Leila Monaghan

[Barbara LeMaster]

While I know some about the history of anthropology, some of what is in
here is not familiar to me.  It was written by a colleague in our
department for our self-study document.  If anyone can comment on its
accuracy or ways that it may be improved, I'd appreciate the feedback.
You can comment to me directly and I can share comments with anyone who
may be interested.

Thanks.

Barbara LeMaster
lemaster at csulb.edu

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 Anthropology is the science that studies the human species, including
closely related mammalian species, and human antecedents.  By its nature
it is interdisciplinary.  Anthropolgy's historical roots are in anatomy
where it remained for one hundred years and would later be referred to
as physical anthropology in the United States and Britain; a social
science branch was added in the 1870s when ethnology, its roots in
natural history, was expanded into a field called cultural
anthropology.  Linguistics developed within both of these fields as
pre-genetics physical anthropologists attempted to elucidate human
migratory patterns, while cultural anthropologists, besides learning the
languages of people they worked with,  looked at the importance of
language in influencing worldview. Cultural and linguistic anthropology
were one in American Anthropology.  Most cultural anthropologists
collected language data and published on it.
Prehistory, or archaeology, with roots from the eighteenth century in
geology as a separate discipline became associated with anthropology.
Thus, anthropology is an extremely diverse discipline that combines the
social sciences, biological sciences, earth sciences, humanities, and
even the health sciences.