The Pied Piper of Hamelin

From far away, so far the direction was difficult to guess, came the sound of a flute. It was rather strange, as it was not played on a familiar tune of our place, hence caught our attention. Somehow, it reminded me of an old story that I, in fact, most of us have read in our childhood, but could not remember the name of! Well, it didn't take too much effort in doing some internet search and finding the name - The Pied Piper of Hamelin. (German: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln)

Here's an account of some interesting facts I read about the Story.

✽ The key telling was by the Grimm brothers because they weren’t storytellers. They didn’t make up fairy tales. They were historians, doing their best to write down oral history passed from one generation to another. It was told by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812, written as a children’s book by Robert Browning in 1888 and even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote his version. ("The Pied Piper Was Real: 130 Children Disappeared And Never Came Back")

Germany – Scott #1273 (1978)

The Children of Hameln

BY JACON AND WILHELM GRIMM 

In the year 1284 a mysterious man appeared in Hameln. He was wearing a coat of many colored, bright cloth, for which reason he was called the Pied Piper. He claimed to be a ratcatcher, and he promised that for a certain sum he would rid the city of all mice and rats. The citizens struck a deal, promising him a certain price. The ratcatcher then took a small fife from his pocket and began to blow on it. Rats and mice immediately came from every house and gathered around him. When he thought that he had them all he led them to the River Weser where he pulled up his clothes and walked into the water. The animals all followed him, fell in, and drowned.

Now that the citizens had been freed of their plague, they regretted having promised so much money, and, using all kinds of excuses, they refused to pay him. Finally he went away, bitter and angry. He returned on June 26, Saint John's and Saint Paul's Day, early in the morning at seven o'clock (others say it was at noon), now dressed in a hunter's costume, with a dreadful look on his face and wearing a strange red hat. He sounded his fife in the streets, but this time it wasn't rats and mice that came to him, but rather children: a great number of boys and girls from their fourth year on. Among them was the mayor's grown daughter. The swarm followed him, and he led them into a mountain, where he disappeared with them.

All this was seen by a babysitter who, carrying a child in her arms, had followed them from a distance, but had then turned around and carried the news back to the town. The anxious parents ran in droves to the town gates seeking their children. The mothers cried out and sobbed pitifully. Within the hour messengers were sent everywhere by water and by land inquiring if the children -- or any of them -- had been seen, but it was all for naught.

In total, one hundred thirty were lost. Two, as some say, had lagged behind and came back. One of them was blind and the other mute. The blind one was not able to point out the place, but was able to tell how they had followed the piper. The mute one was able to point out the place, although he [or she] had heard nothing. One little boy in shirtsleeves had gone along with the others, but had turned back to fetch his jacket and thus escaped the tragedy, for when he returned, the others had already disappeared into a cave within a hill. This cave is still shown.

Until the middle of the eighteenth century, and probably still today, the street through which the children were led out to the town gate was called the bunge-lose (drumless, soundless, quiet) street, because no dancing or music was allowed there. Indeed, when a bridal procession on its way to church crossed this street, the musicians would have to stop playing. The mountain near Hameln where the children disappeared is called Poppenberg. Two stone monuments in the form of crosses have been erected there, one on the left side and one on the right. Some say that the children were led into a cave, and that they came out again in Transylvania.

The citizens of Hameln recorded this event in their town register, and they came to date all their proclamations according to the years and days since the loss of their children.

According to Seyfried the 22nd rather than the 26th of June was entered into the town register.

The following lines were inscribed on the town hall:

In the year 1284 after the birth of Christ

From Hameln were led away

One hundred thirty children, born at this place

Led away by a piper into a mountain.

And on the new gate was inscribed: Centum ter denos cum magus ab urbe puellos

duxerat ante annos CCLXXII condita porta fuit.

[This gate was built 272 years after the magician led the 130 children from the city.]

In the year 1572 the mayor had the story portrayed in the church windows. The accompanying inscription has become largely illegible. In addition, a coin was minted in memory of the event.

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✽ The ending of the story is different in most bedtime storybooks, i.e. “The mayor graciously paid the piper for his service, and the rodent-free town of Hamelin lived happily ever after.” However, there are several theories about what really happened that day, which definitely cannot end with the three magical words "happily ever after". Although it does, like most folk tales, teach us a lesson at the end. 

✽ Various shreds of evidence support the fact that the story might be based on true events, some of them are mentioned below. 

• The first record is a stained glass window from 1300 of a church, which was destroyed in 1660. The window is considered to have been made in memory of a tragic historical event for the town. Eyewitness account from the time,  states in Latin, "On the day of John and Paul, 130 children in Hamelin went to Calvary and were brought through all kinds of danger to the Koppen mountain and lost." Interestingly, this inscription did not mention anything about a piper.
• The Town records of Hamelin seems to start with this event. The earliest written record is from the town chronicles in an entry from the year 1384 which states: "It is 100 years since our children left."
• A monk named Heinrich, of Herford, wrote about a man of age about 30, who came to the town playing a flute and led out the children. This was found in the Lüneburg Manuscript, which was written more than a century after the window is thought to have been constructed (c. 1440-50). This manuscript gives a date when the children are lured away of June 26, 1284.
• By 1603, the town erected the façade of what is known now as the Pied Piper House. On the façade, there is an inscription that was included in later editions of the original Grimm's fairy tales*. This inscription is similar to the one put on the church window but this one does mention the existence of the piper.
• In the sixteenth century, the Zimmer Chronicle, written by Count Froben Christoph von Zimmer of Swabia, expands the story with the inclusion of rats.

1592 painting of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of Marktkirche in Hamelin

Based on the surviving descriptions, a modern reconstruction of the window destroyed in 1660 has been created by historian Hans Dobbertin.

✽ Hamelin Today

Hameln (Germany) is a city in Lower Saxony Land (state), north-central Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, and has a population of roughly 57,000. It lies along the Weser River, southwest of Hannover.  It is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Hameln is a commercial center with a rail junction and a river port. Its industries include the manufacture of electrical products, textiles and carpets, chemicals, machinery, and food products. Tourism is also important. Hameln is the central city of the Weser Highland scenic region and nature park.

A town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany

The Pied Piper story is regularly retold in Hameln/ Photo: Alamy

Credit: Gonzalo Azumendi/ Photo: Getty Images

River Wesser of Hamelin/ Photo: Needpix

Christmas market in Hamelin Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0

✽ Folktales are important constituents of Folklore, which is, a significant part and source of information in the study of Anthropology; to learn about past traditions, cultures, and events, around the World. They may or may not be based on true events, but they are certainly not merely the creation of chance; just like any other element of human culture. 

References:
"The Pied Piper Was Real: 130 Children Disappeared And Never Came Back". Medium, 2022,

https://historyofyesterday.com/the-pied-piper-was-real-130-children-disappeared-and-never-came-back-542085ffb34.
Diamond, Andrea. "The Legend Of The Pied Piper". Blog.Bookstellyouwhy.Com, 2022, 

https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/the-legend-of-the-pied-piper.
"THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN - Globus Blog". Globus Blog, 2022, 

https://blog.globusjourneys.com/2020/09/17/the-pied-piper-of-hamelin/.

Note on Archaeological Anthropology

Archaeological anthropology can be simply defined as the study of human past based on material objects, recovered by systematic explorations and excavations, which are classified, analyzed, described, and interpreted, based on various scientific methods and theories.

As a subbranch of anthropology, it not only helps in understanding diversity around the World but also to see how people since prehistoric times related to the material World. As it tries to reconstruct the past human societies and their cultural processes, it provides the much-needed temporal dimension to the Anthropologist's study of contemporary simple societies. The major goals of this specialization is timeless and spaceless; the construction of cultural chronologies, the reconstruction of extinct lifeways, and the search for bio-cultural processes are some of the main objectives.

Before the 1960s, Archaeology remained for a long time a discipline concerned with the description and classification of ancient objects and features.

After the 1960s, Lewis Binford’s New Archaeology movement emphasized the larger anthropological goals of Archaeology.

Systems of measuring time are dependent on human thoughts and are relative in nature. Relative time is a system of temporal division to establish the sequence of events in history. The temporal division is required to realize the immense length of time.

The whole of human history has been divided into different ages for analytical purposes; on the basis of activities, ideas of change, concepts of progress, and variability in objects.

Material remains are considered proofs of these actions which mark time.

The entire range of material remains constituting the archaeological record belongs to 3 broad temporal divisions, namely, Prehistory, Protohistory, and Historical period. 

References:

Brief Summary: Pleistocene Epoch

The geologic time scale serves as the "calendar" for Earth's history. It subdivides all time into named units of abstract time called—in descending order of duration—eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Stratigraphy, or the correlation and classification of rock strata, is used to enumerate and classify those geologic time units. 

As mentioned, the geological time scale is divided into eras, and the last era, in which we live in is called Cenozoic. The Cenozoic era is divided into two periods, the Tertiary and Quaternary. Quaternary period covers a time span of two million years and is further divided into two epochs, Pleistocene and Holocene, Holocene being the recent time.  

The Quaternary period and the first epoch of the period, Pleistocene, began about 2.58 million years ago. The Pleistocene too is divided into 3 parts, lower, middle, and upper Pleistocene.

The beginning of the Pleistocene was fixed by IUGS (International Union for Geological Science) in the year 2009, at the base of Matuyama, Palaeomagnetic event.

This epoch lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, covering the World’s recent period of repeated glaciations. It is a very strange period in geological history of Earth, as it coincides with the history of man and also the time of dramatic climatic changes occurring on Earth.

Climatic Episodes of Pleistocene Period:

The work of Agssiz in 1840, followed by Penck and Bruckner in 1909. led to the classic Alpine chronology that includes 4 major glaciations, separated by 3 interglaciations, these stages form the framework for the Pleistocene and Palaeolithic studies. The glaciers were named after four little streams in the Alps, Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würm. Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets, resulting in temporary sea level drop of 100m or more. During the interglacial periods, such as the present time, the ice sheets melt, drowning the coastlines.

The terms pluvial and interpluvial are also used, corresponding to the terms glacial and interglacial. A pluvial refers to a warmer period, relatively wet climate, with increased rainfall, and interpluvial is a period with relatively dry conditions because of decreased rainfall. There are traces of lakes in regions which are now dry, which are evidence of the major climatic changes in the tropical region.

It is yet to be determined whether pluvial processes in low latitudes and glaciers in high latitudes occurred simultaneously.

The end of Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period, and also with the end of the Paleolithic age in Archaeology.  

References:

Alliance Theory by French Structuralist Lévi-Strauss

In the study of kinship, the alliance theory is also known as the general theory of exchange. This theory states that in kinship systems, inheritance and the continuation of the vertical line (descent) are of less significance than the horizontal connections (alliances) and relationships of exchange and reciprocity between members of two different groups that is introduced through marriages. This theory attempts to illuminate how inter-individual relationships are woven together to form society as a whole.

The main exponent and originator of this theory is French structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss and therefore it is also known as the structural way of studying kinship ties. He introduced it for the first time in his monumental work entitled “Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté” (1949) i.e. Elementary structures of Kinship. Rodney Needham and Louis Dumont also contributed to the analytical assessment.

Lévi-Strauss studied and observed the connections formed between consanguinity and affinity in his investigation of Non-European societies. Consanguinity and Affinity are both opposite and complementary to each other, hence rules of preferential marriage and marriage prohibitions are an incorporated part of this theory. In Strauss's view, it is marriage ties that create interdependence between families and lineages.

Alliance theory is based on incest taboo; the prohibition of which is observed universally, a fundamental aspect of human social life. That is, a man is not allowed to make a woman of his immediate kin his wife. According to Strauss, this prohibition is beyond any sociological explanation and clearly shows that the difference between consanguinity and affinity is the basis of kinship system.

He stated that incest taboo is seen as a negative prescription and the only cause for man to move out of his own kinship group, thus leading to positive marriage rules. Hence the main notion of his theory comes to - a reciprocal exchange which creates affinity.

References:

What is Paleoanthropology?

Paleoanthropology is the multidisciplinary branch of science that contribute to understanding the evolution and history of human beings, Homo sapiens, their extinct relatives and closest living relatives, the other primates.  It’s approach helps helps to reconstruct our evolutionary history from recovery and analysis of any relevant fossil evidence. It is a sub-discipline of anthropology, specifically physical anthropology.

Fossils supply the only direct evidence of our ancestors appearance and activities. It is fossils that have told us that human evolution has not been constant. Bursts of change have followed periods of relative stability. And The fact that human evolution has not been constant, bursts of change have followed periods of relative stability, has been found out through the study of fossils. Also fossils only have indicated the general sequence of our bodily evolution.

As paleoanthropologists interpret the fossil record,  try to identify the forces that have effected the evolution of humans. In doing so, they look for both biological (interaction with physical environment) and cultural factors (interaction with social environment), both of which have influenced the changes in human body.

To adequately understand human bio-cultural evolution, Paleoanthropologists need a broad base of information. Evidence of hominid activity between 8 and 2.5 million years ago usually only consists of bone remains available for study. Because of this very incomplete picture of the time period from the fossil record, various aspects of physical anthropology (osteometry, functional anatomy, evolutionary framework) are essential to explain evolution during these first millions of years. Evolution during this time is considered as the result of natural forces only.

Paleoanthropologists need to be well-versed in other scientific disciplines and methods, including ecology, geology, biology, anatomy, genetics, and primatology. Through several million years of evolution, humans eventually became a unique species. This process is similar to the evolution of other animals that are adapted to specific environments or "ecological niches". Animals adapted to niches usually play a specialized part in their ecosystem and rely on a specialized diet. Humans are different in many ways from other animals. Since 2.5 million years ago, several breakthroughs have occurred in human evolution, including dietary habits, technological aptitude, and economic revolutions. Humans also showed signs of early migration to new ecological niches and developed new subsistence activities based on new stone tool technologies and the use of fire. Because of this, the concept of an ecological niche does not always apply to humans any more.

Paleoanthropology is useful in many ways.

People are interested to learn about past lives, cultures, and habits; which is evident from the fact that thousands of people visit museums throughout the World. Exhibiting fossil is an application of Paleoanthropology too.

Paleoanthropology has some economic applications also. It can be used to locate gold and other ore deposits because the knowledge of fossils help in finding sequence of rocks in Earth’s crust. Limestone and fine grained sandstone with well preserved fossils find use in beautiful interior wall surfaces. Uranium also has been discovered in fossil wood and bones of dinosaurs and other mammals.

Paleoanthropologists use their knowledge to find out about the climatic conditions in the geological past. They can reconstruct the paleoecology, paleoenvironment and community structure.

Having its roots in anthropology and archaeology, paleoanthropology attempts to reconstruct modern humans on evolutionary lines, by working on biological indicators, such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints and cultural information as stone tools, artifacts, settlement localities, etc. With such a broad scope, paleoanthropology serves as a valuable tool in illustrating our past.

References:

Brief note on Archaeology and its relevance in Anthropology

Archaeology seeks to reconstruct human past through material remains. As such, it supplies the much needed temporal dimension to the anthropologist’s endeavor to study cultures of present day simple societies. Any kind of archaeological work is inter-disciplinary in nature as the remains of the past are product of cultural and natural activity. Due to the nature of Archaeology, archaeological methods tend to differ greatly from the methods used in other branches of Anthropology. It tends to focus more on quantitative, lab work, and scientific analysis. An archaeological operation, in brief involves, identifying a potential area, systematically collecting the data, organizing the data, situating it in a specific cultural period by using dating methods, conserving and preserving them, and also interpreting them. 

References:

Introduction to Anthropometry

Anthropometry is the systematic collection and correlation of measurements of size and proportions of human body, living or dead. It is a typical and traditional tool not only for Physical Anthropology, but also human biology and auxology. The word is derived from Greek words, anthropos which mean man, and metron which means measure. One of the aim of Biological/Physical Anthropologists is to understand human variation. In pursuit of this idea, they use certain research methods, of which Anthropometry is a significant one.

The origin of these measurements can be traced back long ago, the artists of ancient Egypt and Greece formulated some standard criteria for human body. But it was Friedrich Blumenbach (1753-1840) who laid the foundations of craniology in the field of scientific anthropometry. He differentiated mankind into different races on the basis of skull-form.

In biological anthropology and human paleontology, it is a technique of choice for qualifying variability and relationship of fossils and extant populations. Mathematical approaches are used in describing the size and proportions of various fossil hominids. It is the most universally applicable, inexpensive, non-invasive method available to assess the nutritional history throughout one’s life.  It is essential in the field of forensics, specially forensic anthropology which is concerned with the relationship between medicine and law. Anthropometry also finds its use Architecture and also in Design of clothing, equipment, interiors, furniture, etc.

In view of the fact that no two individuals are ever alike in all measurable characters, except perhaps mono-zygotic twins and that the later tend to undergo change in varying degrees. Hence, persons living under different conditions and members of different ethnic groups and the offspring of unions between them frequently present interesting differences in body form and proportions. It is therefore necessary to have some means of giving quantitative expression to the variations exhibited by such traits. Anthropometry constitutes a means towards this end, the Anthropologists are concerned with functional relationships among traits and between traits and the environment.

In brief, Anthropology plays an essential role in all areas  of human endeavor concerned with the relative and absolute quantification of the human body.

References:

Homo Sapiens in Primate Classification

OWM- Old World Monkeys (also, old world primates)
NWM- New World Monkeys (also, new world primates)

* 

from- Biological Anthropology by Abdzex_Kuban

Taxonomic Hierarchy of Human Beings

Eukarya (domain)

↓

Animalia (kingdom)

↓

Bilateria (subkingdom)

↓

Deuterostomia (infrakingdom)

↓

Chordata (phylum)

↓

Vertebrata (subphylum)

↓

Gnathostomata (infraphylum)

↓

Tetrapoda (superclass)

↓

Mammalia (class)

↓

Theria (subclass)

↓

Eutheria (infraclass)

↓

Primates (order)

↓

Anthropoidea/Haplorrhini (suborder)

↓

Catarrhini (infraorder)

↓

Hominoidea (super family)

↓

Homininae (subfamily)

↓

Hominidae (family)

↓

Homo (genus)

↓ 

Sapiens (species)

↓

Homo Sapiens Sapiens (subspecies)

Taxonomy deals primarily with the description, identification, nomenclature, and classification of organisms.

Classification of the Primate Order showing the theoretical evolutionary relationships

Source: 

Spencer, John J, and Joseph B Aceves. Instructor's Manual To Accompany Introduction To Anthropology, 

Joseph B. Aceves And H. Gill King. General Learning Press, 1979.

Geological Time Scale

Source: 

"Geologic Time | Periods, Time Scale, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022, 

https://www.britannica.com/science/geologic-time.

Journeys Through Geological Time

Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism

Cultural relativism : 

• Cultural Relativism/ Cultural determinism approach was first formulated by Franz Boas in North America in the 19th century. He says no culture should be judged by the standards of another. Cultural relativism views people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture. It places a priority on understanding other cultures, rather than dismissing them as “strange” or “exotic.” Any part of a culture must be viewed from within its cultural context-not that of the observer or the notion that there are no universal standards by which all cultures may be evaluated. Cultures must be analyzed with reference to their own histories and cultural traits understood in terms of the cultural whole. (IGNOU)
• J.F. Lafitau (1724) - insisted that alien ways of life should be observed and described not according to prevailing European standards of what is proper/moral, but by consideration of the conditions under which these ways of life exist.
• The anthropological practice of suspending judgment and seeking to understand another culture on its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living.  
• Examine each culture within the context of its own beliefs.
• Acknowledges that other societies are, like our own, reasonable responses to the circumstances they must deal with.
• The notion that judgments should not be made concerning the merits of one way of life over another.
• The attempt to understand and evaluate each cultural system in terms of its own internally consistent logic. (Miller et al.)
• The argument that behavior in a particular culture should not be judged by the standards of another. (Kottak)
• Resistance to 'universal' assumptions about socio-cultural processes.
• The proposition that cultural differences should not be judged by absolute standards. (A History of Anthropological theory)

(Relativism - judgments, truths, or moral values have no absolutes, and can only be understood relative to the situation/ individuals involved.)

Ethnocentrism : 

• The opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct and the only true way of being fully human.
• Creates prejudice against other ethnic groups.
• Tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to apply its own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures. (Kottak)
• Scholar's own moral system formed the basis by which other phenomena are judged. 
• The tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one's own culture. (Miller et al.)
• The white Europeans presenting their own culture as a benchmark for civilization put all other societies on an evolutionary scale. They justified each society as being at different levels of evolution based on their technological knowledge. Thus, giving rise to ‘cultural ethnocentrism’. This concept devalued the comparative method, as it was used mainly to accentuate the scholars' own society as ‘superior’ to the societies of the people under study. (IGNOU)
• In his book “Folkways” Sociologist William Graham Sumner coined the term ethnocentrism to refer to the tendency to assume that one’s culture and way of life are superior to all others. (Sumner 1906)
• As students of Anthropology, we must shed our cultural biases or the assumption that our own culture is superior. Only when we accept our own culture as one among the many other cultures that exist in human societies across the World we will be able to conduct a proper study. 

References: Collected

Branches of - Physical/Biological Anthropology

• Human Growth and Development : This branch of physical anthropology concerns the process of growing to maturity (in biological terms: growth from a one-cell zygote to an adult human being).

• Understanding -
• different stages of growth
• patterns of growth
• effect of 
• nutrition
• environment
• genetic factors (influencing growth)
• Growth studies of populations reflect 
• variation amongst them
• growth rate of the nation

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

• Human Evolution : This branch, as the name suggests, revolves around the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens as a distinct species. The word “human” in the framework of human evolution speak of the genus Homo. In order to understand human evolution we study hominids also. 

Photo by Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash

• Human Osteology : The study of human bones. Evidences concerning osteology are frequently applied in forensic science. It holds important information in arenas like health, disease, physique, genetics of early populations, identification of unknown remains, criminal investigations, war crimes, etc.

Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash

• Human Ecology : A biological discipline that deals with the interactions between organisms and their environment. 
• Environment = Physical Environment (temperature, water, wind, soil acidity, etc.) + Biological Environment
• Human Adaptation ( physiologic, developmental, genetic) to environmental stresses and variation is part of human ecology.
• Human beings are the most versatile species on Earth which can adapt to any environment. However, many other human ecological developments are probable in future. The growth of human population and how this growth is accommodated, the way they utilize these resources yet preserve the biodiversity is yet to be comprehended.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

• Human Diversity : Concerned with the study of human evolution and human biological variation. Human evolution involves extensive work on the discovery, analysis, and description of fossilized human remains. This mainly aids to identify the differences between humans and their nonhuman ancestors and how did present man emerge. To achieve this, it involves the comparative analysis of genetic codes. 

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

• Human Variation : The term human variation is gaining popularity over its historical predecessor “race” in anthropology because of the exploitation of the term. It is suggested to use gene frequencies and biological traits of human populations by their geographic area. 

Photo by Christophe Maertens on Unsplash

• Human Genetics : Study of heredity, process by which characteristics are passed from parents to offspring. Involves the study of inheritance of gene (unit of hereditary in humans, common factor of most human traits). Provides information to the questions about :
• human nature
• understanding diseases and their effective treatment
• understand genetics of human life

           (Incorporates a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, population genetics, developmental genetics, clinical genetics, and genetic counseling.)

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

• Anthropological Genetics : Encompasses patterns of genetic similarity among different human populations to deduce demographic history. Genetic methods used to learn about human in the course of 
• its deviation from apes
• magnitude and how hominid population in geographical area originated
• initial migrations of anatomically modern humans.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

• Population Genetics : Concerns with genetic structure of populations, i.e. 
• frequency of alleles (alternate form of genes)
• and its genotypes (genetic constitution)

Photo by Joseph Chan on Unsplash

• Genetic Anthropology : Deals with combining DNA data with available physical evidence and past histories of civilizations. This facilitates scientists to assemble through existing genetic information in elucidating how the modern day Homo sapiens evolved through the millennia.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

• Nutritional Anthropology : Describes how particular social and cultural factor place people at risk for nutritional disorder or identifying health problems related to nutrition. It is gaining importance mainly due to concern and consciousness of people towards health. Anthropologists have contributed to the specialized fields of nutrition at a more holistic perspective, based on the historical, direct observation, and documentary accounts. The significance of this field lies in assessing health status of any population.

Photo by ja ma on Unsplash

• Molecular Anthropology : Comparatively newer branch of physical anthropology which deals with the molecular analysis. 
• It makes easier to understand the evolutionary links between ancient and modern human populations, as well as between contemporary species. 
• This enables to determine the closeness or distance in relationship between populations or within populations.
• Certain similarities in genetic makeup let molecular anthropologists determine whether or not different groups of people share a common geographical origin. (This paves way for anthropologists to trace patterns of migration and settlement, which gives an insight as to how contemporary populations have formed and progressed over time.)
• Plays a very important role in establishing the evolutionary tree of humans and other primates, including closely related species like chimpanzees and gorillas

Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash

• Forensic Anthropology : Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal scenario; when in a criminal case, victim’s remains are unidentifiable or in the advanced stages of decomposition, forensic anthropology helps in identification of the individual. (The term “forensic” refers to the application of this subfield of science to a court of law.)

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

• Physiological Anthropology : Human physiology is a scientific study of the
• mechanical
• physical
• biochemical 

functions of humans in good health, their organs, and the cells which constitute them.)

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

• Dental Anthropology : Scientific study of people (living/extinct primitive relatives) using the evidence of teeth. 

Practicing dentists, anatomists, radiologists, forensic scientists, biochemists and geneticists, archaeologists, paleontologists and zoologists apart from anthropologists are actively working in the field of Dental anthropology.

Photo by The Humble Co. on Unsplash

• Primatology : Concerned with the study of Primates. Primates studied with the hope to gain more insight into human nature. Study of hominids includes all ape-like ancestors of man and the other great apes. Modern primatology boasts of newer and extremely diverse science ranging from - anatomical studies of primate ancestors and field studies of primates in their natural habitat, to - experiments in animal psychology and ape language.

Photo by Andre Mouton on Unsplash

• Paleo primatology : Paleo primatologists take the assistance of fossil specimens by collecting, describing, and interpreting them them phylogenetically and functionally. As it is well understood that man is a primate evolved from non-human primates. The nonhuman primates are link to human physical history and status as mammals.

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• Paleoanthropology : is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines within the family Hominidae, working from biological evidence (such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints) and cultural evidence (such as stone tools, artifacts, and settlement localities).

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• Anthropometry : : Anthropometry as the name suggests consists of Greek word “anthropos” which means man, and “metry” meaning measure. In literal sense : understanding of physical variation, measurement of humans. In physical anthropology : measuring of the human individual. Plays extensive role in industrial design, clothing design, defense equipment, ergonomics and architecture. 

• Ergonomics : : Ergonomics is derived from two Greek words, “ergon” meaning work, and “nomoi” meaning natural laws, which means the science of work and a person’s relationship to that work. Fundamentally, the study of design equipment and devices that the human body, its movements, and how to carry about the work. (proper ergonomic design needed to avoid recurrent strain injuries)

• Demography : Scientific study of uniqueness and movement relevant to the human population illustrated by -
• size
• growth rate
• density
• vital statistics
• distribution of a specified population

Demographer must know both

• how to scientifically obtain information
• how to interpret it relatively

Demography is the basic statistics of human population which can be applied to any kind of human population which does not remain static. (i.e. changes over time/space) 

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