Key Terms

anthropology	The study of the human species and its immediate ancestors.



applied anthropology	The application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.



archaeological anthropology (prehistoric archaeology)	The study of human behavior and cultural patterns and processes through the culture's material remains.



biological anthropology	The study of human biological variation in time and space; includes evolution, genetics, growth and development, and primatology.



cultural anthropology	The study of human society and culture; describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences.



culture	Distinctly human; transmitted through learning; traditions and customs that govern behavior and beliefs.



ethnography	Field work in a particular culture.



ethnology	Cross-cultural comparison; the comparative study of ethnographic data, of society, and of culture.



food production	Cultivation of plants and domestication (stockbreeding) of animals; first developed in the Middle East 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.



general anthropology	The field of anthropology as a whole, consisting of cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology.



holistic	Interested in the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture.



linguistic anthropology	The descriptive, comparative, and historical study of language and of linguistic similarities and differences in time, space, and society.



physical anthropology	See biological anthropology.



science	A systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims, through experiment, observation, and deduction, to produce reliable explanations of phenomena, with reference to the material and physical world.



sociolinguistics	Study of relationships between social and linguistic variation; study of language (performance) in its social context.

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