ANTH 410 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Anthropology Today, Bioarchaeology, Biological Anthropology
Document Summary
The simplest explanation would be that anthropologists need theory in order to have a. However, considering that many of the theories in use today were developed by anthropologists, such as the whorfian hypothesis in linguistic anthropology, this seems over generalized. While it is definitely one of the most important functions of theory for anthropologists, ultimately anthropologists need theory in order to have a goal to reach via the exploration of the questions anthropologists seek to uncover and answer. Essentially, more than one discipline not just anthropology though they are often related. Without the overarching and uniting concept of science" behind them these early works may not have been accessible to those who came into the discipline from other fields to eventually create anthropology today. The questions anthropologists can ask are, in many ways, as broadly ranging as humanity itself as that what they are concerned with studying.
