Anthropology

英国大使馆文化教育处

Anthropology is the study of different societies in the present and past.This includes the things people do， how they talk about their feelings， andwhat they think is important. It is also about how all these things can be seenin the languages they speak.

When the earliest kinds of humans started walking on two legs 6 millionyears ago， their brains were the same size as a chimpanzees. Now ourbrains are twice as big.

The highest number of people that we can talk to， remember or do otherthings with at the same time is 150. When there are more people， we do notthink of them as people any more， but more like “things” without feelings.

Around 660，000 years ago humans started using simple sounds andmoving their hands to say things to each other.

For thousands of years， humans lived without jobs， countries， writing ormoney. That is why it is sometimes difficult for us to understand how thesethings work in the world today.

Neanderthals， humans that lived until 40，000 years ago， had red hair.Africa is the area with the most different kinds of humans， and Neanderthalswere just one of them. In the rest of the world people have mixed with eachother， so they are almost the same.

Humans from different parts of the world have different skin， hair and eyecolour， because the weather is different in each area.

While all humans around the world feel happy， sad， angry or afraid，many anthropologists—people who study anthropology—think that thesefeelings are different in every society.

Humans and monkeys are different by only one percent， but that onepercent is very important！

Activity 1 Decide which numbers or words （a–f） complete each sentence（1–6）.

1. Humans brains are _____ as big as chimpanzees brains.

2. Humans started using simple sounds _____.

3. Humans started walking on two legs _____.

4. Monkeys and humans are different by _____.

5. Neanderthals lived until _____.

6. We can only talk to or remember _____ at the same time.

a. 1%

b. twice

c. 150 people

d. 40，000 years ago

e. 660，000 years ago

f. 6 million years ago

Activity 2 Answer the questions.

1. What do you know about people who lived thousands of years ago？

2. How are people the same or different in different parts of the world？

3. Are people and monkeys very different？