Early anthropology emerged as a discipline in the 19th century, during a period of rapid global exploration and colonial expansion. The development of anthropology was shaped by several intellectual, social, and cultural factors:
- Colonial Expansion and Exploration: European powers were exploring and colonizing various parts of the world, encountering new and unfamiliar cultures. This led to a growing interest in understanding the diversity of human societies, their customs, languages, and beliefs.
- Enlightenment Thinkers: The intellectual roots of anthropology can be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, where thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu began to question the nature of society and the relationships between individuals and their social environments. The idea that humans could be studied scientifically started to gain traction.
- Evolutionary Theory: The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) had a profound impact on anthropology, as it provided a framework for understanding human development through the lens of evolution. Early anthropologists, such as Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan, adopted evolutionary models to study human cultures and societies, proposing that human societies evolve from “primitive” to “civilized.”
- Cultural and Physical Anthropology: The discipline split into two main subfields:
- Cultural Anthropology: Focused on the study of cultures, social structures, and customs. Early cultural anthropologists, like Tylor and Morgan, aimed to catalog the customs of non-Western societies and describe human diversity.
- Physical Anthropology: Focused on studying human biology and evolution. This field was influenced by Darwinian ideas and early researchers like Franz Boas and Aleš Hrdlička, who sought to understand human variation in terms of biology and race.
- The Rise of Ethnography: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, anthropologists began to conduct fieldwork and engage in ethnography—systematic, immersive studies of cultures. Franz Boas, often considered the father of American anthropology, emphasized the importance of fieldwork and the need for anthropologists to understand cultures from the perspective of the people being studied, challenging ethnocentric views.
- The Influence of Sociology and Other Disciplines: Anthropology borrowed ideas and methods from other social sciences, particularly sociology, which was developing in Europe during the same time. Figures like Émile Durkheim influenced the ways anthropologists thought about social structures, norms, and institutions.
By the early 20th century, anthropology had begun to solidify its place as a distinct academic discipline, with its own methodologies, theories, and goals. Over time, it has evolved into a broad field that encompasses various approaches to understanding human behavior, culture, and society from biological, social, historical, and linguistic perspectives.