I did a bit of research on origins of anthropology. I've found out that the term itself was first used by François Péron (French naturalist and explorer). He did some work on the Aborigines and that's when he came up with the term. Anthropology is a study of humans, I think it covers everything that is to do with people. Currently, anthropology is divided into four main fields: biological anthropology, social/cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology and archeology. At my university there is also available medical anthropology.

Anthropology in general is an extremely interesting field and I am very passionate about it!

xxx
:D

Christmas time is so interesting from an anthropological point of view... Everyone goes absolutely mental I tried to do a bit of shopping the other day, but couldn't due to a load of people running around looking for stuff! Every single shop was filled with human beings, everyone had this madness in their eyes! It's unbelievable how much money people are prepared to spend on Christmas gifts, food or decorations! I am one of those who enjoy Christmas, but sensibly...

Oh dear... well I would like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and a New Year full of surprises and anthropological discoveries

xxx

ref:
- http://www.unicure.com/images/presents.jpg

Getting to do the fieldwork is one of the most amazing things that a person can do in their life. Because it's not a simple travelling and taking pictures, it's not typical holidays... it's becoming a part of a community, it's being in some amazing place with unknown people and different environment! I bet social anthropologists absolutely love the time they spend in the field. And even though doing fieldwork sounds very 'easy' it unfortuanetly includes lots of preparations and then post-actions. Most of all, social anthropologists need to learn the language of the community they want to study, which if we think about it might be quite a difficult task, especially if someone wants to work for example on Asian societies. In my opinion, let's say Japanese ot Chinese don't seem to be very easily acquirable languages... Anyway, I am trying to make my point here! Social anthropologists sometimes spend even a few years with the communities they study, therefore I think it is crucial that non-anthropologists appreciate the wonderful work of social anthropologists! Their ethnographies are full of experiences and real data!

xxx

It is so amazing that there are so many different languages all over the world. We might think that they don't really play a very important role when studying a particular culture as very often what people say they do differs from what they actually do, therefore observations made in the field are the best base for cultural studies. However, in my opinion paying some attention to the language of the studied community really helps in understanding the values and principles laid out in the culture. Some cultures have characteristic proverbs or expressions, which provide outsiders with specific information. I think we should pay attention to language when studying other cultures.

Visit this link to see the 10 top discoveries of 2007. Please note they are from the archaelogy field.

http://www.archaeology.org/0801/topten/

x

There was an article in the New Scientist from 17 November titled: "Why bother going green?". Fred Pearce finds out whether there is actually a point in individuals contributing to the "green planet" plan by recycling, cycling or walking or not leaving mobile phones charging whole night, "when more than a billion Chinese and most of the rest of the planet are jacking up their emissions as if there were no tomorrow?" (Pearce 2007:34). He argues that even though people might seem to think that only governments of developed countries can make change via adapting certain policies and making sure their people follow the rules, he still encourages all inhabitants of the planet not to give up and go green. The author mentions that the majority of the carbon dioxide present in the air has been there for ages and although some of the countries add about 50% they hold responsibility for 80% carbon dioxide that we are concerned about in today's world. Pearce claims that: "[Our] contribution might not seem to matter, but multiply that by millions and you can move mountains" (Pearce 2007:36). I completely agree with the author's words and keep encouraging some of my skeptical friends to go green . I consider myself quite ecological due to all actions that I take. Here are 10 ways to go green that may help YOU in going green (all taken from Worldwatch Institute website):
1. Walk or bike
2. Buy used
3. Buy local (farmers' markets)
4. Compost your food scraps
5. Change the thermostat setting and install energy saving devices (take shorter showers, wash clothes in cold water if possible, use low-energy lightbulbs)
6. Skip the bottled water at the grocery or convenience store (filter your tap water)
7. Make your own cleaning supplies (baking soda, soap, and vinegar)
8. Think twice about new electronics (recycle your cell phone, buy higher-quality items, Keep your electronics as long as possible and dispose of them responsibly when the time comes)
9. Add one meatless meal per week
10. Use your local library and other public amenities (borrowing from libraries, instead of buying personal books and movies, saves money and printing resources)

That's right! I think that if we try to follow at least a few of those ways then we can consider ourselves "green" and try to carry out some further ones. GO GREEN!

xxx

ref:
- Pearce, F. (2007)"Why bother going green?", New Scientist, Reed Business Information Ltd., UK
- http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3915
- http://www.va.gov/Wilmington/about_us/images/go_green.gif

This is what I have been trying to figure out for about first two weeks of my time at Uni. I kept wondering what the difference was as both biological and social anthropologists are still... anthropologists. And even though they might be specialised in different areas of anthropology, they still need to have some basic knowledge about each other's approaches. And I'm speaking of my own experience. I am studying biological anthropology and even though it's BSc we do learn about social approaches. Let's hava a look at some definitions. I have copied them from my university's web page...
1] "Social Anthropology is the study of how societies work and how people live - from factory workers in Burnley to tribal Indians in the Amazon - including beliefs, customs, religions, myths, prejudices and aspirations" (05 Dec 07)
2] "Biological Anthropology is the study of how humans evolved, and of the biological aspects of humans and their societies today: for example nutrition, genetic variation, and adaptation to the environment" (05 Dec 07)
And now everything should become clear. The two fields are very different. I personally find both extremely fascinating as they concern us human beings and everything to do with us is interesting and pretty amazing!

ref:
- http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/prospective_students/index.html accessed 5/12/07 7:28 pm
- http://www.colorado.edu/Anthropology/images/frontpage1.jpg

No matter how hard I try not to react (get upset) on hearing people use the word "race" (in terms of human beings of course) I always find myself getting extremely annoyed and explaining how irrelevant the term is! I cannot believe that people divide us into groups by the colour of the skin! I always thought that it was obvious that we are all one species and the way we look has nothing to do with who we are. From a biological point of view, the differences in skin colours are simply results of adaptaion to various environments. Obviously, people living in for example African countries will have dark coloured skins due to the sun exposure - their skin will contain a lot of melanin so they are better protected against diseases such as skin cancer. Pale Europeans would find it very hard to live in very hot, sunny countries without skin protection (sun lotions etc.) It's like with Eskimos for example, who have short limbs and stocky bodies so they can retain heat - they are adapted to their cold environment. In my opinion, "race" is a purely social concept, it has nothing to do with human biology. Under the skin, we are all Homo sapiens with the same organs...

xx