four fields characterize American Anthropology

• Archaeology
• Biocultural Anthropology
• Cultural / Social Anthropology
• Linguistics

culture: as a primary concept

• learned
• shared
• transmitted from generation to generation
• based on symbols
• integrated

holism: or the study of "humankind" as a whole, as a primary goal of anthropology

• The approach used in this class emphasizes the "holistic" anthropological view which combines observations of "culture" and behavior with considerations of the physical and developmental aspects of humans.