In the natural sciences, anthropology and biology is there a formal and official difference between these two scientific disciplines? (physical anthropology and biological anthropology)
I’ve been researching for some time and have read an article that describes physical anthropology and biological anthropology as synonymous concepts. I’ve read another article that supposedly describes them as two formally different fields and disciplines. Reading these things confuses me even more.
Is there a professional anthropologist or biologist who can clarify this question for me? In the professional academic field, are physical anthropology and biological anthropology two different scientific disciplines, or are they exactly the same?
Comments
Physical and Biological Anthropology are the same thing. “Physical” has been in use longer, but “Biological” is more common today (due in part to the increase in genetic/DNA research within the field).
Just 2 different names for that subfield of Anthropology.
I’m a forensic anthropologist/bioarchaeologist beneath my medicolegal death investigator title, and I’d consider myself a physical anthropologist b/c that’s what my university called it.
But to echo others here, phys/bio is interchangeable.