Concise Notes: Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology

Definition: The study of human beings and their ancestors through time, in terms of physical characteristics, environment, social relations, and culture.
Scope: Embraces diversity in body shapes/sizes, customs, clothing, speech, religion, worldview.
Core aim: Anthropology as a comparative study of cultural and social life; seeks universal principles of behavior.
Major method: participant observation—lengthy fieldwork in a specific social setting.
Ethnographic fieldwork: establish rapport with host communities to extract life stories.
Relationship to other disciplines: shares features with social sciences and humanities; academic debate on whether it is a science or humanities.

Focus: study of a society's culture through belief systems, practices, and possessions.

Focus: examines remains of ancient and historical populations to understand how humans adapted to their environment and developed.

Definition: changes, modification, and variation in genetics and inherited traits from one generation to another.

Definition: changes or development in culture from a simple form to a more complex form.

Rationale/definitions (Baleña, 2016):
- Systematic study of a state and its government; relationships of people to their community; relationships of men and women to the state; relations of state with other sovereign states abroad.
- Emphasizes power, influence, interest, and diplomacy as important for a well-ordered society.
Goal (Ricardo Lazo): citizenship education—understanding duties and obligations of being a member of society.
Importance: knowledge-based and skills-based.
- Knowledge-based: understanding government, public law, political theory, public administration.
- Skills-based: prepares for careers in law, government service, politics, teaching, etc.

Definition (Joseph Fichter): the scientific study of patterned, shared human behavior.
Focus: analysis of human interaction; encompasses all kinds of social interactions: social arts, social relationships, social organization, social structures, social processes.