock
- Cyberculture
- Darkness in El Dorado controversy
- Diffusionism
- Division of labor
- Dowry
- Egalitarian societies
- El Ceren
- Elders
- Emics
- Endogamy
- Eskimo acculturation
- Eskimos
- Ethnocentrism
- Ethnographer
- Ethnographic fieldwork
- Ethnographic writing
- Ethnography
- Ethnohistory
- Ethnology
- Etics
- Eudyspluria
- Exogamy
- Extended family
- Feasts and Festivals
- Feuding
- Fiji
- Folk culture
- Folk speech
- Folk speech
- Folkways
- Forms of family
- French structuralism
- Functionalism
- Gangs
- Genocide
- Gerontology
- Globalization
- Great Wall of China
- Guarani Nandeva Indians
- Gypsies
- Haidas
- Haiti
- Hinduism
- History of Anthropology
- Homosexuality
- Hopi Indians
- Horticulture
- Hottentots
- Huari [Wari]
- Human competition and stress
- Human life cycle
- Ik
- Indonesia
- Informants
- Inoku Village
- Intelligence
- Intensive agriculture
- Inuit
- IQ tests
- Iron Age
- Iroquois
- Irrigation
- Israel
- Jewelry
- Jews
- Kibbutz
- Kinship and descent
- Kinship terminology
- Koba
- Kula ring
- Kulturkreise
- Kung Bushmen
- Kwakiutls
- Labor
- Language and culture
- Lapps
- Lascaux cave
- Maasai
- Mana
- Manioc beer
- Ma-ori
- Marquesas
- Marriage
- Matriarchy
- Mbuti Pygmies
- Memes
- Mexico
- Miami Indians
- Migrations
- Modal personality
- Mongolia
- Monogamy
- Mores
- Multiculturalism
- Mundugamor
- Music
- Native Peoples of Central and South America
- Native Peoples of the Great Plains
- Native Peoples of the United States
- Navajo
- Nomads
- Northern Iroquoian Nations
- Nuclear family
- Objectivity in ethnography
- Ojibwa
- Oldowan culture
- Olmecs
- Omaha Indians
- Onas
- Oral literature
- Orality and anthropology
- Ornamentation
- Pacific rim
- Pacific seafaring
- Panama
- Patriarchy
- Peasants
- People’s Republic of China and Taiwan
- Peyote rituals
- Plant cultivatiion
- Political organizations
- Political science
- Polyandry
- Polygamy
- Polygyny
- Polynesians
- Population explosion
- Potlatch
- Qing, the Last Dynasty of China
- Quechua
- Rank and status
- Rank Societies
- Rarotonga
- Rites of passage
- Role and status
- Sambungmachan
- Samburu
- Samoa
- San Bushmen
- Sardinia
- Sartono
- Secret societies
- Segmentary lineage systems
- Sex identity
- Sex roles
- Sexual harassment
- Sexuality
- Siberia
- Simulacra
- Slash-and-burn agriculture
- Slavery
- Social structures
- Sociobiology
- Stereotypes
- Structuralism
- Subcultures
- Sudanese society
- Symboling
- Tahiti
- Taj Mahal
- Tasmania
- Technology
- Textiles and clothing
- Tierra del Fuego
- Tikopia
- Tlingit
- Tlingit culture
- Tonga
- Transcultural psychiatry
- Travel
- Ubirr
- Untouchables
- Urban legends
- Vanishing cultures
- Venezuela
- Venus of Willendorf
- Verification in ethnography
- Villages
- Work and skills
- Yabarana Indians
- Yaganes
- Yanomamo
- Zande
- Zapotecs
- Zulu
- Zuni Indians
Cultural anthropology is the study of human patterns of thought and behavior, and how and why these patterns differ, in contemporary societies. Cultural anthropology is sometimes called social anthropology, sociocultural anthropology, or ethnology. Cultural anthropology also includes pursuits such as ethnography, ethnohistory, and cross-cultural research. Read more about cultural anthropology.
Evolution Research Paper Topics
- Ape biogeography
- Aquatic ape hypothesis
- Arboreal hypothesis
- Arc of evolution
- Australopithecines
- Biological adaptation
- Biological anthropology
- Biological anthropology and neo-Darwinism
- Catastrophism
- Charles Darwin
- Cladistics
- Creationism versus geology
- Darwin and Germany
- Darwin and India
- Darwin and Italy
- Darwinism versus Lamarckism
- Dinosaurian hominid
- Disbelief in evolution
- Dropithecus
- Dynamic integrity
- Evolution education controversy
- Evolution of primate brain
- Evolutionary anthropology
- Evolutionary epistemology
- Evolutionary ethics
- Evolutionary ontology
- Evolutionary psychology
- Extinction
- Fossil record
- Fossils
- Galapagos Islands
- Gigantopithecus
- Hominid taxonomy
- Hominoids
- Homo antecessor
- Homo erectus
- Homo ergaster
- Homo habilis
- Homo sapiens
- Human canopy evolution
- Human evolution
- Human genetics
- Humans and dinosaurs
- India and evolution
- Issues in hominization
- Kenyanthropus platyops
- Kenyapithecus wickeri
- Lucy reconstruction models
- Mass extinctions
- Meganthropus
- Models of evolution
- Modern Darwinism
- Molecular evolution
- Monkey Trial [1925]
- Monogenesis versus polygenesis
- Morphology versus molecules in evolution
- Narmada man
- Natural selection
- Neandertal evidence
- Neandertals
- Neo-Darwinism
- Non-Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms
- Orangutan-human evolution
- Oreopithecus
- Organic evolution
- Origin of life
- Origin of Neo-Darwinism
- Primate extinction
- Primate genetics
- Primate morphology and evolution
- Russia and evolution
- Sahelanthropus tchadensis
- Sexual selection
- Social Darwinism
- State Darwin Museum, Moscow, Russia
- Theories
- Uniformitarianism
- Zinjanthropus boisei
The term ‘evolution’ is widely used to denote the development through time of societies, cultures, and more especially of living species. It is often contrasted with the view that these entities were divinely created as we see them today, and is routinely (but incorrectly according to modern biological theory) associated with the idea of progress. This article outlines the various models of evolution that have been suggested to account for the development of life and social organization, and then shows how the theories were formulated and popularized. Particular attention is paid to the work of Charles Darwin, whose theory of biological evolution by natural selection is now seen as the most influential expression of the basic idea of natural development. However, non- Darwinian evolutionary ideas also played a role in biology and were perceived to have implications for social evolution. Read more about evolution.
Linguistics Research Paper Topics
- Anatomy and physiology of speech
- Animal language
- Ape communication
- Ape intelligence
- Ape language
- Artificial intelligence
- Chants
- Classification of language
- Cognitive science
- Computer languages
- Computers and humankind
- Counseling
- Culture
- Ethnographic semantics
- Ethnographic writing
- Ethnosemantics
- Folk speech
- Folk speech
- Generative grammar
- Global language
- Glottochronology
- Historical linguistics
- History of anthropology
- Intelligence
- Kanzi
- Kinship terminology
- Koko (lowland gorilla)
- Language
- Language and biology
- Language and culture
- Linguistic reconstruction
- Memes
- Myths and mythology
- Oral literature
- Orality and anthropology
- Origin of language
- Paralanguage
- Paralinguistic communication
- Phonetics
- Phonology
- Protolanguage
- Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- Sociolinguistics
- Sociology of language use
- Swahili
- Symboling
- Transformational lingusitics
- Types of language
- Universals in culture
- Universals in language
- Vanishing languages
- Washoe
Linguistic anthropology examines the links between language and culture, including how language relates to thought, social action, identity, and power relations. It is one of the four traditional subfields of American anthropology, sharing with cultural anthropology its aims of explaining social and cultural phenomena, with biological anthropology its concern over language origins and evolution, and with archaeology the goal of understanding cultural histories. Linguistic anthropology has developed through international work across social science disciplines, as researchers attend to language as a key to understanding social phenomena. The discipline overlaps most closely with the sociolinguistic subfield of linguistics. But while sociolinguistics generally considers social factors in order to explain linguistic phenomena, linguistic anthropology aims to explain social and cultural phenomena by considering linguistic information. Read more about linguistic anthropology.
Paleontology Research Paper Topics
- Atapuerca
- Australopithecines
- Dryopithecus
- Fa Hien cave
- Fossil apes
- Fossil record
- Fossils
- Gigantopithecus
- Graves
- Hominid taxonomy
- Hominoids
- Homo antecessor
- Homo erectus
- Homo ergaster
- Homo habilis
- Homo sapiens
- Human evolution
- Human paleontology
- Humans and dinosaurs
- Issues in hominization
- Java man
- Kennewick man
- Kenyanthropus platyops
- Kenyapithecus wickeri
- Lazaret cave
- Lucy reconstruction models
- Meganthropus
- Mungo lady/man
- Neandertal burials
- Neandertal evidence
- Neandertal sites
- Neandertals
- Olduvai Gorge
- Oreopithecus
- Paleoanthropology
- Paleoecology
- Palynology
- Sahelanthropus tchadensis
- Shanidar cave
- Siwalik Hills
- Taphonomy
- Xenophanes
- Zafarraya cave
- Zinjanthropus boisei
- Zooarchaeology
To anyone with a rudimentary understanding of paleontology and anthropology, it may not be readily apparent that these disciplines can be in any way related to one another or useful in informing the other’s primary interests. Anthropology, broadly speaking, is concerned with the study of human culture and behavior, with data provided directly by investigations of modern human populations, as well as historical and ethnographic texts and objects. Paleontology, however, is the investigation of the history of fossil flora and fauna and is, as such, allied closely with geological sciences. Read more about paleontology.
Philosophy and Anthropology
- Altruism
- Bruno, Giordano
- Buber,Martin
- Categorical imperative
- Comte, Auguste
- Condorcet,Marguis de
- Critical realism
- Deleuze, Gilles
- Dennett, Daniel C.
- Derrida, Jacques
- Dewey, John
- Empedocles
- Engels, Friedrich
- Enlightenment versus postmodernism
- Enlightenment, age of
- Entelechy
- Environmental ethics
- Environmental philosophy
- Essentialism
- Ethics and anthropology
- Evolutionary epistemology
- Evolutionary ethics
- Evolutionary ontology
- Feuerbach, Ludwig
- Fromm, Erich
- Hegel, G.W. F.
- Heidegger, Martin
- Henri Bergson
- Heraclitus
- Hermeneutics
- Hobbes, Thomas
- Human dignity
- Human excellence
- Humanism, secular
- India, philosophies of
- Integrity, dynamic
- Kant, Immanuel
- Kropotkin, Prince Peter A.
- Lucretius
- Marx, Karl
- Marxism
- Naturalism
- Neo-Marxism
- Nietzsche, Friedrich
- Pantheism
- Philosophy, dynamic
- Popper, Karl
- Positivism
- Postmodernism
- Pragmatism
- Science, philosophy of
- Spencer, Herbert
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre
- Teleology
- Theories
- Time
- Unamuno,Miguel de
- Vernadsky, Vladimir Ivanovich
- Whitehead, Alfred North
- Xenophanes
Modern philosophical anthropology originated in the 1920s. During the 1940s it became the representative branch of German philosophy. It arose with, and has absorbed, Lebensphilosophie, existentialism, and phenomenology, although it is not identical with them. It has affinities with pragmatism and the sociology of knowledge. Although it is historically based on certain German traditions, it is also indebted to, and largely anticipated by, the eighteenth-century “science of human nature.” It combines the critical traditions of the Enlightenment with an emphasis on dogmatic certitude. Read more about philosophical anthropology.
Psychology and Anthropology
- Agression
- Alienation
- Altruism
- Ape agression
- Ape cognition
- Ape communication
- Ape intelligence
- Ape language
- Apollonian
- Artificial intelligence
- Childhood
- Civil disobedience
- Cognitive ethology
- Cognitive science
- Collective behavior
- Confirgurationalism
- Conflict
- Consciousness
- Counseling
- Crime
- Criminology and genetics
- Cross-cultural research
- Cultural constraints
- Cultural relativism
- Culture and personality
- Culture shock
- Dementia
- Deviance
- Enculturation
- Ethnocentrism
- Ethnopsychiatry
- Eudysphoria
- Evolutionary ethics
- Evolutionary psychology
- Folkways
- Forensic artists
- Forensic psychologists
- Friendships
- Gangs
- Human behavioral ecology
- Human competition and stress
- Human excellence
- Incest taboo
- Intelligence
- Intelligence and genetics
- IQ tests
- Kanzi
- Koko (lowland gorilla)
- Modal personality
- Mores
- Nationalism
- Neo-Freudianism
- Neurotheology
- Norms
- Psychic unity of humankind
- Psychology and genetics
- Reciprocity
- Sex identity
- Sex roles
- Sexuality
- Taboos
- Territoriality
- Transcultural psychiatry
- Twin studies
- Washoe
- Xenophobia
Constructs like “identity,” “self-representation, ” and “personhood” abound within sociocultural anthropology generally, but such terms are typically applied to culture groups rather than to individuals. More familiar to psychologists would be the concepts and analyses used in the specialty labeled psychological anthropology, which in broadest form explores the relationships between psychological phenomena and their social and cultural contexts. Some of the primary theoretical orientations in psychological anthropology follow more or less closely on traditional perspectives in psychology, but others diverge radically and claim a central and essential place for cultural content and process in trying to account for psychological functioning. Among the former are general behavioral theory (including many standard conceptualizations from developmental and social psychology and personality theory) , cognitive anthropology, evolutionary thought, and psychoanalytic approaches; and among the latter are cultural psychology, the closely related activity theory, and ethnopsychology. Read more about psychology and anthropology.
Physical and Biological Anthropology Research Paper Topics
- Acheulean culture
- Altamira cave
- Anatomy and physiology of speech
- Anthropometry
- Ape agression
- Ape biogeography
- Ape cognition
- Ape communication
- Ape intelligence
- Aquatic ape hypothesis
- Arboreal hypothesis
- Artificial life
- Atapuerca
- Aurignacian culture
- Australopithecines
- Baboons
- Biological adaptation
- Biological anthropology and neo-Darwinism
- Biomedicine
- Biometrics
- Bipedal locomotion
- Blood groups
- Bonobos
- Bonobos in captivity
- Brachiation
- Cebids
- Cercopithecines
- Chimpanzees
- Chimpanzees and bonobos
- Chimpanzees in captivity
- Colobines
- Craniometry
- Dinosaurian hominid
- Diseases
- DNA molecule
- DNA recombinant
- DNA testing
- Dryopithecus
- El Ceren
- Eugenics
- Evolution of primate brain
- Forensic anthropology
- Fossil apes
- Gibbons
- Gigantopithecus
- Gorillas
- Gorillas in captivity
- Graves
- Greater apes
- Groooming
- Hand axes
- History of anthropology
- HIV/AIDS
- Hominid taxonomy
- Hominization
- Hominoids
- Homo antecessor
- Homo erectus
- Homo ergaster
- Homo habilis
- Homo sapiens
- Howling monkeys
- Human brain
- Human canopy evolution
- Human diversity
- Human evolution
- Human genetics
- Human Genome Project
- Human mutants
- Human osteology
- Human paleontology
- Human variation
- Humans and dinosaurs
- Hylobates
- Iceman
- Java man
- Kanzi
- Kennewick man
- Kenyanthropus platyops
- Kenyapithecus wickeri
- Koko (lowland gorilla)
- Lascaux cave
- Lazaret cave
- Lemurs
- Lesser apes
- Lorises
- Lucy reconstruction models
- Macaques
- Marmosets
- Meganthropus
- Mitochrondrial Eve
- Mummies and mummification
- Mungo lady/man
- Museums
- Narmada man
- Neandertal burials
- Neandertal evidence
- Neandertal sites
- Neandertals
- New World monkeys
- Ngandong
- Old World monkeys
- Oldowan culture
- Olduvai Gorge
- Orangutan-human evolution
- Orangutans
- Orangutans in captivity
- Oreopithecus
- Origin of bipedality
- Paleoanthropology
- Pongids
- Population explosion
- Primate behavioral ecology
- Primate brain
- Primate conservation
- Primate extinction
- Primate genetics
- Primate locomotion
- Primate morphology and evolution
- Primate taxonomy
- Primatology
- Prosimians
- Quadrupedalism in primates
- RNA molecule
- Sahelanthropus tchadensis
- Sambungmachan
- Sangiran
- Sasquatch
- Saving chimpanzees
- Saving gorillas
- Shanidar cave
- Siamangs
- Sickle-cell anemia
- Siwalik Hills
- Sociobiology
- Spider monkeys
- Tamarins
- Tarsiers
- Territoriality in primates
- Threats to orangutan survival
- Tools and evolution
- Treeshrews
- Twin studies
- Washoe
- Yeti
- Zinjanthropus boisei
- Zoos
Biological anthropology is concerned with the origin, evolution and diversity of humankind. The field was called physical anthropology until the late twentieth century, reflecting the field’s primary concern with cataloging anatomical differences among human and primate groups. Biological anthropology is one of the four subfields of anthropology, together with archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and social/cultural anthropology. Under the name of biological anthropology, it is an ever-broadening field that encompasses the study of: human biological variation; evolutionary theory; human origins and evolution; early human migration; human ecology; the evolution of human behavior; paleoanthropology; anatomy; locomotion; osteology (the study of skeletal material); dental anthropology; forensics; medical anthropology, including the patterns and history of disease; primatology (the study of non-human primates); growth, development and nutrition; and other related fields. Read more about biological anthropology.
Religion, Theology, and Anthropology
- Ancestor worship
- Animatism
- Animism
- Anthropology of religion
- Bayang medicine man
- Buddhism
- Comparative religion
- Confucianism
- Coptic monasticism
- Creationism, beliefs in
- Cults
- Daoism
- Death rituals
- Evil
- Ghost dance
- God gene
- Gods
- Graves
- Henotheism
- Hinduism
- Humanism
- India, rituals of
- Islam
- Jews
- Magic
- Magic versus religion
- Mana
- Masks, ceremonial
- Medicine man
- Monasticism
- Muslims
- Native North American religions
- Neurotheology
- Pantheism
- Pentecostalism
- Peyote rituals
- Polytheism
- Religion
- Religion and anthropology
- Religion and environment
- Religion, liberal
- Religious rituals
- Scientism versus fundamentalism
- Shaman
- Sorcery
- Sufi Islam
- Taboos
- Taj Mahal
- Totem poles
- Totemism
- Voodoo
- Witch doctor
- Witchcraft
The comparative study of religion formed a central building block of anthropology as the discipline emerged in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In the light of social evolutionary models of human development, religious practice was perceived as providing a powerful index of the mental and moral levels of so-called primitive peoples. James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, first published in 1890, traced magical and religious threads throughout history and weaved them into a pattern depicting the past and future progress of humanity, claiming to discern shifts from magical manipulation toward religious devotion and then ultimately in the direction of purely scientific modes of engaging the world. Inherent in Frazer’s work was also a juxtaposition that has reemerged, albeit in very different form, in contemporary writings (e.g., Cannell, 2006): Christianity as an object of study but also a mode of thought that has itself framed anthropological understandings of religion, temporality, and culture. Read more about anthropology of religion.
Sociology and Anthropology
- African American thought
- African Americans
- African thinkers
- Alienation
- Amish
- Balkans
- Child abuse
- Childhood studies
- Civil disobedience
- Class societies
- Collective behavior
- Communities
- Complex societies
- Crime
- Criminology and genetics
- Cuba
- Cultural convergence
- Culture of poverty
- Culture shock
- Deviance
- Division of labor
- Egalitarian societies
- Euthenics
- Extended family
- Feminism
- Folk culture
- Folk speech
- Folk speech
- Folkways
- Forms of family
- Friendships
- Gangs
- Genocide
- Gerontology
- Globalization
- Gypsies
- History of city
- Homosexuality
- International organizations
- Israel
- Labor
- Marxism
- Midwifery
- Nationalism
- Nuclear family
- Peasants
- Population explosion
- Rank and status
- Rank societies
- Secret ocieties
- Sex identity
- Sex roles
- Sexual harassment
- Sexuality
- Slavery
- Social anthropology
- Social anthropology
- Social Darwinism
- Social sturctures
- Socialist schools in Africa
- Socialization
- Sociobiology
- Sociolinguistics
- Sociology
- Sociology of language use
- Subcultures
- Untouchables
- Urban legends
- Women’s studies
- Xenophobia
Studies of sociology and anthropology have blended together as cultural anthropologists have attempted to draw comparisons among various societies and cultures. Identifying cultural characteristics became more difficult during the 20th century in response to two world wars. By the beginning of the 21st century, globalization had further blurred the once distinct lines between particular cultures, as the affairs of nations became more intertwined with those of others. Read more about sociology and anthropology.
Research and Theoretical Frameworks in Anthropology
- Age of Enlightenment
- Alchemy
- Alienation
- Altruism
- Anthropic principle
- Anthropocentrism
- Anthropological models
- Anthropology and business
- Anthropology and epistemology
- Anthropology and sociology
- Anthropology of men
- Anthropology of religion
- Anthropology of women
- Anthropomorphism
- Ape biogeography
- Apollonian
- Aquatic ape hypothesis
- Arboreal hypothesis
- Architectural anthropology
- Artificial life
- Aubdivisions of anthropology
- Beliefs in creationism
- Big bang theory
- Cardiff giant hoax
- Catastrophism
- Chaos theory
- Chaos theory and anthropology
- Characteristics of anthropology
- Characteristics of culture
- Cladistics
- Communism
- Complexity
- Computers and humankind
- Configurationalism
- Conflict
- Cosmology and sacred landscapes
- Creationism versus geology
- Critical realism
- Critical realism in ethnology
- Cross-cultural research
- Cultural conservation
- Cultural constraints
- Cultural ecology
- Cultural materialism
- Cultural relativism
- Cultural survivals
- Cultural tree of life
- Culture
- Culture and pesonality
- Culture area concept
- Culture change
- Cybernetic modeling
- Cybernetics
- Darkness in El Dorado controversy
- Darwinism versus Lamarckism
- Degenerationism
- Determinism
- Dictatorships
- Diffusionism
- Dinosaurian hominid
- Dynamic integrity
- Education and anthropology
- Egyptology
- Emics
- Enculturation
- Enlightenment versus postmodernism
- Entelechy
- Environmental philosophy
- Environments
- Ethnocentrism
- Ethnogenesis
- Ethnohistory
- Ethology and ethnology
- Etics
- Evolutionary anthropology
- Evolutionary epistemology
- Evolutionary ethics
- Evolutionary humanism
- Evolutionary ontology
- Exobiology and exoevolution
- Feminism
- French structuralism
- Functionalism
- Future of anthropology
- Futurology
- Gaia hypothesis
- Gemeinschaft
- Geomythology
- Gesellschaft
- Global society
- Global warming
- Glottochronology
- God gene
- Hardy-Weinberg principle
- Henotheism
- Hermeneutics
- Historicism
- Hoaxes in anthropology
- Hominization
- Human canopy evolution
- Human dignity
- Humanistic anthropology
- Humans and dinosaurs
- Iceman
- Ideology
- Incest taboo
- Instincts
- Interpreting evidence
- Jews and pseudo-anthropology
- Kulturkreise
- Legends
- Lucy reconstruction models
- Marxism
- Memes
- Migrations to the Western Hemisphere
- Missing link
- Mitochrondrial Eve
- Monogenesis versus polygenesis
- Myths and mythology
- Nationalism
- Naturalism
- Nature
- Nature and nurture
- Neo-Darwinism
- Neo-Freudianism
- Neo-Marxism
- Neurotheology
- Non-Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms
- Norms
- Objectivity in ethnography
- Orangutan-human evolution
- Origin of bipedality
- Paluxy footprints
- Pantheism
- Participant-observation
- Philosophical anthropology
- Philosophy of science
- Phrenology
- Physiognomy
- Positivism
- Postcolonialism
- Postmodernism
- Pragmatism
- Psychic unity of humankind
- Reciprocity
- Religious humanism
- Research in anthropology
- Research methods
- Revitalization movements
- Role of human mind in nature
- Sasquatch
- Scientific method
- Scientism versus fundamentalism
- Secular humanism
- Secularization
- Social change
- Social Darwinism
- Sociobiology
- Stereotypes
- Structuralism
- Superorganic
- Syncretism
- Teleology
- Territoriality
- Theories
- Time in anthropology
- Transformationalism
- Unifromatarianism
- Unity of humankind
- Universals in art
- Universals in culture
- Universals in language
- Values and anthropology
- Verification in ethnography
- Wolfian perspective in cultural anthropology
- Women in anthropology
- Women’s studies
- Xenophobia
- Yeti
Anthropologists usually mean by “theory” a particular theory—a functionalist, structuralist, or socio-ecological theory of social systems, for example. However, while “social facts” have been defined by Durkheim, along with method, and similar ideas used in other sociological theory traditions, the notion of a theory has been treated as something obvious or self-evident. How to test or formulate theories in general has been assumed or passed by, in general, and the ways in which theories explained their subject have been left unspecified. Read more about theory in anthropology.
Anthropology is the study of humankind in terms of scientific inquiry and logical presentation. It strives for a comprehensive and coherent view of our own species within dynamic nature, organic evolution, and sociocultural development. The discipline consists of five major, interrelated areas: physical/biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural/social anthropology, linguistics, and applied anthropology. The anthropological quest aims for a better understanding of and proper appreciation for the evolutionary history, sociocultural diversity, and biological unity of humankind. Anthropologists see the human being as a dynamic and complex product of both inherited genetic information and learned social behavior within a cultural milieu; symbolic language as articulate speech distinguishes our species from the great apes.
Genes, fossils, artifacts, monuments, languages, and societies and their cultures are the subject matter of anthropology. The holistic approach is both intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary. It incorporates evidence from geology, paleontology, psychology, and history, among other special sciences. Anthropologists strive to present generalizations about the origin and evolution of our own species from remote hominid ancestors, as well as ideas about the emergence of social organizations and cultural adaptations. As a result of both research over scores of decades and the convergence of facts and concepts, anthropologists now offer a clearer picture of humankind’s natural history and global dominance.
With the human being as its focus, the discipline of anthropology mediates between the natural and social sciences while incorporating the humanities. Its acceptance and use of discoveries in biology, for example, the DNA molecule, and its attention to relevant ideas in the history of philosophy, such as the concepts presented in the writings of Marx and Nietzsche, make anthropology a unique field of study and a rich source for the relevant application of facts, concepts, methods, theories, and perspectives. Forensic anthropology, medical anthropology, business anthropology, and advocacy anthropology have emerged as significant areas of applied anthropology in the changing modern human world.