Ahmed Matiur Rahman
Like most sciences, the name of this one tells you what it is about. The name anthropology comes from two Greek words: anthropos, meaning “man”, and logos, meaning “science”. So anthropology should mean the study of man.In the large sense, that is what anthropology is concerned with: man’s physical structure, his customs and habits, his languages, arts and religious and his civilizations. This means that a great many other studies are very closely linked with anthropology – for example, anatomy, physiology, psychology, ethics, sociology and so on.
But in actual practice, anthropology limits itself to a much narrower field. You might say that for practical purposes, three studies make up anthropology. The first is the study of man’s place in nature. What separates man from other animals? What characteristics of his body set him apart from monkeys and other animals? How does his skull compare with that of a chimpanzee? The purpose of such studies is to trace the connection between man’s physical qualities and his development and civilization.
The next study anthropology is concerned with is the various races of man and their classification. This is called ethnology. This science deals with the physical differences between the various human races. It compares the skeletons and skulls of prehistoric man with those of modern man. It also deals with the customs and religions of various tribes and peoples of find out how races differ and how they develop.
There is a third, a special branch of anthropology, called anthropometry. This is the science that deals with the physical measurements of man, the height and weight of various races, the shape of their bones and so on. It is the science, for example, which tells us that the average height ofa man today is five feet 51/4 inches.