Man and his surroundings have always been a perennial source of wonder and reflection for himself. This consciousness instigated him in searching the realities. Therefore, it is futile to talk about the beginning of the study of man. For the genesis of systematic thinking we usually refer back to the classical Greek Civilization especially to the writings of Herodotus in fifth century B.C. Not only Herodotus, many other Greek and Roman historians namely Socrates, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato, etc. are considered as pioneer social thinkers. They first expressed their significant interest in man’s affairs considering the perspective of Universe. Their approach was purely humanistic and they postulated a social theory from organismic point of view. The emergence of anthropology as a distinct discipline occurred only recently in nineteenth century. Sydney Slotkin in his book ‘Readings in early Anthropology’ traced the history of many anthropological sub-disciplines form seventeenth and eighteenth century. But he also agreed that the real professional interest of the subject did not appear until nineteenth century. The unusual peoples and their unknown way of life evoked interest of navigators and other explorers. As a result in 1800 a society named as ‘Observers if Man’ was founded in Paris by the union of naturalists and medical-men. This society promoted the study of natural history by providing guidance to the travelers and explorers of far places. But meanwhile, for the long series of Napoleonic wars, the commerce and the foreign travel were interrupted. Naturally the study of natural history was neglected and instead, the questions of philosophy, ethnology and politics came forward. The society could not stand long and in 1838 another society for the protection of aborigines was established in London. Eminent scholars joined in that society whose aim was political and social, rather than scientific. Again, within a very short period need of a scientific society was realized. One of the influential members, Mr.Hodgkin in collaboration with several other distinguished persons, in 1839 inaugurated an ‘Ethnological Society’ in Berlin. Eminent naturalist Milne-Edwards took there an active part. In 1841, a similar type of society was formed in London and soon after that in 1842 the third ‘Ethnological Society’ was founded in New York. The establishment of ethnological societies can be taken as an important landmark in the emergence of anthropology. Anthropology is therefore considered as the product of scientific developments in western world. The tradition of social philosophies continued till the advent of industrialization in west and it emerged as a distinct discipline in the nineteenth century; Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) perhaps boosted the zeal of all scientists in different fields. Darwin showed that life had evolved from the unicellular organism and went to the way of complex multicellular organism, through the process of evolution. This idea not only opened the new avenues for zoology, anatomy, physiology, philology, palaeontology, archaeology and geology; it also accelerated the pace of socio-cultural studies. Being influenced by Darwin, a group of intellectual namely Spencer, Morgan, Tylor reached to the conclusion that evolution did not operate only in case of physical aspect of mankind, but also in cultural life. Accordingly, the year 1859 may be taken as the date of birth of anthropology; R.R. Marret (1912) termed anthropology as ‘child of Darwin’. In the same year 1859, Paul Broca founded an ‘Anthropological Society’ in Paris. Broca himself was an anatomist and human biologist. He advocated the idea of general biology by synthesizing all specialized studies in order to understand a man. Anthropology made a significant progress in America following Broca’s light. On the other hand in 1863, James Hunt withdrew himself from the British Ethnological Society and established an Anthropological Society in London with the dissenting members of Ethnological Society. Hunt declared anthropology as ‘a whole science of man’ which deals with the origin and development of humanity. In 1868, Thomas Huxley was elected the President of the Anthropological Society. Despite his biological orientation, he belonged to the Ethnological Society in London for a considerable span of time. However, this was the time form when the work of Ethnological Society in London for a considerable span of time. However, this was the time from when the work of Ethnological Society and the Anthropological Society merged together. The difference was maintained only in names. Nearly thirty years, from 1840 to 1870, a great debate continued with the two words- ethnology and anthropology. France, Germany and England highly appreciated the subject. In fact, anthropology earned a great popularity over whole of Europe.

During the Second World War, the American anthropologists became attentive to the psychological problems and issues of whole nations in order to understand the basic features of developed civilizations like Japanese, the Chinese, and the Russians etc. National character studies became very popular in this period. At the end of the world war, anthropology got the French scholar Claude Levi-Strauss whose emphasis was restricted to the formal aspect of culture.

Anthropology is the study of various elements of humans, including biology and culture, in order to understand human origin and the evolution of various beliefs and social customs. The term anthropology is a combination of two terms ‘anthropos’ and ‘logus’, the former meaning human and the later meaning discourse or science. Thus anthropology is the science or discourse of man. It is the science or discourse of human beings. Aristotle first used the term ‘Anthropologist’.

Anthropology has been divided into two main branches: Physical anthropology and cultural anthropology. These two main branches have been again, sub-divided into several other branches which have been given in the following chart:

Anthropology is a young discipline in India. By the term ‘Indian Anthropology’, Andre Beteille (1996) wanted to mean the study of Society and Culture in India, by the anthropologists, irrespective of their nationality. There were many anthropologists inside or outside of India who took interest in the study of Indian society and culture. However, anthropology owes its origins in the later half