The Seven Social Sciences

While the seven social sciences (anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology) possess their own importance and influence, in studying the contributions each area makes to the over-branching discipline of anthropology, a certain ranking of these sciences provides an arrangement based on the significance of each concentration’s influences to the field of anthropology. An anthropologist is concerned with the study of traditional human cultures in primitive societies and in the modern world. A culture is defined as the customs, beliefs, social forms and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. Within a culture, there are certain customs, like celebrating holidays or honoring certain

The two main subject areas include cultural anthropology and social anthropology. A cultural anthropologist focuses on human cultures from their beginning to the present day. A social anthropologist studies how individuals interact in group settings. Sociology is often described as a scientific investigation of the behavior of individuals and groups in a society. A society is a group of persons joined together by common beliefs, interests, government and economic systems, and culture. Each society is organized in formal and informal structures that influence the behavior of all individuals and groups. A sociologist wants to understand how a society influences the behavior of an individual.

A political scientist focuses on how people organize the rules, regulations, and laws within their societies throughout history. All countries, no matter the size or social class are confronted with the same economic problems and questions. The residents of a country must establish a government, which faces the task of satisfying the unlimited needs of people with the limited resources available. Economics plays a role due to this factor by figuring out how to conserve scarce resources while producing more goods for people to consume and choosing the scarce resources we need to use or conserve. Mainly, economics is about how people, through their governments (political science),

The study of human behavior in individual and group settings is also an important aspect of anthropological research. This area of geography is concerned with the traditions, customs, religious beliefs, education, economics, and politics that encompass the culture of a region. Population geography is the name sometimes given to the study of demographics, information important to anthropologist as it used to determine how the changes in population will affect the individuals and groups in a society. A large scale example of population geography is migration and its patterns.

History is a record of past events in chronological order, the accuracy, significance, and the causes and effects of which historians research and establish through careful research of cultural artifacts, such a primary sources and accounts of the day. History is important to anthropology in determining the continued influence of past events and their effect on individuals and groups today. The theory of evolution is based on the chronological events of history, that is to say, it is possible to identify and analyze trends in physical development, but also in shared values and