Classification Of Anthropology

“If we mean scientific method-controlled experiments in laboratories with disprovable hypotheses and reproduceable results-lots of us don’t do that. I don’t do that but there’s long been an anthropological line: let’s take the term in its German sense, which just means trying to put order on knowledge. I’m totally comfortable with that-I claim science”. These are the words of Robert Weller, the chair of the College of Arts and Science anthropology department about the ongoing debate on the sense on which anthropology is a science and to what extent [Rich Barlow, BU Today, 18 May 2011]. This has been a long standing debate in the anthropological world and science circles. There has been uncertainty surrounding the classification of anthropology.

Note that most anthropological observations are done through experience and ethnology. This throws the profession into turmoil and casts a doubt in upcoming intellectuals as what kind of profession they are in and what is it classified as. However this debate is more centralized around methodology rather the context of the debate which is to what extent is anthropology a science. Exploiting the methodological side of anthropology as to how anthropologists reach their findings does not mean that anthropology should not be acknowledged as a science, rather it should be used to give much credit to this exceptional form of

Scientific methods are used in anthropology so one can deduce that to some extent anthropology is a science. Social, biological as well as physical sciences contribute a lot to anthropology making it well rounded science field. This gives further emphasis that anthropology provides knowledge and tools on how to work with people, make findings about the past and in a way mould the future. Furthermore, physical anthropology is a form of a science, anatomy is considered a science, and it falls into this from of anthropology. In a broader sense, this gives much detail as to what extent is anthropology a science. What further proof should be put on the table that indeed anthropology is a science? A science need not be a “natural science” to be classified as a science. By natural science I mean any of the sciences (as physics, chemistry, or biology) that deal with matter, energy, and their interrelations and transformations or with objectively measurable phenomena. This does not entirely define a science, regardless of its magnitude. A science should be relatively close to revealing the unknown and cementing the known, giving sense to the senseless and giving a clear picture of human diversity, and this is what anthropology is about. A subjective and also objective component of