20th and 21st Centuries

20th and 21st centuries[edit]
This meager statistic expanded in the 20th century to comprise anthropology departments in the majority of the
world's higher educational institutions, many thousands in number. Anthropology has diversified from a few major
subdivisions to dozens more. Practical anthropology, the use of anthropological knowledge and technique to solve
specific problems, has arrived; for example, the presence of buried victims might stimulate the use of a forensic
archaeologist to recreate the final scene. The organization has reached global level. For example, the World Council
of Anthropological Associations (WCAA), "a network of national, regional and international associations that aims to
promote worldwide communication and cooperation in anthropology", currently contains members from about three
dozen nations.[18]
Since the work of Franz Boas and Bronisław Malinowski in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social anthropology
in Great Britain and cultural anthropology in the US have been distinguished from other social sciences by their
emphasis on cross-cultural comparisons, long-term in-depth examination of context, and the importance they place
on participant-observation or experiential immersion in the area of research. Cultural anthropology, in particular, has
emphasized cultural relativism, holism, and the use of findings to frame cultural critiques.[19] This has been particularly
prominent in the United States, from Boas' arguments against 19th-century racial ideology, through Margaret Mead's
advocacy for gender equality and sexual liberation, to current criticisms of post-colonial oppression and promotion
of multiculturalism. Ethnography is one of its primary research designs as well as the text that is generated from
anthropological fieldwork.[20][21][22]
In Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries, the British tradition of social anthropology tends to dominate. In
the United States, anthropology has traditionally been divided into the four field approach developed by Franz
Boas in the early 20th century: biological or physical anthropology; social, cultural, or sociocultural anthropology;
and archaeology; plus anthropological linguistics. These fields frequently overlap but tend to use different
methodologies and techniques.
European countries with overseas colonies tended to practice more ethnology (a term coined and defined by Adam F.
Kollár in 1783). It is sometimes referred to as sociocultural anthropology in the parts of the world that were influenced
by the European tradition.[23]
Fields[edit]
Further information: American anthropology
Anthropology is a global discipline involving humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Anthropology builds
upon knowledge from natural sciences, including the discoveries about the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens,
human physical traits, human behavior, the variations among different groups of humans, how the evolutionary past
of Homo sapiens has influenced its social organization and culture, and from social sciences, including the
organization of human social and cultural relations, institutions, social conflicts, etc.[24][25] Early anthropology originated
in Classical Greece and Persia and studied and tried to understand observable cultural diversity, such as by Al-
Biruni of the Islamic Golden Age.[26][27] As such, anthropology has been central in the development of several new (late
20th century) interdisciplinary fields such as cognitive science,[28] global studies, and various ethnic studies.
According to Clifford Geertz,
"anthropology is perhaps the last of the great nineteenth-century conglomerate disciplines still for the most part
organizationally intact. Long after natural history, moral philosophy, philology, and political economy have dissolved
into their specialized successors, it has remained a diffuse assemblage of ethnology, human biology, comparative
linguistics, and prehistory, held together mainly by the vested interests, sunk costs, and administrative habits of
academia, and by a romantic image of comprehensive scholarship."[29]
Sociocultural anthropology has been heavily influenced by structuralist and postmodern theories, as well as a shift
toward the analysis of modern societies. During the 1970s and 1990s, there was an epistemological shift away from
the positivist traditions that had largely informed the discipline.[30][page needed] During this shift, enduring questions about
the nature and production of knowledge came to occupy a central place in cultural and social anthropology. In
contrast, archaeology and biological anthropology remained largely positivist. Due to this difference in epistemology,
the four sub-fields of anthropology have lacked cohesion over the last several decades.

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