anthropologist

/ænθrəˈpɑlədʒɪst/

/ænθrəʊˈpɒlədʒɪst/

Other forms: anthropologists

If you like to go people watching and enjoy studying the ways that humans behave, then you might be a future anthropologist.

Anthropologists are people that practice anthropology, which is the study of humanity. Basically they want to figure out what makes humans human. An anthropologist might be interested in everything from the traditions of a tribe on a remote island to the culture of an urban community and everything in between. Biological anthropologists spend their time with fossils and artifacts trying to figure out how early humans might have behaved and what makes us different from other primates.

Definitions of anthropologist

1. noun

   a social scientist who specializes in anthropology
   examples:

   Ruth Benedict

   United States anthropologist (1887-1948)

   Daniel Garrison Brinton

   United States anthropologist who was the first to attempt a systematic classification of Native American languages (1837-1899)

   Pierre-Paul Broca

   French anthropologist who studied the craniums and brains of different races of people; remembered for his discovery that articulate speech depends on an area of the brain now known as Broca's area (1824-1880)

   Sir James George Frazer

   English social anthropologist noted for studies of primitive religion and magic (1854-1941)

   Thor Hyerdahl

   Norwegian anthropologist noted for his studies of cultural diffusion (1914-2002)

   Alfred Louis Kroeber

   United States anthropologist noted for his studies of culture (1876-1960)

   Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey

   English paleontologist whose account of fossil discoveries in Tanzania changed theories of human evolution (1903-1972)

   Mary Douglas Leakey

   English paleontologist (the wife of Louis Leakey) who discovered the Zinjanthropus skull that was 1,750,000 years old (1913-1996)

   Richard Erskine Leakey

   English paleontologist (son of Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey) who continued the work of his parents; he was appointed director of a wildlife preserve in Kenya but resigned under political pressure (born in 1944)

   Claude Levi-Strauss

   French cultural anthropologist who promoted structural analysis of social systems (born in 1908)

   Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski

   British anthropologist (born in Poland) who introduced the technique of the participant observer (1884-1942)

   Margaret Mead

   United States anthropologist noted for her claims about adolescence and sexual behavior in Polynesian cultures (1901-1978)

   Ashley Montagu

   United States anthropologist (born in England) who popularized anthropology (1905-)

   Lewis Henry Morgan

   United States anthropologist who studied the Seneca (1818-1881)

   Edward Sapir

   anthropologist and linguist; studied languages of North American Indians (1884-1939)

   types:

   archaeologist, archeologist

   an anthropologist who studies prehistoric people and their culture

   ethnographer

   an anthropologist who does ethnography

   ethnologist

   a scientist who studies various aspects of human beings like their race, origin, and social structures and relationships

   cultural anthropologist, social anthropologist

   an anthropologist who studies such cultural phenomena as kinship systems

   Egyptologist

   an archeologist who specializes in Egyptology

   paleographer, paleographist

   an archeologist skilled in paleography

   pothunter

   a nonprofessional archeologist

   ritualist

   a social anthropologist who is expert on rites and ceremonies

   type of:

   social scientist

   someone expert in the study of human society and its personal relationships