Anthropology is the study of humans and human behaviour, and in the United States it is usually studied through a four-field approach; physical/ biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology focuses on addressing queries related to human biological origins, adaptation, and any variations. Archaeology studies the history of people through analysis of artefacts and other material. Linguistic anthropology examines how language has been used over the years and how it affects culture. Cultural anthropologists look at changes in people’s culture brought about by innovation, contact with other people or even environmental pressures. For example, a cultural anthropologist might study how the invention of smartphones has affected relationships within families.
Being the study of human behaviour, anthropology has been highly affected by globalization. There are some key dynamics of globalization through which anthropology can be analysed; time-space compression, flexible accumulation, or increasing migration. Time and space compression has been commonly used to refer to the decreasing space between people and the ideas they may harbour. Cultural anthropology is highly affected by time-space compression e.g. mobile phones is an example of a time-space compression device studied by cultural anthropologists. They have changed people’s social behaviours both positively and negatively. They have enabled people to air their views and ideas on mass media much faster and to a wider audience. In the negative, mobile phones have made people reduce face to face interaction which is important in communication.
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Flexible accumulation involves the use of various innovative industrial technologies and other variable organizational structures among other strategies to respond to competition. The ability of companies to operate in multiple countries simultaneously has definitely contributed to the distribution of work culture of a company across the different countries. It has affected the languages being spoken in these organizations and the countries they operate in which has helped to develop a common language but also the disappearance of various languages in favour of a common language. Increasing migration has also had the same effect on language helping develop a few common languages while decimating the many local and native languages. Physical anthropology has also been affected by increasing migration as people struggle to adapt to the different environments they find themselves in. In conclusion, these globalization dynamics may affect anthropology in various ways, sometimes overlapping, and it is upon an anthropologist to investigate how these dynamics affect anthropology.
