What is Anthropology?

The etymology or origin of the term anthropology can be traced back to two Greek words, ‘anthropos’ and ‘logos’. When translated into
English, ‘anthropos’ means ‘human’ while ‘logos’ refers to ‘knowledge’ (Eriksen 2001: 2). In this sense, anthropology can be understood as
the ‘knowledge about humans’ (Ibid.). The subject of anthropological study is humanity but unlike other disciplines in the human sciences,
anthropology studies the diversity and similarity of the way a person live and make connections as social and cultural beings.
Anthropology as a discipline compares cultural and social life primarily through participant observation, a research method that entails
lengthy fieldwork or immersion in a specific social setting. Through participant observation, anthropologists study in depth the various
aspect of society and then compare how that society differ and reflect other societies. For example, an anthropologist who studies the sea
faring communities of Sama Dilaut in the Sulu Archipelago would find ways of comparing and contrasting them to the broader Bajao
seafaring cultures across Southeast Asia or elsewhere in the world. By doing these comparative studies, anthropology as an academic
discipline provides a more grounded, insightful, and deeper understanding of our common humanity. Through the years, a wide range of
subfields of studies emerged within the academic discipline of anthropology. These subfields include social and cultural anthropology,
archeology, biological anthropology, evolutionary anthropology, socio-linguistic anthropology, visual anthropology, political and legal
anthropology, cyborg anthropology, psychological anthropology, economic anthropology, urban anthropology, climate anthropology,
development anthropology, and several more. The subfields of the discipline continues to expand today but as the range of
anthropological knowledge grew and expanded, humanity are better equipped in answering the question of how it is to become human.

A broad swath of people around the world relate with each other in different ways but a closer examination of these differences also
reveal how people are alike in terms of their biological features and what they do as they interact with each other. The difference and
similarities by which people live, act, and interact show the numerous aspects of human existence. In the discipline of anthropology, these
diverse but familiar manifestations of humanity are referred to as culture. For anthropologists, culture is the reference point by which
people organize themselves and make sense of themselves as members of their own society. For that matter, anthropology regards
culture as the “acquired cognitive and symbolic aspects of human existence, whereas society refers to the social organization of human
life, patterns of interaction and power relationships” (Eriksen 2001: 4). Analyzing how people culturally differ and what they share in
common deepens our knowledge of humans as biological and social beings. Being human and becoming human is to be a social person
shaped by culture but tempered or enabled by their own bodily anatomy. The anthropological discipline offers a detailed study of human
engagements that include family life, child
raising, beliefs and religion, politics, material productions and innovations, laws, economic life and the relationship between men
and women in different social settings and time periods.

In a sense, anthropology ask big questions about the human condition but draws answers from the study of the particular
experiences of people living under different circumstances, be these in a small village deep in the jungles, a farming settlement, a
bustling metropolitan city or a string of communities across different countries. By looking at the general and particular aspects of
human social life, anthropology provides explanation of the interrelationship of the various facets of human life that explains
sociocultural and political practices of societies around the world across time and spaces. Understanding these relationship means
making sense of the unique situation and linkages that people establish within and between societies.