THE GOAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY AS A SCIENCE AND DISCIPLINE

Duality is the nature of the universe: Good and Bad, Life and Death, the Known and the Unknown.

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang ("dark—bright") describes how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

In the Jewish and Christian Bibles, creation came about in two stories. One, deals with the origin of the universe and the Other the origin of humankind. In both we find the emergence of duality. “In the beginning God created heaven and Earth.” God separates from his creation, e.g. “The Earth was without form or void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2) Then God separates the elements of his creation, e.g. “And God said , Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness (Genesis 1.3-4)

In the Second creation story revolves around the story of Adam and Eve and the creation of humanity. Here GOD creates Adam, the human, in his own image and breathed in the breath of life. God created Adam was to be GOD’s companion. And again he separates himself from his creation, e.g. HE gave Adam dominion over all HIS Earthly creation. Later, GOD discovers that Adam is lonely so He decides to create a human companion for Adam. Again, God separates the elements of his creation, e.g.  He creates Eve. Made from Adam’s rib, HE creates Woman and thus humanity began on its road of duality.

               How has the human organism evolved to become the true master of its dominion? The above examples are part of the universal theme of humanity’s question – “Where did we come from and where are we going?” These are the universal questions and our answers, based on fact and myth, that tell our stories of our evolutionary journey. The goal of Anthropology as a science and discipline is to discover and understand how humanity has adapted to this duality.

The essence of human experience is the discovery and the management of the existential world of light and ideational world of darkness. The existential world is the physical environment in which humankind finds itself. The existential world depends upon one’s own existence as Subject and one’s awareness of humanity’s existence as the Other. The Existential is the constant of a shared life.

The ideational world depends upon of our individual and collective experiences and interpretation of the unknown and unpredictable in our lives shared with others. The ideational world gives structure to what has no known structure. The ideational is based on shared axioms, or assumptions, about the structure, and it provides meaning where there is no “real” understanding.

Humanity has progressed by experiencing the light of existence and challenging the darkness of the unknown waters. The light is life. The darkness is the cause and meaning of our own origin and destination. The existential is to be discovered in what we know through experience. The ideational is to be found in what we believe. It is our attempt to understand and explain the nature of life, birth and death.

The focus of the anthropological perspective is to discover the unity that lies below the duality. And, to understand the basic axioms in which the human universe exists.