The 4 types of anthropology

Anthropology is a fundamental a subject as there is, because it’s us studying ourselves. The American Anthropological Association defines anthropology simply by saying, “Anthropology is the study of what makes us human.” 

Human culture and human society are what separate us from other every other living thing, and are systems we participate in every day of our lives without even thinking about it. In that sense, for us as people, anthropology is all-encompassing—every act of human behavior is part of it. So why don’t we think of it as one of the core subjects everyone should know?

The reason may be that it’s just too big a subject to wrap our heads around. That is why it’s so important to understand the different fields within anthropology. Each area looks at a different aspect of the experience of a human being, and there is plenty to study within each one. If you are interested in the culture of human groups and looking at society to see what makes us tick, you’ll want to know these fields so you can find the one that interests you most.

What is anthropology?

So what is the study of anthropology? What do anthropologists do? Clearly determining what makes us human isn’t easy, but the hardest part is where to start. There are some fundamental things we know are distinct to humans—opposable thumbs, the ability to speak in languages, the desire to wear clothing. But which part is the key?

The simplest answer is all of the above, which is why there are multiple fields within the subject. The American Anthropological Association sketches out the components of anthropology to give us an idea of what experts in anthropology get up to. 

“Anthropologists take a broad approach to understanding the many different aspects of the human experience, which we call holism,” they say on their website. “They consider the past, through archaeology, to see how human groups lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and what was important to them. They consider what makes up our biological bodies and genetics, as well as our bones, diet, and health. Anthropologists also compare humans with other animals ... to see what we have in common with them and what makes us unique.” 

Like most things you can study, understanding human populations means watching people, analyzing what they use and leave behind, both now and in the past, and looking for broader patterns over time. Human evolution has made us a complicated species, so almost everything else we know—language, science, math, social science and so on—plays into finding out why we are what we are. 

What are the subfields of anthropology?

Certainly, every institution is a little different when it comes to what anthropology course options they offer and their expectations on how to become an anthropologist. Nevertheless, there is a general agreement across academia, particularly in American anthropology, on four main areas within the larger subject. 

According to National Geographic, “Anthropologists specialize in cultural or social anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological or physical anthropology, and archaeology. While subdisciplines can overlap and are not always seen by scholars as distinct, each tends to use different techniques and methods.”

Cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropologists, or sociocultural anthropologists as they can also be called, examine human interaction. They look at what we do when we get together and why, which is more specifically called ethnography, as well as how we organize ourselves into groups and establish rules, which is broadly known as cultural relativism. One of the most common and well-known methods for studying these dynamics is through participant observation. 

Humans are naturally performative. Even in the normal patterns of our routine, we are affected by an audience. Whether we like the attention or it makes us uncomfortable, we tend to act differently than normal if we know someone is watching specifically to see what we do. That can make gathering information for sociocultural anthropology unreliable.

Participant observation is the process by which an anthropologist tries to make themselves part of the group, doing what everyone else is doing and studying it in secret. They join an existing community and help the people complete their work, take part in their customs, and establish a kinship so that, hopefully, people in the group slowly forget the researcher is a stranger and go about their business normally. 

It is easier to determine what motivates us and how we think as humans with a combination of an objective view and experiential insight. As the old saying goes, "You can't really understand another person's experience until you've walked a mile in their shoes."

Linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropologists study how random sounds and gestures stop being random and start collecting into language. The story of a language is a historical one. Native languages often developed because of environmental factors influencing how a group of people’s mouths, throats and vocal chords developed, the volume and type of sound they needed in order to be heard and understood, and literally what they saw around them that they needed to communicate about.

Many languages evolve over time as people move into new territories and gradually influence one another. By the same token, invading forces throughout history have often brought their languages with them and imposed them on indigenous people as a means of control. Due to where they live and what resources they have, there are some peoples whose languages have changed very little for thousands of years.

In modern society, language is also a signifier of class and identity. Millions of people all over the world may share knowledge of English, Spanish, Mandarin, or other common tongues, but dialects, accents and local vernacular make certain they are not speaking the same language. That’s a big part of who we are.