Noun
The science of the structure and functions of the human body.
The science of man; -- sometimes used in a limited sense to mean the study of man as an object of natural history, or as an animal.
That manner of expression by which the inspired writers attribute human parts and passions to God.
Source: Webster's dictionaryThe purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences. Ruth Benedict
Among the various forms of science which are reaching and affecting the new popular tradition, we have reckoned Anthropology. Pleasantly enough, Anthropology has herself but recently emerged from that limbo of the unrecognised in which Psychical Research is pining. Andrew Lang
The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive. Clifford Geertz
Cultural anthropology is not valuable because it uncovers the archaic in the psychological sense. It is valuable because it is constantly rediscovering the normal. Edward Sapir
Cultural anthropology is more and more rapidly getting to realize itself as a strictly historical science. Edward Sapir
It's always amusing to look at how something early in the 20th century was written in anthropology and how it's written now. There's been an enormous shift in how it's done, but yet you can't put your finger on someone who actually did it. Clifford Geertz