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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Anthropology as a natural science

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On the basis of materials collected by the research project System Analysis of Anthropology (SAA) the author discusses problems of the structure and relationships of biological anthropology. o (1) In the eastern, southeastern and southern European countries anthropology is strictly defined as natural science (source: conversation lexicons); also in Germany and some neighbouring countries other anthropologies, particularly the philosophical one, exist and have increased in recent years; a third group is represented by the Anglo-Saxon anthropology which comprises social and cultural as well as physical (Figure 1). The proportion of physical anthropological papers in anthropological periodicals also varys considerably (Figure 2). (2) Many of these variations may be understood from the History of Anthropology. Up to the middle of the 19th century anthropology was a very general “science of man”; then the term was adopted for the Natural History of man (Figure 3). Anthropology, ethnology and prehistory collaborated in many of the older societies and periodicals, later on they grew more independant. These processes varied in tempo and kind (Figure 4). (3) There are some behavior patterns of biological anthropologists (number of authors per paper, proportion of cited books, time difference between submission and publication date) which are closer to the social than to the natural sciences. The author asks if biological anthropology can be entirely understood as a natural science?