ANTHROPOLOGY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does anthropology mean? 

• ANTHROPOLOGY (noun)
  The noun ANTHROPOLOGY has 1 sense:

1. the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings

  Familiarity information: ANTHROPOLOGY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANTHROPOLOGY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("anthropology" is a kind of...):

social science (the branch of science that studies society and the relationships of individual within a society)

Meronyms (parts of "anthropology"):

structural anthropology; structuralism (an anthropological theory that there are unobservable social structures that generate observable social phenomena)

Domain member category:

affine ((anthropology) kin by marriage)

Mongoloid (of or pertaining to or characteristic of one of the traditional racial division of humankind including especially peoples of central and eastern Asia)

affinal; affine ((anthropology) related by marriage)

outbred (bred of parents not closely related; having parents of different classes or tribes)

exogamic; exogamous (pertaining to or characterized by the custom of marrying only outside the limits of a clan or tribe)

endogamic; endogamous (pertaining to or characterized by the custom of marrying only within the limits of a clan or tribe)

primitive (used of preliterate or tribal or nonindustrial societies)

blood kinship; cognation; consanguinity ((anthropology) related by blood)

affinity ((anthropology) kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship)

family relationship; kinship; relationship ((anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption)

ethos ((anthropology) the distinctive spirit of a culture or an era)

kinship system ((anthropology) the system of social relationships that constitute kinship in a particular culture, including the terminology that is used and the reciprocal obligations that are entailed)

eidos ((anthropology) the distinctive expression of the cognitive or intellectual character of a culture or a social group)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "anthropology"):

archaeology; archeology (the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures)

descriptive anthropology; ethnography (the branch of anthropology that provides scientific description of individual human societies)

ethnology (the branch of anthropology that deals with the division of humankind into races and with their origins and distribution and distinctive characteristics)

physical anthropology (the branch of anthropology dealing with the genesis and variation of human beings)

cultural anthropology; social anthropology (the branch of anthropology that deals with human culture and society)

Derivation:

anthropological (of or concerned with the science of anthropology)

anthropologist (a social scientist who specializes in anthropology)

 Context examples 

Interdisciplinary studies involving biology, anthropology, nutrition, and medicine with a focus on humans.

(Human Biology, NCI Thesaurus)

Disciplines concerned with the study of human and animal behavior, such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

(Behavioral Sciences, NCI Thesaurus)

Stephen Houston, professor of archaeology and anthropology at Brown University, told the BBC that the revelation of the sprawling Central American civilization was "breathtaking."

(Hidden Mayan Civilization Revealed in Guatemala Jungle, VOA)

We are interested in recent human evolution and what explains the evident variation in things like skin color, hair color and the face itself, said Mark D. Shriver, professor of anthropology, Penn State.

(Nose Form Was Shaped by Climate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)