The Other Branches of Anthropology are mentioned below:
Branches
1. Economic Anthropology:
Need for nutrition and subsistence is universal. All people have to satisfy their biological needs to ensure their survival. But when the needs become wants, they get involved with the cultural factors.
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The way people satisfy their wants is a province of study of anthropologists. An anthropologist examining these, studies economics. Economic anthropology then investigates in demining how wants are defined by a people and what means they have to satisfy them.
This also involves the technological aspects in developing means. The term ‘economic anthropology’ is used to designate a branch of Social Cultural Anthropology and is conceived as the ‘Cross Cultural’ and comparative study of economic systems.
2. Political Anthropology:
A part of wider phenomenon of social organization refers to the network of man to man relations which are organized for the maintenances of internal order in the society and external peace.
The former is achieved by implementation of law and order mechanism, resolution of disputes and some system of disbursement of justice. The latter is achieved by decisions of diplomacy and war.
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Anthropologists studying all these activities and systems of authority among primitive societies which are societies with state as well as political Anthropologists. As such, political anthropology has developed as a sub discipline of Social-Cultural Anthropology which primarily concentrates on political institutions in relation to and in the context of other aspects of a culture. It is defined as the cross cultural and comparative study of political systems.
3. Applied Anthropology:
Applied anthropology is that branch of anthropology which on the basis of the study of other branches works to change or to improve the lives of peoples. The analysis of human problems and the theory that may come out of changing the peoples’ lives lies at the heart of applied anthropology.
In its earlier historical beginning in the countries such as Great Britain, France, Belgium and Netherlands, anthropologists were employed to facilitate the administration of their colonies. This earlier colonial association of applied anthropology makes the present day anthropologists uneasy about the ethics of this early work as the actual beneficiaries were not the primitive people but their colonial administrators who exploited them.
In post colonial period, anthropologists increasingly involved themselves with the planning process and development efforts in New States.
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In the process under development was defined as cultural category and various theories regarding integrated economic and social development through induced change were developed.
Term ‘development anthropology’ was used for the applied anthropologists who got themselves associated with planning and development in developing countries. One of the most difficult problems for applied anthropology is the need to anticipate all the effects that are likely to result from a single change that may be proposed to be introduced.
At the implemental level there is also the problem of people’s attitude and resistance towards change. It has also been a point of debate among applied anthropologists regarding their involvement with policy making. They justify only their advisory role about the feasibility of an intended programme of change. At times, certain proposed long term changes which may be otherwise sound but may result in undesirable social change.
Even though the resistance to change may appear to be cultural, psychological or social, another factor may be involved—the targeted people may not see any material or economic benefit for themselves.
This lack of awareness may be won over by establishing communication channels between the agents of change and the targeted population. A proper understanding of such channels of influences, of pre-established networks for communication becomes essential.
Such an understanding acquires great significance in order to ensure success in introducing planned change. As such, a specialized area of study and research has emerged devoted to such communication studies as communication anthropology.
Applied anthropology thus has been able to carve out only a peripheral role in the entire affair of development and planned change only as consultants and advisors to the governments and private agencies.
In America around 1950, a group of scholars under the leadership of Sol tax developed the idea of ‘Action Anthropology’ in which applied anthropologists take independent charge of a project of change and by their vigorous study they are themselves to decide what to do and how to do.
If their efforts fail to achieve desired ends it is for them to discover the lacunae and re-model their strategies. The relatively passive role of traditional applied anthropology is replaced by an action oriented effort where action anthropologists tell the people what they have found out, what they think it means and to the extent of their let most ability they try to help carrying out mutually agreed upon solutions to difficulties.
4. Psychological Anthropology:
Psychological anthropology is the study of psychological, behavioral and personal approaches of man. It also helps in the studies of sociocultural anthropology. Systematic studies by psychologically oriented anthropologists were not initiated until late 1920s. The earlier work of some of these scholars lacked scientific vigor. That, the basic human conflict between human and personal needs is varied and must be investigated at individual as well as social lever simultaneously was realized, but neither psychologists nor anthropologists alone could satisfactorily handle all the dimensions of the problem in the frame work of one single discipline.
This realization gave rise to the need for a cooperative endeavour between psychologists and anthropologists. Social-cultural anthropologists such as A.R. Radcliff Brown and Leslie White discarded the use of psychology, personality or individuals and stressed on exclusive study of social-culture systems. They feared main explanations of social institutions by psychological anthropologists in terms of individual motivations.
The modern students of culture and personality, being well aware of the excesses of their predecessors and their criticism, contend that evolution made us human phylogenitically and culture makes us human ontogenetically. But culture was not the gift of God nor did it grow by itself. It was achieved at a great psychic cost.
Psychological anthropology thus developed as an inter disciplinary approach within the folds of American Culture Anthropology. Modern psychological anthropologists are very much interested in the process by which culture is transmitted from one generation to the next.
The process of enculturation of socialization they believe forms the basis for difference in cultural configurations which are the molders of personality. It was this configurational view, a product of psychological tendencies uniquely tempered in different cultures by cultural factors, which opened up a new area of research.
Ruth Benedict conducted her research in many American Indian cultures and published her ‘Patterns of Cultures’ in 1934. Marget Mead studied among the Samoans to tell us how adolescence and sex attitudes came to be acquired in different cultures.
The Neo Freudian approach which came closest to achieving a theory of psycho- cultural analysis was that of Abrahm Kardiner. In association with Raeph Linton, Cora-Dubois and Carl Withers, who submitted ethnographic data, Kardiner insisted upon grasping the source of personality differences.
The analysis of the numerical features of a population constitutes the discipline of demography’. Anthropologist looks at the populations as bio-cultural systems. The size, composition and the rate of change of population are important to anthropologists which studying a group.
In determining adaptation and adaptability of a group, the role of group size and structure are important. Whereas demographers usually deal with large population, anthropologists study small groups.
Demographers are interested in the study of broad and long range question, but anthropologists are interested in intensive microscopic analysis of a whole society. While demographers use mathematical techniques, anthropologists rarely have large sample sizes requiring such techniques.
As such while the aim of the two disciplines may be same, the approaches and the methods adopted by them are likely to differ.
5. Cognitive Anthropology:
Cognitive anthropology is the study of the knowledge of differentiation classification and categorization of natural objects. Language is the most distinctive type of symbolic cultural product of man.
All ideas and the entire thought process of people are a function language. Anthropologists who are interested in recording the ways people think and perceive in different societies i.e. how they make decisions and how they classify natural objects such as plants and animals, call themselves cognitive anthropologists.
Speech and verbal though imply codification of the complex stimuli of experience into finite categories supplied by the grammar and vocabulary of a particular language. Codification simplifies the task of organizing and retaining information. This is referred to as cognitive organization. Cognitive anthropologists attempt to study cognitive organization of different peoples.
6. Symbolic Anthropology:
Symbolic anthropologist studies how symbols and ideas are formed and gain meanings among different societies and cultures. Symbolic anthropology is a broader perspective and an extension of linguistic anthropology.
In every society, certain activities and ideas stand for many things. To understand another people’s way of life, one has to learn the meanings of their symbols and the occasions and situations when they are appropriately used.
Symbols are often demonstrated in their behaviour, but they can be more abstract. An anthropologist’s job is to understand the meaning and interpretation of symbols.
7. Urban Anthropology:
To study the urban and industrial establishment and developments is the major task of urban anthropology. During sixties and seventies anthropologists who were primarily concerned with tribal studies, initiated and promoted several significant researches on Urban and Industrial Centres.
After decolonization of the third world countries by their foreign rulers, there was a spate of industrialization in an effort to develop their economies. Despite financial constraints and lack of infrastructure the efforts on the part of their people picked up gradually. Establishment of industrial units necessarily led to the growth of Urban Centres around them.