देखो ! बुत तराशी का ये हमें सिला मिला
जिसको हमने बुत समझा वो काफिर खुदा निकला
जिसको हमने बुत समझा वो काफिर खुदा निकला
What is Anthropology?
Despite being a serious student of Anthropology for almost 50 years, the question makes me uneasy. I must admit that I have not been able to pinpoint what Anthropology is not. That could have made my job easy. Here I start with some historical facts. 1. When Aristotle defined man as a “featherless biped walker” did he know he was defining the limits of Anthropology? 2. In Class 9 th or 10 th I had read a poem starting with the couplet: “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man”. Doesn’t Alexander Pope, the poet, sound an Anthropologist? 3. Again, the same year, we had a poem by Tennyson on Crimean War, The Charge of the Light Brigade which most of us must have read; I remember a few lines: “Canons to right of them Cannons to left of them Cannons in front of them ………… Into the mouth of hell Rode the six hundred” N...
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