TWO BASIC DIVISIONS

TWO BASIC DIVISIONS

            Anthropology has two separate branches—(1) physical, and (2) cultural. The former branch deals with the physical aspect of man-his evolution, structural variations, racial composition, etc. during study the physical anthropologist take into considerations the facts, like the skin-colour of man in different countries, the character of hair, size and shape of nose, stature, etc., and then try to classify the people of the world in different groups based on the similarities of physical characteristic. In doing this, they also collected the bones of ancient men from the different layer of the earth and try to give comparative analysis between these and modern men.

            On the other hand, the subject matter of cultural anthropology is the life-activities of man.  The cultural anthropologist study man. The cultural anthropologists study man as a cultural being. The different works, behaviour, and social patterns of man are the main points of study of this branch of science. In studying this, a cultural anthropologist collects the various social and cultural activities of man from the different societies of the world and analysis these comparatively. He also gathers facts from the prehistoric periods which help him in studying the development of culture through the ages. On the whole, we see that the centre of focus of anthropological studies is Man-a unique creation of Nature.