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Chapter-10 Approaches of Anthropological

Research
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Q1. Discuss the holisticapproach of anthropological research.
Ans. The holistic approach is a perspective that assumes interrelationships among parts
of a subject including both biological and cultural aspects. This approach is used to
study the thoughts, behaviors, emotional, and spiritual changes we experience as
humans. The holistic nature in anthropology is evidenced in a number of important
ways. The anthropological research approach involves both biological and cultural (bio-
cultural approach) aspects of humanity. In a bio-cultural approach, human beings are
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viewed as biological, social and cultural entities in relation to the environment. Thus,
anthropologists’ study human life in totality.
With its holistic perspective, Anthropology intersects the multiple approaches to the
study of humankind–biological, social, cultural, historical, linguistic, cognitive, material,
technological, affective, and aesthetic. This interdisciplinarity is integrated within
Anthropology as a whole and formalized in the four major fields that compose the
discipline–archaeological, biological, linguistic, and sociocultural anthropology–
although many anthropologists also conduct researchacross these fields.

• Archaeological anthropologists are concerned with the evolution and historical
changesto cultural and sociopolitical configurations, the materiality of human
experience, and thestewardship and interpretation of cultural heritage.

• Biological anthropologists are concerned with the physical and biocultural
aspects ofhumans, including biological aspects of human health and well-being;
micro- and macroevolutionarystudy of the human condition; relationships to
other primates; humangrowth and development; pathology, mortality and
morbidity; and population genetics.

• Linguistic anthropologists examine the history and structure of human
languages, therelationship between language and culture, cognitive and
biological aspects of language,and other symbolic forms and media of
communication and reasoning.
• Sociocultural anthropologists are concerned with human social and cultural
diversityand the bases of these distinctions, be they economic, political,
environmental, biological;social roles, relationships, and social transformation;
cultural identity; culturaldimensions of domination and resistance; and
strategies for representing and analyzingcultural knowledge.
In ethnographic studies anthropologists try to be holistic by integrating and studying all
the possible aspects of a culture in the total cultural context. Different aspects of culture
and society exhibit patterned interrelationships (e.g., political economy, social

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