introduction to anthropology

anthropology

• the “science of mankind”

  must be taken as an open approach

• the social behavioral sciences grew out of inquiries about the nature of humanity which date back to Greek and Roman times.
• the idea that human society was an appropriate scientific area of study began to develop in the seventeenth century in Europe
• the Age of Enlightenment meant that intellectuals were free, within limits, to talk and think about what was good and evil in their societies and others.
  • one of the most influential ideas of the era was the concept of the “noble savage.”
  • anthropology began to develop a distinct character as a discipline in its own right in the early nineteenth century.
  • because colonialists often kept detailed diaries and wrote long letters, they became the earliest ethnographers
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