Anthropology

Physical Anthropology and Linguistic Anthropology

Anthropology can be defined as the social science that studies the origins and the social relationships of man. It traces its origins from natural, humanities and social sciences. It basically uses ethnography as its method of study. This paper discusses the physical anthropology and linguistic anthropology.

Physical anthropology is also referred to as biological anthropology. It comprise of examining man as a biological organism. It concentrates on human evolution, growth and development, adaptation and forensics. Physical anthropologists are mainly concerned with three things:  Human and non human primate evolution, human variation and the biological bases of human behavior. Physical anthropology studies past human populations of fossil hominids. The branches of physical anthropology are several. It studies the reasons why a certain species disappeared or diverged from each other in evolution. Particularly it looks at the change that influenced individuals to change in similarity or difference. It closely works with paleoanthropology and physical evidence and fossil dating (Jurmain, Kilgore and Trevathan, 2007).

Linguistic anthropology is the cram of language as part of anthropology. It is the study of language and speaking a cultural source and a cultural practice. It has the assumption that human language is a cognitive and social achievement that provides the intellectual tools for thinking and acting in the universe. It is done by looking at a detailed documentation of the things that speakers say as they carry out their daily chores. The documentation depends on participant observation, audio visual recording, interviews and annotated transcription (Haviland, Harald, Walrath and McBride, 2007).

Its main areas of interest have been changing over the years from documentation of aboriginal language grammar to the analysis of the use of spoken language in people`s daily lives an interaction with others. Linguistic anthropology studies context, competence and performance, language socialization, multilingualism among other things (Jacoby and Kibbee, 2007).

Conclusion

The physical and linguistic anthropology helps us to get some light of man`s past and compare it to the present. It presents us with chances to see how man has evolved over the years both physically and linguistically.