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