Physical anthropologists compare human culture to that of the non human primates, such as gorillas or chimpanzees. Human cultures vary greatly over time and around the world. Archaeologists study human society using things that people left behind or threw away rather than words that they wrote down. These material remains might be thousands of years old, or they might be what someone put in the garbage dump yesterday. Social anthropologists look at contemporary human societies, from small groups of people living in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest to people living in the biggest cities of the world.
Anthropology is related to the discipline of sociology , but has a distinct history and focus.
Social anthropology, the branch that is closest to sociology, differs from it by making cross-cultural comparisons central to any study. While most anthropologists would agree in general with this definition of their discipline, each offers a unique perspective on anthropology. Anthropology is an extremely liberating field of study. I am not bound by disciplinary limits to study only one aspect of a society, nor only one society nor even to use only a specific methodology. I can study what people do or have done, what they and others think about it and how they imagine a better future.