This hormone is produced by the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys. Within seconds of being injected into the blood, adrenaline can dramatically increase the rate that the heart pumps and cause the lungs to hyperventilate in order to get more oxygen into the blood.
An injection of adrenaline occurs naturally as a consequence of signals from the brain, which in turn is responding to dangerous situations in the environment outside of the body. It is clear that there is a complex interrelationship between the cardiovascular system, other parts of the body, and the surrounding environment.
It can only be fully understood as an interacting whole. Another assumption of anthropologists is related to how we have flourished as a species through adaptation. Physically, humans are not particularly impressive members of the animal kingdom. We have relatively thin skin. We don't have claws or long, sharp killing teeth.
We can't fly, run fast, or jump far, though we can run farther than any other animal. Many other creatures can kill and eat us. Yet, we are now the unquestionably dominant large animal on land, and our population has grown explosively, especially over the last 10, years. While we began as tropical animals and physically continue to be so, we have been able to successfully colonize most environments on our planet.
What has made this possible has been our ability to acquire knowledge and create technology to adapt to new environments. Any successful behavior, strategy, or technique for obtaining food and surviving in a new environment provides a selective advantage in the competition for survival with other life forms. For instance, we have learned how to survive the winters in such areas as Northern Canada and Alaska with their extremely cold temperatures by storing food and creating artificial tropical environments in the form of well insulated houses, fires for heating, and clothes.
Over thousands of years we also slowly adapt genetically to different climatic conditions. This largely accounts for the variation in human skin color around the globe.
The most important core concept in anthropology is culture. While there have been many definitions of culture, anthropologists usually consider it to be the full range of learned behavior patterns and knowledge acquired by people as members of a society. Culture is not genetically hardwired in--we do not inherit it biologically. We learn it from our parents and other people who are around us as we grow up. Anthropologists have come to realize that what sets our species apart from most, if not all, others is our heavy reliance and even dependence on culture for survival.
The progressive human development of cultural knowledge and technology over the last 2. Despite the power that culture gives us, it is a remarkably fragile phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists almost entirely in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archaeologists can not dig up culture directly in their excavations.
The European Association of Social Anthropologists — a professional association open to all social anthropologists either qualified in, or working in, Europe. The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences IUAES - a world organization of scientists and institutions working in the fields of anthropology and ethnology, but also of interest to archaeologists and linguists, among others.
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland RAI - is the world's longest-established scholarly association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology the study of humankind in its broadest and most inclusive sense. World Council of Anthropological Associations WCAA - network of national and international associations that aims to promote worldwide communication and cooperation in anthropology. About Anthropology What is Anthropology?
What is Anthropology? What do anthropologists do? Studying anthropology Both at undergraduate and at postgraduate level, studying anthropology imparts a unique set of skills for working with people. This can mean looking at how language works in all its different forms, and how it changes over time.
It also means looking at what we believe about language and communication, and how we use language in our lives.
This includes the ways we use language to build and share meaning, to form or change identities, and to make or change relations of power. For linguistic anthropologists, language and communication are keys to how we make society and culture. Applied or practicing anthropologists are an important part of anthropology.
Each of the four subfields of anthropology can be applied. Applied anthropologists work to solve real world problems by using anthropological methods and ideas. For example, they may work in local communities helping to solve problems related to health, education or the environment. They might also work for museums or national or state parks helping to interpret history. They might work for local, state or federal governments or for non-profit organizations. Others may work for businesses, like retail stores or software and technology companies, to learn more about how people use products or technology in their daily lives.
Some work in the USA while others work internationally. Jobs for applied anthropologists have shown strong growth in the recent past with more and more opportunities becoming available as demand grows for their valuable skill sets.
Visit the Careers page to learn more. While anthropologists devote much of their attention to what human groups share across time and space, they also study how these groups are different. Just as there is diversity in the ways people physically adapt to their environment, build and organize societies, and communicate, there are also many ways to do anthropology. Unique approaches to anthropology developed in many countries around the world. They attempt to achieve this by observing subjects in their local environment.
Anthropologists then describe interactions and customs, a process known as ethnography. By participating in the everyday life of their subjects, anthropologists can better understand and explain the purpose of local institutions, culture, and practices. This process is known as participant-observation. This bias is known as ethnocentrism, or the habit of viewing all groups as inferior to another, usually their own, cultural group. Taken as a whole, these steps enable anthropologists to describe people through the people's own terms.
A subdiscipline is a specialized field of study within a broader subject or discipline. Anthropologists specialize in cultural or social anthropology, linguistic anthropology , biological or physical anthropology, and archaeology.
While subdisciplines can overlap and are not always seen by scholars as distinct, each tends to use different techniques and methods.
Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology, also known as social anthropology, is the study of the learned behavior of groups of people in specific environments. Cultural anthropologists base their work in ethnography, a research method that uses field work and participant-observation to study individual cultures and customs. Among the traditions she studied were the chants and practices of the Satawalese, a tiny cultural group native to a single coral atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Cultural anthropologists who analyze and compare different cultures are known as ethnologists. Ethnologists may observe how specific customs develop differently in different cultures and interpret why these differences exist. He spent more than three years in Latin America, collecting and studying plants that different indigenous groups use in their daily lives. His work compares how these groups understand and use plants as food, medicine, and in religious ceremonies.
Linguistic Anthropology Linguistic anthropology is the study of how language influences social life. Linguistic anthropologists say language provides people with the intellectual tools for thinking and acting in the world. Linguistic anthropologists focus on how language shapes societies and their social networks, cultural beliefs, and understanding of themselves and their environments.
To understand how people use language for social and cultural purposes, linguistic anthropologists closely document what people say as they engage in daily social activities. This documentation relies on participant-observation and other methods, including audiovisual recording and interviews with participants. Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist, studies forms of communication among the Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal community in Australia.
Boroditsky found that almost all daily activities and conversations were placed within the context of cardinal directions. Linguistic anthropologists may document native languages that are in danger of extinction. The Enduring Voices Project at National Geographic aims to prevent language extinction by embarking on expeditions that create textual, visual, and auditory records of threatened languages.
The project also assists indigenous communities in their efforts to revitalize and maintain their languages. Biological Anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is the study of the evolution of human beings and their living and fossil relatives. Biological anthropology places human evolution within the context of human culture and behavior. This means biological anthropologists look at how physical developments, such as changes in our skeletal or genetic makeup, are interconnected with social and cultural behaviors throughout history.
To understand how humans evolved from earlier life forms, some biological anthropologists study primates, such as monkeys and apes. Primates are considered our closest living relatives.
Jane Goodall, a primatologist, has studied wild chimpanzees in Tanzania for more than 40 years. By living with these primates for extended periods of time, Goodall discovered a number of similarities between humans and chimpanzees.
Toolmaking is considered a key juncture in human evolution. Other biological anthropologists examine the skeletal remains of our human ancestors to see how we have adapted to different physical environments and social structures over time.
This specialty is known as human paleontology, or paleoanthropology. Zeresenay Alemseged, a National Geographic Explorer, examines hominid fossils found at the Busidima-Dikika anthropological site in Ethiopia. Paleoanthropologists study why some hominid species were able to survive for thousands of years, while others were not. Biological anthropology may focus on how the biological characteristics of living people are related to their social or cultural practices.
A thick layer of fat protects vital organs of the chest and abdomen, and veins shrink at night. Archaeology Archaeology is the study of the human past using material remains. These remains can be any objects that people created, modified, or used. Archaeologists carefully uncover and examine these objects in order to interpret the experiences and activities of peoples and civilizations throughout history. Archaeologists often focus their work on a specific period of history.
Archaeologists may study prehistoric cultures—cultures that existed before the invention of writing. For example, macaw eggshells, skeletal remains, and ceramic imagery recovered at archaeological sites in the United States Southwest suggest the important role macaws played as exotic trade items and objects of worship for prehistoric peoples in that area.
Other archaeologists may focus their studies on a specific culture or aspect of cultural life. Constanza Ceruti, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, is a high-altitude archaeologist specializing in artifacts and features of the Incan Empire. Along with archaeological evidence, Ceruti analyzes historical sources and traditional Andean beliefs.
These data help her reconstruct what ancient sites looked like, the symbolic meaning behind each artifact, and how ceremonies took place.
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