The range of variations in human ways of life is staggering. The study of anthropology is the study of humans as biological, cultural, and social beings. Anthropologists study alternative ways in which human beings meet their needs and examine overall integration and dissonance within a culture. For those interested in multiculturalism and diversity, that is the very essence of anthropology. The field is not only innately cross-cultural, but global in its scope.
Anthropology also has extraordinary disciplinary breadth.
The field of archeology has much in common with history, as it uses artifacts from the past to reconstruct the cultural character of a society. Physical anthropology is very closely aligned with biology, emphasizing physical characteristics of human beings and investigating the evidence for human evolution. Linguistics is a field of anthropology focusing on analysis of language development and language variations. Many sociological theories have evolved from anthropological research and vice versa. Anthropologists may be involved in anything from research of evolutionary theory to solving a homicide case in a forensics lab.