I first learned about anthropology when I began watching the popular television show Bones. I became really interested in anthropology after watching a few episodes. Bones made anthropology seem like it was always full of excitement and that it revolved around solving crimes and catching bad guys. I had also read books that described anthropology in nearly the same tone. By this point, I completely forgot there was any other type of anthropology besides criminal anthropology. It wasn’t until I took this class that I realized anthropology was much more complex. I wanted to see if others had the same misconceptions about anthropology as I did, so I interviewed five people. The results of the interviews were pretty surprising to me, but painted …show more content…
Lisa, Hassan and Melissa are the people that I interviewed who had obtained higher levels of education. Lisa and Hassan both have their Associate’s degrees, Lisa’s degree being an Associate in Arts and Hassan’s degree being an Associate in Sciences. Melissa is currently attending Blue River, working on her degree. The two people I interviewed who did not have a college education were Jeffrey and Kiersten. Jeffrey graduated from high school in 1984, and Kiersten will graduate from high school this year. Surprisingly, all five of the people that I interviewed had heard of the word “anthropology”, regardless of their level of education. However, only one out of all five actually knew the correct definition of the term and what anthropologists really …show more content…
Jeffrey did not have a guess as to what the definition of anthropology was, but he did say that he believes anthropologists have something to do with studying history. Kiersten said that she believed anthropology to be the study of bones, and that naturally anthropologists studied human remains. When I asked her why she thought this, she explained that the only anthropologist she knew about was Dr. Temperance Brennan from Bones. When I explained to them what anthropology was and what anthropologists do, they both agreed that the explanations made sense. When asked if they thought media impacted the way they thought of anthropology, they both said yes. While these two did not have higher levels of education, they seemed to have more of a willingness to