What Is Anthropology? | Anthropology Graduate Explains Subfields, Key Terms, Jobs, & More!

Main ideas and lessons

• What anthropology is: Anthropology is broadly the study of humans. The video begins with a “Google-style” definition (“study of human societies and cultures and their development”), but the key takeaway is anthropology’s focus on human beings.
• Why anthropology is complex: Humans are a huge and varied subject, so the field is broken into subfields to make it more manageable to study.
• Core value/why it matters: Anthropology helps people understand similarities and differences across cultures and across time—including how we got from the past to the present.
• Applied angle (5th subfield concept): Beyond studying humans, anthropology can be used to improve real communities. This is presented as a commonly overlooked but important form of “applied anthropology.”

Key concepts: the subfields of anthropology

Anthropology is presented as having four main subfields, with a fifth often included/recognized.

The 4 main subfields

1. Biological Anthropology (aka Physical Anthropology)

   • What it studies: Human biology and evolution

   • Major topics mentioned:

     • Natural selection

     • Evolutionary history of Homo sapiens (learning about early ancestors such as Homo habilis, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalis, Australopithecus)

     • Modern directions, including:

       • Forensics
       • Molecular anthropology (how bodies interact with disease, etc.)

2. Cultural Anthropology

   • What it studies: Human societies, human cultures, and their development
   • Major research method mentioned: ethnographic fieldwork
     • Anthropologists immerse themselves in a community/culture (possibly in a completely different part of the world)
     • The goal is to understand a facet of the culture more deeply
   • Key deliverable mentioned: ethnography
     • An ethnography is the book/report produced from this kind of field research
   • Example mentioned: an ethnography about marriage systems in a region of China during the 1960s–1970s

3. Linguistic Anthropology

   • What it studies: how language impacts human societies and cultures, and how humans also shape language
   • Central emphasis:
     • Language is constantly changing
     • Language is a distinctive human feature that helps humans differ from other species
   • Purpose/value: studying something uniquely human helps highlight anthropology’s importance for understanding society.

4. Archaeology

   • What it studies: the human past through material culture and cultural remains
   • How interpretation works:
     • Focus is on both:
       • the physical purpose of items, and
       • the meaning conveyed by those items in a society
   • Example concept mentioned: ancient homes
     • Homes may indicate status, not just where people lived
   • Ongoing challenge noted: limited access to past societies means some questions may be hard or impossible to fully answer.

Commonly added / “often left out” 5th subfield (Applied Anthropology)

• The speaker notes that many intro frameworks technically describe four standard subfields, but introduces a 5th that is often overlooked or treated as unofficial/semi-official:
  • Applied Anthropology
• What it is: using insights from the other subfields to create real-world change in current communities.
• Why it matters (core lesson):
  • Anthropology is not only for research—it can be used to apply findings to improve lives.
• Example given:
  • Studying the impacts of smoking on a community and using the conclusions to improve public well-being.

Speaker/source information

• Speaker: Olivia (host/creator of the channel; identified as “my name is Olivia”)