Anthropology. A word that seems so straightforward, yet it is so complex at the same time. But, what is it, exactly? Anthropology “is the study of the human species and its immediate ancestors.” (Kottak p.3) In other words, it is the study of everything human, from the way people eat, to the way they live, to the way they talk, think, act, or approach every day life. On the other hand, anthropology goes deeper than that. The research, experiments, experiences, memories, and science that anthropology provides help us understand and comprehend the world from a different perspective, distinct from any other.
To start, anthropology is broken up to four significant subfields or disciplines such as, archaeology, ethnology, physical anthropology, and
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La Lone is an example of holism in action with anthropology. In the town of New River Valley, Virginia, holds a rich history of mining activity all the way back to the 1900s, however the town was in jeopardy of losing their history forever. Luckily, La Lone was able fund a project that would eventually save the history of the coal miners. On the other hand, she needed assistance from other specialists and people to make the project be a success. To begin, Mary published her first findings on Virginia’s mining history by listening to oral histories from the retired coal miners of the town, however she did not publish that book all by herself. Notably, she wrote the book with the help of her students and professional ethnographers. “A second team of students worked with me in 1996 to collect additional interviews and expand the ethnographic analysis. In 1997 we published Appalachian Coal Mining Memories, a collection of oral history interviews that documents mining life in the voices of the Appalachian people, along with the academics’ ethnographic description of mining life.” (Putting Anthropology to Work to Preserve Appalachian Heritage