Anthropology with Allied Disciplines: Similarities and Differences

Relationship of Anthropology with allied disciplines
Sl No.	Allied disciplines	Unit of analysis	Methodology	Nature of Study	Sample size	Theoretical views	Application	Participation	Duration of engagement
1.	Anthropology	Human society and culture in terms of both past, present and future possibilities.	Long term Ethnographic fieldwork methodologies	Biological and social-cultural aspect of human being	Based on the community size, in general small scale, both primitive and modern societies.	Influenced from theories of organic evolution and social-cultural evolution	Almost in all of aspects of human beings	Participation in the daily lifestyle of the studied people.	Before, during and after the research study.
2.	Sociology (social anthropology)	Interrelationships and companionship in as society.	Basically, short time study via questionnaire and survey methods	Only social aspects of human beings	Large scale and society as a large unit.	Influenced from philosophical and sociological theories including both classic and contemporary trends.	To solve the social issues only	Short term survey in a limited geographical area	Before and during study to extend to solution of the studied problem.
3.	History (historical anthropology)	Studies past and contemporary history of human being.	Literature studies and documentation.	Focus only on the past events	it is event specific not people.	Classical and contemporary historical theories.	To reconstruct the historical event for better understanding of the past days.	In the event site and with the people involved	Before and during the research.
4.	Political science (political anthropology)	Rules, laws and regulations of the community or society.	Survey and questionnaire	Origin, modification and contemporary scenario of political activities	At a national or regional level opposed to community level.	Influenced from constitutional rules, regulations and amendments.	To maintain the discipline and order in the society.	At the level of administration in nation.	Always but bound to the specified duration of a political party.
5.	Psychology (psychological anthropology)	Psychological and cognitive mind of human beings	Interviews, narratives, case studies, psycho-analytical research	Focused on the human past and present experiences	Study at the level of personal diagnosis	Influenced from the sociological theories like psychoanalysis, dream analysis,	To solve the psychological stress or illness of an individual	Psychologists works as the solver/ treater of human minds.	During the treatment of the patient.
6.	Economics (economic anthropology)	Economic institution including	Business strategies, economic indicators and statistical calculations.	Focused on the mode of production, preservation, distribution, transportation and redistribution of the good and services in a society.	Not community specific, rather large scale at the level of nation or region.	Influenced from basic statistics, hypothesis testing through simple or complex statistical calculations and specific formals for each testing.	Testing the economic growth rate, profits and loss calculations in order to reach at the surplus.	Not at community level, rather at the industrial or administration or institutional level.	Before, during and after the study but not with community members but their economic attributes.
7.	Earth Science (Archaeological anthropology)	Fossil evidences under the soil layer of Earth.	Exploration and excavation at the field site.	Focus is to provide valuable information regrading the type, occurrence, distribution, genesis and analysis of the findings.	Sampling of the findings and not the population or community members	Theories and concepts of geography, geology, petrology, paedology.	Reconstruction of the earth life, past events on earth and the fossilized findings.	At the level field visit with experts, exploration and excavation group.	During the research till the reconstruction of the past.
8.	Medical sciences (Medical anthropology)	Treatment of the disease but not illness that medical anthropologists do.	Identification of the disease, acknowledging the hereditary or environmental contribution through diagnosis, taking care and treating the disease with proper medication.	Individualistic diagnosis and treatment.	No specific sample size as not being focused to any community	Influenced from the classic and contemporary theories of diagnosis and treatment in respect to specific disease.	To solve the human physical issues and to treat the disease with appropriate medicine.	Individual care, diagnosis and treatment.	During the treatment of the patient.
9.	Life sciences (biological anthropology)	Life and all living things.	Experimentation as opposed to ethnographic method.	Focused on cell, structure and function of biological individual.	Sampling in organisms not on human population	Influenced from theories of origin, organic evolution, classification (taxonomy) and identification of organisms.	Applied to experiment the characteristics, to classify and comparative understanding on organisms.	Mostly at laboratories and experimenting on organic samples.	During the experimentation, observation, examination and documenting period.
10.	Environmental sciences (ecological anthropology)	Study of environmental factors.	Observation, experimentation, examination and documentation.	Focused on the interrelationships of the natural world, the relationships between organisms and their surrounding environment	Sample on the regional location and site basis.	Influenced from the classic and contemporary theories of philosophy, naturalists and environmentalists.	Applied to solve the environmental issues by examining the interrelationships of its components.	Mostly at the ecological field site and laboratories.	During the research and solution of the studied problem.
11.	Humanities	Study of human mind and behaviour	Interviews, narratives, case studies, life history etc.	Focused on human history, literature, art, music and philosophy.	Population scale at large not specific to any culture or community.	Influenced from the class and contemporary theories of philosophy, natural science and social sciences.	Applied to solve the human behaviour and practices related issues.	Participation at the level of institutions and organization concerning social issues.	During the solution of the concerned social issue.

So, to summarize the above chart we can say that –

·         Sociology is focused on the interrelationships in a society but not at community level as social anthropology do.

·         Where history studies past events, historical anthropology traces the past through the present and look forward to the future possibilities.

·         Where political science looks at the discipline of a nation or state, political anthropology emphasis on the documentation, preservation, promotion of different community regulations respect to their own social set up.

·         Psychology treats the individual psychic and cognitive issues but psychological anthropology concern about the community members in order to treat their mental issues in respect to their social-cultural background.

·         Economics focus at the economic institutional progress at the nation or state level. Whereas, economic anthropology emphasis on the documentation, preservation and promotion of different economic institutional behaviours in different community respect to their own social context.

·         When earth science is focused on the earth as a core and human beings as its component, archaeological anthropology traces the relationship between earth events with that of human culture.

·         When medical sciences treat the individual disease, medical anthropologists do treat disease and illnesses of individual or community members relating to their socio-cultural values, beliefs and practices.

·         Life science being focused on the animal and plants, biological anthropology traces the origin, evolution and variation of human beings, also taking the interrelationship with other organisms like animal and plants into consideration.

·         When environmental science focus on the interrelationships among its natural components, ecological anthropology, being a specialized discipline, trace the impact of surrounding environment on human culture and also examine the impact of human culture and practices on the surrounded environment.

·         Humanity studies the ‘humanness’ and ultimately anthropology studies the real representation of ‘what people do what people say they do’.

That means, anthropology is like a broad umbrella where it has been able to establish its specialized branches by borrowing the ideas and concepts from specialized allied disciplines. And in order to have a holistic solution of any human problem, anthropological approaches are expected by the allied disciplines. This is how all the allied disciplines and anthropology along with its specialized branches are interrelated and interdependent to each other.