ANTHROPOLOGY

IN
VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE

ANTHROPOLOGY
The study of humans, past and present.
It helps us in understanding the full sweep and
complexity of cultures across all of human
history.
Anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge
from the social and biological sciences as well as
the humanities and physical sciences.
A central concern of anthropology is the
application of knowledge to the solution of human
problems.

SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:
Sociocultural anthropology examine social patterns and practices
across cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular
places and how they organize, govern, and create meaning.
A hallmark of sociocultural anthropology is its concern with similarities
and differences, both within and among societies, and its attention to
race, sexuality, class, gender, and nationality
Research in sociocultural anthropology is distinguished by its emphasis
on participant observation, which involves placing oneself in the
research context for extended periods of time to gain a first-hand
sense of how local knowledge is put to work in grappling with practical
problems of everyday life and with basic philosophical problems of
knowledge, truth, power, and justice.
Topics of concern to sociocultural anthropology include such areas as
health, work, ecology and environment, education, agriculture and
development, and social change.

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLGY :
Biological anthropology seek to understand how humans adapt
to diverse environments, how biological and cultural processes work
together to shape growth, development and behaviour, and what
causes disease and early death.
In addition, they are interested in human biological origins,
evolution and variation.
They give primary attention to investigating questions having to
do with evolutionary theory, our place in nature, adaptation and
human biological variation.
To understand these processes, biological anthropology study
the fossil record (pale anthropology), prehistoric people (bio
archaeology), and the biology (e.g., health, hormones, growth and
development) and genetics of living populations.

ARCHAEOLOGY :
Archaeology is the study of past peoples and cultures, from the
deepest prehistory to the recent past, through the analysis of
material remains, ranging from artefacts and evidence of past
environments to architecture and landscapes.
Material evidence, such as pottery, stone tools, animal bone, and
remains of structures, is examined , to address such topics as the
formation of social groupings, ideologies, subsistence patterns, and
interaction with the environment.
Like other areas of anthropology, archaeology is a comparative
discipline; it assumes basic human continuities over time and place,
but also recognizes that every society is the product of its own
particular history and that within every society there are
commonalities as well as variation.

Linguistic anthropology :
Linguistic anthropology is the comparative study of ways in
which language reflects and influences social life.
It explores the many ways in which language practices define
patterns of communication, formulate categories of social
identity and group membership, organize large-scale cultural
beliefs and ideologies, and, equip people with common cultural
representations of their natural and social worlds.
Linguistic anthropology shares with anthropology in general a
concern to understand power, inequality, and social change,
particularly as these are constructed and represented through
language and discourse.

Different types of anthropology are :

Psychological anthropology:

Psychological anthropology is an interdisciplinary subfield of

anthropology that studies the interaction of cultural and mental
processes.
This subfield tends to focus on ways in which humans'
development and enculturation within a particular cultural group
with its own history, language, practices, and conceptual categories
shape processes of emotion, perception, motivation, and mental
health.
It also examines how the understanding of , emotion, motivation,
and similar psychological processes inform or constrain our models of
cultural and social processes.

Cognitive anthropology :
Cognitive anthropology seeks to explain patterns of
shared knowledge, cultural innovation, and transmission
over time and space using the methods and theories of
the cognitive sciences (especially experimental
psychology and evolutionary biology) often through
close collaboration with historians, archaeologists,
linguists and other specialists engaged in the
description and interpretation of cultural forms.
Cognitive anthropology is concerned with what people
from different groups know and how that implicit
knowledge changes the way people perceive and relate
to the world around them.

Ecological anthropology:

Ecological anthropology is defined as the "study of

cultural adaptations to environments.
The sub-field is also defined as, "the study of
relationships between a population of humans and
their biophysical environment.
The focus of its research concerns "how cultural
beliefs and practices helped human populations adapt
to their environments, and how people used elements
of their culture to maintain their ecosystems."

Environmental
anthropology:

Environmental anthropology is a sub-specialty within the field of

anthropology that takes an active role in examining the
relationships between humans and their environment across space
and time.
Many characterize this new perspective as more informed with
culture, politics and power, globalization, localized issues, and
more.
The focus and data interpretation is often used for arguments
for/against or creation of policy, and to prevent corporate
exploitation and damage of land.

Historical
anthropology:

Ethno history is the study of ethnographic cultures and

indigenous customs by examining historical records.
It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups
that may or may not exist today.
Ethno history uses both historical and ethnographic data as
its foundation.
Its historical methods and materials go beyond the standard
use of documents and manuscripts.
Practitioners recognize the utility of such source material
as maps, music, paintings, photography, oral tradition, site
exploration, archaeological materials, museum collections,
enduring customs, language, and place names.

Evolutionary anthropology:

Evolutionary anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of

the evolution of human physiology and human behavior
Evolutionary anthropology is based in natural science and
social science, combining the human development with
socioeconomic factors.
Evolutionary anthropology is concerned with both
biological and cultural evolution of humans, past and present.
It is based on a scientific approach, and brings together
fields such as archaeology, behavioral ecology, psychology,
primatology, and genetics.
It is a dynamic and interdisciplinary field, drawing on
many lines of evidence to understand the human experience,
past and present.