What does the work and study of anthropology involve?
Anthropology is the study of man. In the US, anthropology is divided into 4 subfields: cultural anthropology, anthropological linguistics, physicaln anthropology, and archaeology. These subfields are very different so you should look into all of them if you are interested in anthropology. Traditionally, anthropology required fieldwork. That entails spending a great deal of time (usually a year or more) living in a different culture. While living with this culture, an anthropologist conducts research through participant observation, which is a fancy way of saying that you have to jump in there and do exactly what the people you are studying do. Anthropologists try to understand every aspect of a culture, like its religion, economic system, kinship groups, etc. While an anthropologist may have a specific focus (such as religion or economics), he or she has to understand everything else, too. Thats why the fieldwork takes so long. After conducting fieldwork and establishing a good relatio
