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study of the human groups which are referred to as races has been
included under the heading Racial Classification in the later part of
this book. In the present chapter a brief historical background of the
concept of evolution and physical anthropology in general will be dealt
with. The development of physical anthropology as an organized and
systematic discipline started in the second half of the nineteenth
century. But the thinkers and philosophers tried to understand and
explain the various aspects of human origin and variations in the
physical features in their own ways from a very early time. The idea of
human origin and evolution occurred to some of the ancient Greek and
Roman thinkers. In the writings of Herodotus (484-425 B.C) we come
across description of skulls of the inhabitants of Greece, Egypt, Asia
Minor, Libya, Scythia, etc. He demonstrated that the skull wall was
thicker in the Egyptians and thinner in the Persians. According to him
these differences were due to the influence of the environment.
Hippocrates (460-377) also laid more emphasis on the environment to
explain differences in physical features among different populations
General sociology involves the study of social laws and how they
are formed, while social physiology involves the study of religion,
economics, politics, laws and other elements that influence
society.
2) Anthropology, on the other hand, is the study of human culture,
past and present. It involves a broader look at social patterns in
different cultures as well as investigating how humans have
adapted to different environments in the modern and past world.
Because both deal in some part with human interaction and
sociocultural relations, many people sometimes mistake
sociology and anthropology to be the same thing. They are,
however, different fields, albeit with certain similarities.