Sunday, 3 July 2016

Anthropology and Life Sciences

Anthropology is closely related to several of the natural sciences for example:
Zoology - in terms of the relationship to other animals and the overall places of the human species in the process of evolutions;
Biology- in terms of the evolution of humans from early pre-human forms;
Anatomy and Physiology- in its concerned with the structure of the human body, the relationship of the various parts and the operation or function of these different parts
Genetics - concern with variation in the world to-day Anthropology studies the physical characteristics of man.
It uses the general principles of biology and utilizes the findings of anatomy, physiology, embryology, zoology, palaeontology and so on. Paul Broca (1871), the famous biologist defined physical anthropology as the "Science whose objective is the study of humanity considered as a whole, in its parts and in relationship to the rest of nature". Although it is related to the biological sciences like anatomy, physiology etc., it does not restrict itself to the study of "contemporary average man". Rather it is interested in the comparative study of man considering the past, present and even future. Actually, physical anthropology is more elaborate and detailed than biology. For instance, when a zoologist tries to understand the biology of an animal, he never goes into the details of the length and breadth of the skull. Physical anthropology examines the skull in all its details. Thus, anthropology has a sort of specialization or sharpening of certain aspects of general biology. Still another special feature of anthropology is that it is concerned only with limited and restricted study of the human species. It never moves beyond the study of humans. Anthropology considers the human species as a biological entity. Some anthropologists are concerned primarily with the past forms of Pre-human and early human species, an area of study known as fossil man. Others concentrate on the similarities and differences between the various primate species, which include not only human, but apes and monkeys as well. This area of study is called primatology. A third area, known as the study of human variation, or anthropological genetics, deals with contemporary as well as historical variations among populations of humans. It is concerned with questions such as the adaptation of a group of people to a specific climate, the natural immunity of some peoples to certain disease.


Source: http://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/Anthropology/notes/relationships-with-other-disciplines.html

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