Anthropology is the study of humans –culture, biological development, and social development. Ethnography is a way to study humans and cultures.
Anthropology was a course that I wanted to take in college. Every semester, I would try to sign up for a class, but the availability never matched up with my schedule. As a result, I never got the opportunity to take a course.
But a few years ago, I came across a book called Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I was at the book store one day and picked it up to see what it was all about. I skimmed through it, looked at some of the pictures, and was interested.
The first couple of times reading it was overwhelming. It’s a big book with big ideas, and I’m a slow reader. I would complete a chapter and see that there are still hundreds more pages to read.
But the book is thought-provoking. And that’s why I kept reading it.
Harari does a good job of explaining human history and the various theories of it.
After completing the book, which is a blend of history, psychology and anthropology, I wanted to learn more about the latter topic (remember, it was a course I wanted to take).
I felt like Sapiens was a good intro to the social science, but nothing in-depth. There weren’t any anthropological theories in it, even though it talked a lot about history, culture, and society. Continue reading “What is Anthropology? And What’s Ethnography?”
