Anthropology is the study of humans. But a lot of what anthropology studies would apply to anything that we would reasonably considered “people.” I think the study of people, which would include the study of culture, is very important, and I think we need to remove the anthropocentric nature of such studies, including the study of language, religion, social organization, and so on. Also, what should we call such a study? Personology just seems dull. The Greek word is “prosopon” but prosoponology is already taken, as is prosopology. But neither seem to be used too often, so perhaps we could use one of those terms?
To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of dividing things into fields to begin with, but at the same time, I don't think we're doing enough to study the nature of people and our study of various topics are too anthropocentric.
The origin and development of "anthropology" are relatively well researched. The first peak can be found in the 17th century, when the discovery of new territories in countries and continents far away from Europe created a very large stock of new knowledge, which came into use with the term anthropology - already appearing as a Latin term in the 15th century. The second push for "anthropology" came in the late 19th century as a natural science dealing with human descent, as a result of the success of Darwin's theory of evolution in all fields. In German-speaking territory. A specifically German affair was philosophical anthropology, which appeared as a kind of cross-sectional science in the processing of the findings of the individual sciences, for example with Max Scheler (Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos, 1928), Helmuth Plessner and Arnold Gehlen. The thesis of the philosopher Odo Marquard was that (philosophical) anthropology basically led to the decline of the philosophy of history: Biological explanatory models replaced historical ones. In the USA the term anthropology naturally has a slightly different meaning. Starting with the works of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Malinowski, Ruth Benedict, Cultural A. or Social A. was very strongly oriented towards culture and ethnology.
Summary: There are much results and concepts of A. availabe. We don't have to reinvent everything.
I'm puzzled as to how you make a distinction between humans and people?
To be blunt, Stephen Andrew Linstead, I'm still somewhat puzzled by the opposition to differentiating between them While humans are the defacto standard for personhood, there are a number of other candidates. The one I'm most interested in is dolphins.
To answer your question as it is (and thinking about animals) the answer is:
No: ANTHROPOlogy CANNOT be extended beyond the study of humans, by the very meaning of the word; anthroopos in Greek means 'man, human being'.
But even though anthropology cannot deal with dolphins, I guess a Dolphinology can, if that's what you are looking for.
Witold Witakowski, I do not mean in terms of a name, but rather as a field of study. Indeed, one of the additional questions that was asked was "what should we call such a study?"
Daniel, anthropology is a field of study. It is the study of humans. Of course this is going to involve history and quite possibly theology. I do not see how biology fits into this study. When we study a fish. We find out its history and its etymological name. We do not discuss its biology or sexual function. I think when we do this we are getting off the subject. Consider these questions: How was man created? For what purpose was man created? If man is made of a higher substance than animals because he has the spirit of God does this makes him also divine? Why did man have to farm the land for a living? Why was man given a woman? Why does man's offsprings differ? All of these questions are involved in the study of humans. He is classified by himself (man) in the animal kingdom because he is warm blooded, has hair and the female produces milk. Science says nothing about man's spirit. You can take man's classification for himself and find it in Revelation. John says let him who has wisdom understand. 666 or 616 (in some manuscripts) is the number of a man. That mean the 6 is not an animal but a person (man) according to science. Let he who has wisdom understand. God Bless.
Daniel, anthropology is a field of study. It is the study of humans. Of course this is going to involve history and quite possibly theology. I do not see how biology fits into this study. When we study a fish. We find out its history and its etymological name. We do not discuss its biology or sexual function. I think when we do this we are getting off the subject. Consider these questions: How was man created? For what purpose was man created? If man is made of a higher substance than animals because he has the spirit of God does this makes him also divine? Why did man have to farm the land for a living? Why was man given a woman? Why does man's offsprings differ? All of these questions are involved in the study of humans. He is classified by himself (man) in the animal kingdom because he is warm blooded, has hair and the female produces milk. Science says nothing about man's spirit. You can take man's classification for himself and find it in Revelation. John says let him who has wisdom understand. 666 or 616 (in some manuscripts) is the number of a man. That mean the 6 is not an animal but a person (man) according to science. Let he who has wisdom understand. God Bless. or the 6 could be a woman?
Daniel, anthropology is a field of study. It is the study of humans. Of course this is going to involve history and quite possibly theology. I do not see how biology fits into this study. When we study a fish. We find out its history and its etymological name. We do not discuss its biology or sexual function. I think when we do this we are getting off the subject. Consider these questions: How was man created? For what purpose was man created? If man is made of a higher substance than animals because he has the spirit of God does this makes him also divine? Why did man have to farm the land for a living? Why was man given a woman? Why does man's offsprings differ? All of these questions are involved in the study of humans. He is classified by himself (man) in the animal kingdom because he is warm blooded, has hair and the female produces milk. Science says nothing about man's spirit. You can take man's classification for himself and find it in Revelation. John says let him who has wisdom understand. 666 or 616 (in some manuscripts) is the number of a man. That mean the 6 is not an animal but a person (man) according to science. Let he who has wisdom understand. God Bless. or the 6 could be a woman?
Daniel, anthropology is a field of study. It is the study of humans. Of course this is going to involve history and quite possibly theology. I do not see how biology fits into this study. When we study a fish. We find out its history and its etymological name. We do not discuss its biology or sexual function. I think when we do this we are getting off the subject. Consider these questions: How was man created? For what purpose was man created? If man is made of a higher substance than animals because he has the spirit of God does this makes him also divine? Why did man have to farm the land for a living? Why was man given a woman? Why does man's offsprings differ? All of these questions are involved in the study of humans. He is classified by himself (man) in the animal kingdom because he is warm blooded, has hair and the female produces milk. Science says nothing about man's spirit. You can take man's classification for himself and find it in Revelation. John says let him who has wisdom understand. 666 or 616 (in some manuscripts) is the number of a man. That mean the 6 is not an animal but a person (man) according to science. Let he who has wisdom understand. God Bless.
Anthropology is the holistic and comprehensive study of humanity. It includes the biology of humans, our evolution, diet, etc. It does include the study how humans develop religion, how religion affects humans, what religious beliefs humans have, etc.
But my point, Faith Bays, was that we may one day come in contact with other people, besides humans. At that point, how should we create our new field of study about the study of people? In many ways, anthropology is really the study of people, just with the only example being humans, so far.
I understand what you are saying now Daniel. That's a good question. Even is a mortal (human) is changed and takes on immortality, would this still not be a human, just one who has been glorified? Glorified in that he has a new body. There is a field called Angelology and Demonology. Man classifies the inhabitants of earth into four categories: 1. mammals 2. reptiles 3. amphibians and 4. insects. The mammals are suppose to be more advanced. People are classified as mammals. God Bless!!!!
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