What is Anthropology?

Anthropology is the comprehensive study of humanity in all its manifestations and in all times and places. Anthropology is holistic and it examines aspects of human action -- psychological, biological, social, and cultural -- -including technological, economic, religious, political, and artistic. Anthropologists explore the vast diversity of human cultures, striving to understand and appreciate the myriad ways of life that constitute alternative solutions to the universal problems of human existence.

Anthropology combines the perspectives of the sciences and the humanities. Its traditional four subfields (archaeology, linguistics, cultural, and biological anthropology) study human beings and human societies from an interdisciplinary perspective and from both evolutionary and humanistic points of view.