Anthropologists look at people across a broad spectrum of space and time. Bioanthropologists examine our human biological and behavioral heritage over millions of years, and consider human physical variations across the world's populations. Archaeologists study the development and distribution of cultural patterns in past groups and civilizations, and seek to understand the ecological and social forces affecting these patterns over thousands of years. Cultural anthropologists examine human behaviors in contemporary groups in every setting across the world, and seek to understand the ecological and social forces that shape these behaviors. Anthropologists in every field are also concerned with change, biological and sociocultural, and how change impacts upon the human experience of us all.
Anthropologists also look at the human experience in terms of holistic integrated systems.
Human behavior is seen in the context of how biological, ecological, and cultural systems interact with each other. They are also concerned with how these lessons can be applied in our own society today. Anthropology generally focuses on human groups. While individuals are important, they are usually considered in the aggregate, because the comparisons made in Anthropology are so broad. For example, some anthropologists may be interested in how CroMagnon homo sapiens developed in their capacity for learning, subsistence, susceptibility to diseases, and biological adaptations compared to homo erectus .