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Glossary


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  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 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  Investigates relationships between social and linguistic variations.
theory  An explanatory framework, containing a series of statements, that helps us understand why (something exists); theories suggest patterns, connections, and relationships that may be confirmed by new research.







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