Introduction to Anthropology

Anthropology is a science that integrates knowledge from the fields of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts to study humans comprehensively. Born in the 19th century, anthropology has a particularly important academic position, has profound practical significance and is highly international.Anthropology is divided into five fields, including physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural and social anthropology, linguistic anthropology and applied anthropology. These fields form a comprehensive research approach to humans in the past and present around the world. Anthropology is special because it has a unique system of field research methods, paying much attention to theory, comparison and description of human culture and society. Each anthropologist usually specializes in one of the five fields mentioned above and focuses on research in one or several specific countries. Today's Vietnamese anthropology is built on the basis of inheriting the tradition of ethnology that was formed in our country in the early 20th century combined with modern European and American anthropological traditions.