Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavior, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. A portmanteau term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans.
George Peter ("Pete") Murdock, also known as G. P. Murdock, was an American anthropologist who was professor at Yale University and University of Pittsburgh. He is remembered for his empirical approach to ethnological studies and his study of family and kinship structures across differing cultures. His 1967 Ethnographic Atlas dataset on more than 1,200 pre-industrial societies is influential and frequently used in social science research.
Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects create or take part in. Some scholars also include other intangible phenomena that include sound, smell and events, while some even consider language and media as part of it. The term is most commonly used in archaeological and anthropological studies, to define material or artifacts as they are understood in relation to specific cultural and historic contexts, communities, and belief systems. Material culture can be described as any object that humans use to survive, define social relationships, represent facets of identity, or benefit peoples' state of mind, social, or economic standing. Material culture is contrasting to symbolic culture, which includes nonmaterial symbols, beliefs, and social constructs.
History of anthropology in this article refers primarily to the 18th- and 19th-century precursors of modern anthropology. The term anthropology itself, innovated as a New Latin scientific word during the Renaissance, has always meant "the study of man". The topics to be included and the terminology have varied historically. At present they are more elaborate than they were during the development of anthropology. For a presentation of modern social and cultural anthropology as they have developed in Britain, France, and North America since approximately 1900, see the relevant sections under Anthropology.
Daniel Miller is an anthropologist who is closely associated with studies of human relationships to things, the consequences of consumption and digital anthropology. His theoretical work was first developed in Material Culture and Mass Consumption and is summarised more recently in his book Stuff. This is concerned to transcend the usual dualism between subject and object and to study how social relations are created through consumption as an activity.
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biological anthropology, evolutionary anthropology, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, visual anthropology and medical anthropology, as well as sub-specialisms within these, and interests shared with neighbouring disciplines such as human genetics, archaeology and linguistics. It seeks to combine a tradition of scholarship with services to anthropologists, including students.
Georgina Emma Mary Born, is a British academic, anthropologist, musicologist and musician. As a musician she is known as Georgie Born and for her work in Henry Cow and with Lindsay Cooper.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anthropology:
The Annual Review of Anthropology is an academic journal that publishes review articles of significant developments in anthropology and its subfields. First published by Stanford University Press in 1959 under the name the Biennial Review of Anthropology, it became known as the current title in 1972 when its publication was assumed by Annual Reviews. Don Brenneis and Karen B. Strier have been the editors since 2013. As of 2022, according to Journal Citation Reports, the journal has an impact factor of 4.064, ranking it fifth out of 93 journals in the category "Anthropology".
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry is a cross-cultural peer-reviewed medical journal published quarterly by Springer Science+Business Media.
Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location.
Theory, Culture & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1982 and covers sociology, cultural, and social theory. The journal aims to work "across the borderlines between sociology and cultural studies, the social sciences and the humanities and has moved towards a broader transdisciplinary frame of reference." It is published by SAGE Publications. The editor-in-chief is Mike Featherstone. The journal is also linked to the journal Body & Society and has its own book series featuring the work of theorists.
Cultural globalisation refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a longer history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe. The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures. The idea of cultural globalization emerged in the late 1980s, but was diffused widely by Western academics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. For some researchers, the idea of cultural globalization is reaction to the claims made by critics of cultural imperialism in the 1970s and 1980s.
Transcultural Psychiatry is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the fields of cultural psychiatry, psychology and anthropology. The journal's editor-in-chief is Laurence J. Kirmayer. The Associate Editors are Renato Alarcón, Roland Littlewood and Leslie Swartz. It has been in publication since 1964 and is currently published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry of McGill University. It is the official journal of the World Psychiatric Association Transcultural Psychiatry Section and is also published in association with the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture.
Nature and Culture is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Berghahn Books that covers the historical and contemporary relationships that societies have with nature. The editors-in-chief are Sing C. Chew and Matthias Gross. The publication themes include cultural reactions and conceptions of nature, ecological restoration, ecological time, as well as political and socio-technical arrangements of landscapes. Some new directions of the journal include environmental technologies and renewable energy cultures.
Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States, social anthropology is commonly subsumed within cultural anthropology or sociocultural anthropology.
The Journal of Sport & Social Issues is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of sociology. The journal's editor is C. L. Cole. It has been in publication since 1977 and is currently published by SAGE Publications.
Christopher Pinney is an anthropologist and art historian, and Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London in the department of anthropology. He is known for his studies on the visual culture of South Asia, specifically India. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2013, by bestowing on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the field of literature.
The Latin American Research Review is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on Latin America and the Caribbean. It was established in 1965 by the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and is published by LASA's publishing arm, the Latin America Research Commons. The editor-in-chief is Aníbal Pérez Liñán. Articles are published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. The journal articles are published only electronically, in an Open Access format.
