Religion and Anthropology
Religion and Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humans, human behavior and societies in the past and present. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour and cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans. Visual anthropology, which is usually considered to be a part of social anthropology, can mean both ethnographic film (where photography, film, and new media are used for study) as well as the study of “visuals”, including art, visual images, cinema etc. Oxford Bibliographies describes visual anthropology as “the anthropological study of the visual and the visual study of the anthropological”.[4]
Archaeology, which studies human activity through investigation of physical evidence, is considered a branch of anthropology in the United States and Canada, while in Europe it is viewed as a discipline in its own right or grouped under other related disciplines, such as history.
Africans – One People, Many Cultural Groups
The study of Social anthropology, cultural anthropology,Linguistic anthropology,Biological or physical anthropology begins with Africa. Humans have lived in Africa from as back as the evidence indicates from 400 thousand years ago. Africa is sometimes nicknamed the “Mother Continent” as it’s the oldest inhabited continent on Earth. Africa is sometimes nicknamed the “Mother Continent” due to its being the oldest inhabited continent on Earth. Humans and human ancestors have lived in Africa for more than 5 million years.
Africa has more than 1,500 cultural groups over the continent. They are normally grouped into language groups with dialects within the major language groups. Regardless, they are not distinct and separate groups. They share common characteristics such as DNA. Africans are said to be possess the most complex DNA due to the fact that there has been interbreeding across cultural groups from migrations during the long period of existence. The migrations have been whole groups and individuals.
The maps below show many cultural groups by languages and dialects within Africa.
Language Families in West Africa
Click on the link below to see more detail https://playingintheworldgame.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/africa_langs.gif
Anthropology and the Bible
The detail map shows the many cultural groups that have developed over hundreds of thousands of years in Africa. It takes a long time to develop distinct languages from a major language. This indicates that Africans have existed on the continent far longer than the Biblical age of humanity which is only 6,000 years.
For a detail discussion download Chapter 21 “We are All Africans Whether We like It or Not” of the book “We Are All Africans” from the store (Link to store download page)