Introduction to the Disciplinary Concepts and Skills of Anthropology 

Anthropology is the study of human beings, past and present, in societies around the world. To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social, natural, and physical sciences as well as the humanities. Anthropology is a comparative discipline; it assumes basic human continuities over time and place, but also recognizes that every society is the product of its own particular history, and that within every society one finds variation as well as commonalities. Anthropologists are centrally concerned with applying their research findings to the solution of human problems. Anthropology includes four subfields. Physical anthropologists study human biological origins, evolution and variation, how humans adapt to diverse environments, primatology, and how biological and cultural processes work together to shape growth, development, and behavior. Archaeologists study past peoples and cultures, from the deepest prehistory to the recent past. Sociocultural anthropologists observe social patterns and practices across cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular places and how they organize, govern, and create meaning. Linguistic anthropology is the comparative study of language systems and the ways in which language reflects and influences social life. Each of the subfields teaches distinctive skills. However, the subfields also have a number of similarities. For example, each subfield applies theories, employs systematic research methodologies, formulates and tests hypotheses, and develops extensive sets of data. 

Anthropology Content Standards

Topic 1. What It Means to be Human: Unity and Diversity 

Anthropologists study what people have in common, and also how we differ with respect to physical and sociocultural characteristics. Importantly, they examine human physical variability and also the social reality of racial categorization and racism. Variable physical features like skin color and blood type do not cluster into clear-cut biologically defined races. At the same time, categorization into socially defined races is a real phenomenon with real consequences in societies like the United States. Race then is socially “real” even if biologically it has no grounding. Anthropologists emphasize the importance of culture— patterns and processes of meaning expressed through language and other symbols. Anthropologists study all kinds of human groups, from small villages to transnational corporations, from large U.S. cities to remote Arctic and desert groups; even schools and classrooms can be subjects of anthropological inquiry. Anthropologists examine how societies change; how a society’s beliefs, institutions, and ways of making a living are related to one another; and how individuals are shaped by their cultures and also agents of their own lives. A central anthropological insight is the notion of cultural relativism—that no cultural group is inherently “superior” or “inferior” to any other, and that all human behaviors are understandable in their cultural context even if humans may ultimately aspire to certain universal standards.

1. Understand patterns of human physical variability and the evidence for arguing that humans cannot be sorted into distinct biological races. 

2. Develop through comparison awareness of human unity and cultural diversity, and of the connections among peoples from around the world. 

3. Understand the reasons for and development of human and societal endeavors, such as small-scale societies and civilizations, across time and place. 

4. Use anthropological concepts and practice to reflect on representations of “otherness” and consider critically students’ own cultural assumptions. 

5. Apply anthropological concepts and theories to the study of contemporary social change, conflict, and other important local, national, and international problems. 

Topic 2. Methods and Ethics of Inquiry 

Anthropologists take a scientific approach to collecting empirical information, seeking to be systematic, transparent, and trustworthy in conducting and reporting research. For example, archaeologists study past peoples and cultures through the analysis of carefully excavated material remains, while physical anthropologists analyze evidence ranging from fossils to the DNA of living people. Sociocultural and linguistic anthropologists often rely on direct participation in and observation of a group’s daily life, interpreting meanings constructed by people in the group and sometimes collaborating with them as active participants in the research. When analyzing their findings, anthropologists often seek to understand particular local situations in the context of larger social forces, and in great depth. At the same time, comparison across places and times is a hallmark of anthropological study. Because the study of people, past and present, requires respect for the differences of individuals, cultures, societies, and knowledge systems, anthropologists are expected to adhere to a strong code of professional ethics. In addition, an engaged anthropology is committed to supporting social change efforts that arise from the interaction between community goals and anthropological research. 

1. Identify and critically assess the opportunities to use anthropological knowledge in a variety of work settings and in everyday experience, as well as issues of description and representation in anthropology. 

2. Develop an understanding of the methods by which anthropologists collect data on cultural patterns and processes, and of ways of interpreting and presenting these data in writing and other media. 

3. Identify and critically assess ethical issues that arise in the practice of anthropological research, including issues of informed consent. 

4. Under the guidance of teachers, design, undertake, and report on personal research on an anthropological topic of interest, such as a limited ethnographic study of a local culture or a visit to an archaeological site. 

Topic 3. Becoming a Person: Processes, Practices, and Consequences 

Anthropologists examine what it means to be human by observing and recording the processes, practices, and consequences involved in becoming a person. They explore what it means to be a person in different cultural contexts and the dynamic nature of identities on an individual level; on a larger scale, they explore the nature of boundaries between human groups. They ask, for example, what it means to be a full-fledged adult in different societies and through rites of passage or other processes people become adults. They ask how people use symbols or other tools to draw boundaries based upon language, religion, gender, ethnicity, nationality, territory, or history, and they ask about the consequences of boundaries within and between societies, including exclusion and differences of power or status, racism and ethnic conflict, class conflict, and religious conflict. Throughout such discussions, they consider the relative importance of individual autonomy versus structural forces. 

1. Understand the variety of gendered, racialized, or other identities individuals take on over the life course, and identify the social and cultural processes through which those identities are constructed. 

2. Apply anthropological concepts of boundaries to the analysis of current ethnic, racial, or religious conflicts in the world—or in a local setting. 

Topic 4. Global and Local: Societies, Environments, and Globalization 

Because anthropology examines human experience around the world, it is attuned to global connections as well as local perspectives. Anthropologists examine the extent of globalization and its causes and consequences. For example, they study the movement of people, ideas and objects, and the causes and consequences of such movement, from the first human migration “out of Africa” to current diasporas. They consider the degree to which the global affects the local and vice versa, including debates about cultural homogenization and standardization. They bring together the global and local to consider perspectives on important world issues, including environmental conflict, global warming, wars, and nationalism. They consider human rights and the global justice movement and issues of cultural relativism, such as whether human rights should supersede local cultural rights. 

1. Understand and appreciate cultural and social differences, and how human diversity is produced and shaped by local, national, regional, and global patterns. 

2. Understand how one’s local actions can have global consequences, and how global patterns and processes can affect seemingly unrelated local actions. 

3. Become critically aware of ethnocentrism, its manifestations, and consequences in a world that is progressively interconnected. 

4. Apply anthropological concepts to current global issues such as migrations across national borders or environmental degradation. 

Connections to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards. 

Students in anthropology develop and use skills that are included throughout the Common Core Anchor Standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. As students learn to describe current and past cultures and societies, they use vocabulary that is new or employed in a new way. These descriptions often require students to compare the point of view of a local inhabitant with their own perspective, which may be quite different, or with the perspective of a Western visitor or colonizer. Anthropology students formulate and test hypotheses by conducting small-scale ethnographic studies and related observational research in biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. Students learn to write ethnographic field notes modeled on those of professional anthropologists, which is excellent practice for writing routinely on a daily or weekly basis. These field notes require disciplining the memory while learning to distinguish between description and interpretation. 

More detailed curricular recommendations are found on the AAA website (http://www.aaanet.org); see especially the section “For Teachers” and the Teaching Materials Exchange (additional resources are listed on page 80). Anthropological concepts and ideas are important for social studies students in all grades, but the first formal introduction to anthropology typically occurs during grades 9-12. In these grades, students will regularly use Common Core ELA/Literacy skills as they understand and apply anthropological concepts, theories, and methods. Students who successfully develop their inquiry skills in anthropology classes will fulfill goals of the Common Core Standards for College and Career readiness.