#monkeyshow

I went through my archives to find said post, because I do remember posting something about anthropology but I don't remember what it said exactly, and I can't find it, so it must have been a while ago... Or just not me. XD

Anyway, I'm not a scientific expert, but I know a thing or to on the subject, by watching Bones (and I'm hopeful enough to think the writers know their shit when they make Brennan talk about her field), my biology and philosophy classes in high school, my own readings, and my years of studying language at the uni.

Yes I do believe anthropology is a real scientific field, like all the other natural sciences are. One can judge how useful or not it is, just like for any other field, but one cannot reject it as it's based on facts. (Of course, not talking about people who don't believe in science in general, but that's another story) It helps us understand who we are as humans and how we've evolved as humans through time, so it's quite a fascinating subject (at least to me).

Societies are different from one another not only in the way we live, but especially in the way we see the word and interact with it. And so, in the way we express ourselves. For example, with the sentence "he ran across the room", the French equivalent would be "il a traversé la pièce en courant" which can basically be translated by "he crossed the room running". While the meaning remains the same, the way to express it is different, showing the English and French languages don't have the same way to see/express the same reality. It's the same for all languages around the word, as people speak depending on the way they experiment life. Some languages only have three colours in their vocabulary, only a few numbers, because they don't need other words to express themselves. So anthropology is there to help us understand those different way to see the world, and so understand the difference cultures around the world.