What Is Anthropology?

1.   What is culture? How is it distinct from what this chapter describes as a biocultural approach? How do these concepts help us understand the complex ways that human populations adapt to their environments?

Culture is a real process of actualizing the birth of creation, feeling and human intention influenced by the environment, has the uniqueness of each in contributing to the human personality development whether by the way of life, emotional control and cognitive growth are passed on from generation to generation, this culture can be born when human still life and will learning to survive for this life. Cultural understanding and bioculture approach do exist, as we know that “biocultural->  Combining biological and cultural approaches to a given problem” culture here has a role  as a problem-solving while bioculture approach here as a way to balance the various cultural perspective and culture combination to run along and worth. Biological factor that have been handed down and comes from inside of our-self is able to combine with the environment where we live, with such external factors that can make us to become useful human, and can adapt with the environment that may very extreme though, this is the key in determining the initial growth and development of both psychological and physical condition.

2.   What themes and interests unify the subdisciplines of anthropology? In your answer, refer to historical reasons for the unity of anthropology. Are these historical reasons similar in all places where anthropology developed as a discipline?

Anthropology has 4 main sub-disciplines, cultural anthropology (sosioculture) explores the cultural diversity of nowadays and the past. Archaeology reconstructs patterns of culture, often prehistoric populations. Biological anthropology make documents involving fossil diversity, genetics, growth and development, the body's response, and not human primates. Linguistic Anthropology considers diversity between languages​​. It is also learned how to talk about social situations change from time to time. Each also examines how humans cope with the process of adaptation to environmental pressure. Historical records say the mid-19th century in Europe essay ethnographic integrated and it’s comes the evolution of society thinking, stated that the world made up of a variety of cultures and anthropology emerged. Having held a symposium in 1951 to formulate the principal objectives and scope are more detailed. For example, an American anthropologist very care and have an  attention to the cultural history of the United States of the Native Indian tribes. From then the research and curiosity about the origins and differences of Native American States brings the study of customs, social life, language, and physical properties simultaneously. Developments in each area will vary anthropology historically, as Europe was to use this knowledge to a variety of approaches for the control of other areas (colonialism).

3. If, as Franz Boas illustrated early on in American anthropology, cultures are not isolated, how can ethnography provide an account of a particular community, society, or culture? Note: There is no easy answer to this question! Anthropologists continue to deal with it as they define their research questions and projects.

Ethnology seeks to identify and explain culture differences or similarities of views and construct theories about how the social system and cultural work. The ethnographer demanded further to sharpen their observation in formulating accurate results, and in observation more participatory in order to really know the progress of culture. Using the method according to the situation on the field. Seeing the culture from different angles, and if the results already obtained can be implemented through a range of both print and electronic media, so we can spread the information, and may be used as the theoretical basis / reference for further research.

  4.   The American Anthropological Association has formally acknowledged a public service role by recognizing that anthropology has two dimensions: (1) academic anthropology and (2) practicing or applied anthropology. What is applied anthropology? Based on your reading of this chapter, identify examples from current events where an anthropologist could help identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.

Anthropology has two dimensions: academic and application. Application of anthropology is the use of anthropological data, perspectives, theories, and methods to identify the cultural development of the community, assess, and can also solve the social problems that we learn from the basic theory as reference. Here also requires the ability of anthropologists to formulate the research or observation which is accurate, effective for the time and method. Perhaps as an example in this study is how the Indians lived before, how it goes when compared to other tribes in the plains of other Americans, how the progress of the government tribal system, the division of labor, belief systems, social life, irrigation, how they lost civilizations now etc. We must fully understand about all the theory that covered the Indians, and here the ethnologists and archaeologists must be active in this observation.

   5.  In this chapter, we learn that anthropology is a science, although a very humanistic one. What do you think this means? What role does hypothesis testing play in structuring anthropological research? What is the difference between theories, laws, and hypotheses?

        Essentially, Anthropology studied and examines human life diversity and cultural complexity. But here also need for "basic" science like somatology, biology etc. taken from science to study human differentiation in the world seen physically with innate genes. This science is not merely involved in the humanist / social only. In deepen understanding through hypothesis testing has been estimated to have reached a mature though accurate, the hypothesis could be the beginning of the implementation of the conclusions of the study. Association is a relationship between the observed variables. The theory is the foundation that has been through the test of the truth of the facts, it has been observed, analyzed, evaluated continuously and has been recognized for accuracy, it can be a reference for future research. Law enforcement is an umbrella truth that are the result of consensus and agreed upon and must be obeyed. Theories and laws can continue to change and evolve as the times in order to be in harmony with the various reforms.