Signifance Of Anthropology And Archaeology Essay Research

Signifance Of Anthropology And Archaeology Essay, Research Paper

.The Significance of.

.Anthropologists and Archaeologists.

Anthropologists and archaeologists have influenced our lives in so many ways.

They have taken us back to our most humble beginnings. They have given us an

awareness of just how far we have come through the centuries. Archaeology is the

investigating of life by unearthing and interpreting the objects left behind by earlier

peoples and cultures, dating back to prehistoric times. Anthropology is the scientific

study of hominids, their physical features, development, and behavior. Anthropology is

broken into two parts: physical and sociocultural. Physical is concerned with human

evolution and biology and the study of primates. Sociocultural anthropology investigates

fieldwork of food production, social organizations and religious beliefs, clothing,

language and other aspects of various cultures from the beginnings of our evolution to

present day times. Ethnology is another facet of anthropology that fine tunes these

cultural studies. Archaeology tells us how these people lived by examining the objects

they used. Anthropology tells us how we have changed and evolved from their

advancements. By examining their bones, we can determine their brain size and posture.

Their tools found tell us their ability to adapt to the environment ( their intelligence

levels) and provide for their basic needs. Archaeologists have discovered many artifacts

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in the150 years that the field has been active. Anthropology has enlightened us to how

are minds and bodies have changed since the mid 19th century. Both archaeologists and

anthropologists are working towards the goal of discovering how and when man began.

To understand their significance we must look into what we once thought we knew and

what we think we know today.

. In the 19th century,anthropology emerged as a distinct field of study. Lewis

Henry Morgan, who did major research on the Iroquois, was the founder of this discipline

in North America.. The European founding figure was British scholar Edward B. Taylor,

who perfected a theory of human evolution with special concentration on the origins of

religion. Major foundations for scientific archaeology developed. Mostly by Danish

archaeologists at the Northern Antiquities Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. From

excavations they discovered development of tools from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.

In Olduval Gorge in East Africal, Louis S.B. Leakey and his wife, Mary D. N.

Leakey and their son Richard, discovered a series of fossils in the 1960.s.Their findings

revised the understanding of human biological evolution. These paleoanthropologists

focused their work on Homo habilis. In the 1970.s and 80.s, fossil remains dug upin east

Africa, have provided more evidence that in the period from one million to three million

years ago, the genus-Homo(true Human) existed with other man-ape forms known as

australopithecines. Both the genus-homo and the Australopithecus are descendants of an

Ethiopian fossil, Australopithecus afarensis. This ethiopian fossil is 3 million to3.7

million years old. This time frame keeps him in the Homo habilis genus, though he had

the legs and body for walking bipedally. Homo erectus developed the use of fire. The

oldest evidence of such was excaveted at a site in Beijing, China called Zhoukoudian.

Homo erectus improved on his tools, clothing and shelter. Cave dwelling developed

under his advancement. Homo Sapeiens (Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon), after learning

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how to survive, began caring for their community and developed art and spiritual

thoughts.

The 19th century anthropologists found that kinship relationships form the

substance of social relations in all premodern societies. The most important social

groups are the clan, lineages, and other kinship organizations, in earlier non-industrial

societies. A common ancester and his descendents make up a kinship based society.

Religious fraternities and secret societies are examples of non-kinship based,

non-industrial societies. Food is the source of life. How food was obtained determined

the settlement of a community,i.e.prehistoric man(cro-magnan) was nomadic Homo

Sapiens because he was a hunter of meat and gathererer of fruits and vegetables. Social

structure advances as leaders were established to organize big game hunts. Evolution of

thinking matured as reasons for happenings were sought. Magic rituals and burials for

their leades evolved. As they developed tools and joined forces with other groups to hunt,

they started early societies. When people, finally, learned to domesticate plants and

animals they lived in one place all of their lives. Soon cities came about; Jericho, in the

middles east is one of the first discovered villages found, dating back to 8000 B.C. The

village of Catak Huyuk, in prese

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