SCIENCES STUDYING THE HUMAN BODY
The following sciences study a person: anatomy, physiology, psychology, hygiene.
human anatomy is a science that studies the shape and structure of the human body and its constituent organs.
There are systematic, topographic, plastic, age, comparative and functional anatomy.Systematic anatomy studies the structure of the human body by systems (nervous, digestive, etc.).Topographic anatomy studies the structure of the human body by region, taking into account the position of the organs.Plastic anatomy considers the external forms and proportions of the body, as well as the topography of organs in connection with the need to explain the features of the physique; considers the spatial relationships of structures in certain areas of the body, therefore it is also calledsurgical anatomy. Age anatomy explores changes in the structure of the body and its parts in the process of individual development of the organism, depending on age.Comparative anatomy studies structural transformations of similar organs in humans and animals.Functional Anatomy studies the structures of individual parts of the body, taking into account the functions they perform.
Is there some morepathological anatomy which studies organs and tissues damaged by a particular disease.
Human Anatomy Methods can be divided into 2 groups:
1) Methods for studying the structure of the human body on cadaveric material - dissection, soaking, sawing of frozen corpses, corrosion (corrosion), pouring, macro - microscopic method.
2) Methods for studying the structure of the human body on living people - X-ray, ultrasound, endoscopy of internal organs, anthropometric method, visual examination.
human physiology is a science that studies the functions of the human body and its constituent organs.
There are general, special (private) and applied physiology.General physiology includes information that relates to the nature of basic life processes (for example, metabolism).Special (private) physiology explores the features of individual tissues and organs, the patterns of combining them into systems.Applied Physiology studies the patterns of manifestations of human activity in connection with special tasks and conditions (physiology of labor, nutrition, sports ...).
Is there some morepathological physiology which studies the functions of a diseased organism, the mechanisms of recovery and rehabilitation.
Methods of human physiology: observation of healthy and sick people, animal experiments, analyses, extirpation (removal) of an organ or part of it, fistula method, catheterization, denervation, instrumental methods (ECG, EEG, etc.), perfusion method, functional tests.
Psychology - this is the science of the general laws of mental processes, individual-personal properties and human behavior.
There are fundamental, applied and practical psychology.Fundamental psychology reveals the facts, mechanisms and laws of mental activity.Applied psychology studies mental phenomena in natural conditions.Practical psychology deals with the application of psychological knowledge in practice. There are the following branches of it: pedagogical, developmental, social, medical psychology, etc.
Methods of psychology: observations, self-observation, questioning, measurements, testing, experiment, modeling, method of researching activity products, biographical method.
Hygiene is a science that studies the influence of natural conditions, work and life on the human body in order to protect the health of the population.
There are school, industrial, communal, radiation, military hygiene, as well as food hygiene - in relation to the objects under study: schools, industrial enterprises, dwellings, sources of ionizing radiation, military equipment, catering establishments.
Hygiene methods: physiological observations, clinical observations, measurements, experiment, laboratory tests, modeling, statistics. On the basis of hygienic methods, sanitary standards are developed that are necessary for a healthy lifestyle of people, safe conditions for their activities.
The rise of the human sciences
Foreign scientists
Hippocrates (c. 460 - c. 377 BC) - ancient Greek physician, "father of medicine." He described the structure of the vertebrae, ribs, joints of the bones of the skull (sutures), internal organs, eyes, muscles, large vessels. Studied the influence of natural factors on human health.
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher and scientist. He considered the heart to be the main organ in the body, called the largest blood vessel the aorta. Introduced the term "organism".
Claudius Galen (130 - 200) - Roman physician. Opened the corpses of monkeys. Described 7 out of 12 pairs of cranial nerves, blood vessels of the liver and kidneys, considered the brain to be the center of sensitivity of the body. He believed that a person is arranged in the same way as a monkey.
Avicenna (980 - 1037) - Persian physician and philosopher. He wrote the "Canon of Medicine", in which he systematized and supplemented information on anatomy and physiology, borrowed from the books of Aristotle and Galen. He owns the first description of the muscles of the eye.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) - Italian scientist and artist of the Renaissance. He made many drawings of bones, muscles, internal organs, providing them with written explanations. He laid the foundation for plastic surgery.
Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564) - Belgian scientist, professor at the University of Padun. He wrote a work in 7 books "On the structure of the human body" (1543), in which he systematized the skeleton, ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, internal organs, brain and sensory organs. Established that the right and left ventricles of the heart do not communicate with each other.
William Harvey (1587 - 1657) - English scientist. Opened the circles of blood circulation. He noted the presence of small vessels - capillaries. He is the founder of physiology. For the first time applied the experimental method.
Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650) - French philosopher. Opened reflex. He explained by the reflex mechanism not only contractions of skeletal muscles, but also many vegetative acts.
Russian scientists
I.V. Buyalsky (1789 - 1866) - author of the anatomical atlas "Tables of Surgical Anatomy". He proposed a method for embalming corpses.
N.I. Pirogov (1810 - 1881) - the founder of topographic anatomy. He developed a method for studying the human body on cuts of frozen corpses. Particularly carefully studied and described the fascia, their relationship with the blood vessels. Excellent surgeon. The first used a plaster bandage and ether anesthesia during the war in the Caucasus and in the Crimean campaign.
THEM. Sechenov (1829 - 1905) - "the father of Russian physiology." He developed scientific ideas about the physiology of the nervous system, respiration, and fatigue. He explored consciousness, discovered the processes of inhibition in the central nervous system. In the work "Reflexes of the brain" (1866) he outlined his views on the nature of voluntary movements and mental phenomena.
Ya.F. Lesgaft (1837 - 1909) - founded functional anatomy. One of the first applied the method of radiography, experimental method on animals and methods of mathematical analysis. His provisions on the possibility of changing the structure of the body through the impact of physical exercises on its functions became the basis of the theory and practice of physical education.
I.I. Mechnikov (1845 - 1916) - discovered the phenomenon of phagocytosis, developed on the basis of its study a comparative pathology of inflammation, and later - the phagocytic theory of immunity, for which in 1908 he received the Nobel Prize together with P. Ehrlich.
I.P. Pavlov (1849 - 1936) - created the doctrine of the higher nervous activity of man and animals. Studied the physiology of digestion. He developed and put into practice a number of special surgical techniques, thanks to which he created a new physiology of digestion. For this work in 1904 he received the Nobel Prize.
A.A. Ukhtomsky (1875 - 1942) - the largest physiologist. He studied the processes of excitation and inhibition in the brain and spinal cord. He discovered the law of dominance in the activity of the nervous system. He organized a laboratory of labor physiology, where he studied fatigue and work movements.
Modern science studies a person, firstly, as a representative of a biological species; secondly, he is regarded as a member of society; thirdly, the subject activity of a person is studied; fourthly, the patterns of development of a particular person are studied.
Rice. 1.4.The structure of the concept of "individuality" (according to B. G. Ananiev)
The beginning of a purposeful study of man as a biological species can be considered the works of Carl Linnaeus, who singled him out as an independent species of Homosapiens in the order of primates. Thus, the place of man in wildlife was determined for the first time. This does not mean that previously a person did not arouse interest among researchers. The scientific knowledge of man originates in natural philosophy, natural science and medicine. However, these studies were narrow-profile, insufficiently systematized, and most importantly, contradictory in nature, and people were most often opposed to living nature in them. K. Linnaeus proposed to consider a person as an element of wildlife. And this was a kind of turning point in the study of man.
Anthropology is a special science of man as a special biological species. The structure of modern anthropology includes three main sections: human morphology(the study of individual variability of the physical type, age stages - from the early stages of embryonic development to old age inclusive, sexual dimorphism, changes in the physical development of a person under the influence of various conditions of life and activity), the doctrine of anthropogenesis(on the change in the nature of the nearest ancestor of man and of man himself during the Quaternary period), consisting of primate science, evolutionary human anatomy and paleoanthropology (studying fossil forms of man) and racial science.
In addition to anthropology, there are other related sciences that study humans as a biological species. For example, the physical type of a Human as its general somatic organization is studied by such natural sciences as human anatomy and physiology, biophysics and biochemistry, psychophysiology, and neuropsychology. A special place in this series is occupied by medicine, which includes numerous sections.
The doctrine of anthropogenesis - the origin and development of man - is also associated with the sciences that study biological evolution on Earth, since human nature cannot be understood outside the general and consistently developing process of evolution of the animal world. Paleontology, embryology, as well as comparative physiology and comparative biochemistry can be attributed to this group of sciences.
It should be emphasized that particular disciplines played an important role in the development of the doctrine of anthropogenesis. Among them, first of all, we must include the physiology of higher nervous activity. Thanks to AND. P. Pavlov, who showed great interest in certain genetic problems of higher nervous activity, the most developed department of comparative physiology was the physiology of higher nervous activity of anthropoids.
A huge role in understanding the development of man as a biological species is played by comparative psychology, which combines zoopsychology and general human psychology. The beginning of experimental studies of primates in zoopsychology was laid by the scientific work of such scientists as V. Koehler and N. N. Ladygina-Kots. Thanks to the successes of zoopsychology, many of the mechanisms of human behavior and the patterns of his mental development have become clear.
There are sciences that are in direct contact with the doctrine of anthropogenesis, but play a significant role in its development. These include genetics and archaeology. special the place is occupied by paleolinguistics, which studies the origin of the language, its sound means and control mechanisms. The origin of language is one of the central moments of sociogenesis, and the origin of speech is the central moment of anthropogenesis, since articulate speech is one;
one of the main differences between humans and animals.
In connection with the fact that we have touched on the problems of sociogenesis, it should be noted the social sciences, which are most closely related to the problem of anthropogenesis. These include paleosociology, which studies the formation of human society, and the history of primitive culture.
Thus, a person as a representative of a biological species is the object of study of many sciences, including psychology. On fig. 1.5 presents the classification of B. G. Ananiev of the main problems and sciences of Homo sapiens. Anthropology occupies a central place among the sciences that study the origin and development of man as an independent biological species. The main conclusion that allows us to draw the current state of anthropology in relation to human development can be formulated as follows: at some stage of biological development, a person was isolated from the animal world (the borderline stage of “anthrohugenesis-sociogenesis”) and natural selection stopped in human evolution based on biological expediency and survival of individuals and species most adapted to the natural environment. With the transition of man from the animal world to the social one, with his transformation into a biosocial being, the laws of natural selection were replaced by qualitatively different laws of development.
The question of why and how the transition of a person from the animal world to the social one took place is central in the sciences that study anthropogenesis, and so far there is no unambiguous answer to it. There are several points of view on this problem. One of them is based on the following assumption: as a result of a mutation, the human brain turned into a super brain, which allowed a person to stand out from the animal world and create a society. P. Shoshar adheres to this point of view. According to this point of view, in historical time, the organic development of the brain is impossible due to its mutational origin.
There is another point of view, which is based on the assumption that the organic development of the brain and the development of man as a species led to the quality
Rice. 1.5.Sciences that study a person as a biological object
natural structural changes in the brain, after which development began to be carried out according to other laws that differ from the laws of natural selection. But just because the body and brain remain largely unchanged does not mean that there is no development. The studies of I. A. Stankevich testify that structural changes occur in the human brain, progressive development of various parts of the hemisphere, the isolation of new convolutions, and the formation of new furrows are observed. Therefore, the question of whether a person will change can be answered in the affirmative. However, these evolutionary changes
Modern biology is a complex system of knowledge that includes a large number of individual biological sciences that differ in tasks, methods and methods of research. Human anatomy and physiology is the basis of medicine. Anatomy human studies the form and structure of the human body in terms of its development and the interaction of form and function. Physiology- the vital activity of the human body, the significance of its various functions, their mutual connection and dependence on external and internal conditions. Physiology is closely related to hygiene- the science of the main ways of preserving and strengthening human health, of normal working and rest conditions, and of preventing diseases. Each person in his own way reflects the external world that surrounds him. Everyone develops their own inner world, relationships with other people, defining and evaluating their actions. All this forms the mental activity of each individual, his psyche. It includes: perception, thinking, memory, representation, will, feelings, experiences of a person, thus forming the character, abilities, interests of everyone. Psychology- the science that studies the mental life of people. It uses methods characteristic of any science: observation, experiment, measurement.
The development of these sciences helps medicine to develop effective methods for treating disorders of the vital organs of the human body and to effectively combat various diseases.
| The science | What is studying |
| Botany | Plant science (studies plant organisms, their origin, structure, development, vital activity, properties, diversity, development history, classification, as well as the structure, development and formation of plant communities on the earth's surface) |
| Zoology | Animal science (studies the origin, structure and development of animals, their way of life, distribution around the globe) |
| Biochemistry, biophysics | Sciences that separated from physiology in the middle of the twentieth century |
| Microbiology | Microorganism Science |
| hydropaleontology | The science of organisms that inhabit the aquatic environment |
| Paleontology | Fossil Science |
| Virology | Virus Science |
| Ecology | The science that studies the way of life of animals and plants in their relationship with environmental conditions |
| plant physiology | Studying the functions (life activity) of plants |
| Animal physiology | Studying the functions (life activity) of animals |
| Genetics | The science of the laws of heredity and variability of organisms |
| Embryology (developmental biology) | Patterns of individual development of organisms |
| Darwinism (evolutionary doctrine) | Patterns of the historical development of organisms |
| Biochemistry | Studies the chemical composition and chemical processes that underlie the vital activity of organisms |
| Biophysics | Explores physical indicators and physical patterns in living systems |
| Biometrics | Based on the measurement of linear or numerical parameters of biological objects, it performs mathematical data processing in order to establish practically significant dependencies and patterns |
| Theoretical and mathematical biology | Allowing, to apply logical constructions and mathematical methods, to establish general biological patterns. |
| Molecular biology | Explores life phenomena at the molecular level and takes into account the importance of the trimeric structure of molecules |
| Cytology, histology | Studies the cells and tissues of living organisms |
| Population-Aquatic Biology | The science concerned with the study of populations and constituent parts of any kind of organisms |
| Biocenology | Studies the highest structural levels of organization of life on Earth up to the biosphere as a whole |
| General biology | He studies general patterns that reveal the essence of life, its forms and development. |
| and many others. | |
The rise of the human sciences
The desire and ability to help a sick relative is one of the features that distinguishes us from animals. In other words, medicine, or rather, the first experiences of healing appeared even before the emergence of the human mind. Fossil finds indicate that Neanderthals already took care of the wounded and crippled. The experience passed down from generation to generation as a result of medical activities contributed to the accumulation of knowledge. Animal hunting provided not only food, but also some anatomical information. Experienced hunters shared information about the most vulnerable prey areas. The shape of the organs was clear, but most likely they did not even think about their functions then. Persons who took on the role of healers were often forced to practice bloodletting, applying bandages and sutures to wounds, they also removed foreign objects and performed ritual interventions. All this, together with spells, worship of idols and belief in amulets and dreams, constituted a complex of means of healing.
The primitive communal system is unique: all the peoples of our planet, without exception, passed through it. In its bowels, decisive prerequisites for the entire subsequent development of mankind were formed: tool (labor) activity, thinking and consciousness, speech and languages, economic activity, social relations, culture, art, and with them healing and hygiene skills.
Primitive healing. Before the emergence of the science of paleontology, which was formed (as a science) about a hundred years ago, there was an idea that the primitive man was absolutely healthy, and diseases arose as a result of civilization. A similar point of view was held by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who sincerely believed in the existence of a "golden age" at the dawn of mankind. Paleontological data contributed to its refutation. The study of the remains of primitive man showed that his bones bear traces of traumatic injuries and serious illnesses (arthritis, tumors, tuberculosis, curvature of the spine, caries, etc.). Traces of diseases on the bones of primitive man are much less common than traumatic defects, which are most often associated with damage to the brain skull. Some of them testify to injuries received during hunting, others - to experienced or not experienced trepanations of the skulls, which began to be performed around the 12th millennium BC. paleontology made it possible to determine the average life expectancy of primitive man (it did not exceed 30 years). Primitive man died in the prime of his life, not having time to grow old, he died in the struggle with nature, which was stronger than him.
The oldest people already showed collective care for sick relatives, since without the support of a seriously ill patient, she must die in the early stages of the disease; however, he lived for many years as a cripple. Ancient people have already begun to make the first burials of the dead. Analysis of numerous samples from burials indicates that the relatives collected medicinal herbs and surrounded the dead with them.
During the heyday primitive society healing was a collective activity. Women did it because it was required by the care of children and other members of the community; men assisted relatives during the hunt. Medical treatment during decomposition of primitive society there was a consolidation and development of traditional skills and techniques, the range of medicines expanded, tools were made.
Formation healing magic took place against the backdrop of already established empirical knowledge and practical skills of primitive healing.
How is the human body arranged? Why is it designed this way and not otherwise? All these and other questions began to interest a person from the moment when he began to think not only about his physical existence. The first question is answered by anatomy, the second by physiology. The history of anatomy and physiology is consonant with the history of advanced human thought. Mysticism and conjectures, unable to stand the test of time and research - first with a scalpel, and then with a microscope - were eliminated, but the truth remained, corrected, getting the proper results. In this regard, it seems that the interest in anatomy and physiology as sciences among the enlightened part of humanity was natural, dictated by the need to understand human suffering and, if possible, alleviate them. Therefore, it is in the ancient art of healing, in which the experience of previous millennia was summarized, that one should look for the origins of such sciences as human anatomy and physiology.
At the origins of medicine
In today's world, score primitive healing is ambiguous. On the one hand, his rational traditions and vast empirical experience were one of the origins of traditional medicine in subsequent eras and, in the end, modern scientific medicine. On the other hand, the irrational traditions of primitive healing arose as a natural result of a perverse worldview in the difficult conditions of the struggle of primitive man with powerful and incomprehensible nature; their critical assessment should not serve as a reason to deny the centuries-old rational experience of primitive healing as a whole. Medicine in this era was not primitive. The end of the primitive era coincides with the beginning of the history of class societies and states, when the first civilizations began to emerge more than 5 thousand years ago. However, the remnants of the primitive communal system were preserved in all periods of human history. They continue to remain today in the tribes.
The art of healing and medicine in countries ancient mediterranean were empirical, descriptive and applied. Having absorbed the achievements of all the peoples of the Mediterranean, medicine was formed as a result of the transformation and mutual penetration of ancient Greek and Eastern cultures. Associated with mythological ideas about the structure of the world and the place of man in this world, medicine, which was emerging as a science, was limited only to external observation and description of the structure of the human body. Everything that went beyond the limits of information about the shape, color, color of the eyes and hair, everything that could not be examined with the eyes and hands, remained outside of medical intervention. However, the facts, which at that time did not find an explanation, were gradually accumulated and initially systematized. There was a purification of true science from magic and witchcraft, which made medicine more convincing. Thanks to research related to the autopsy of the corpses of animals and humans, such sciences as anatomy and physiology arose, studying the structure and functioning of the human body. Many anatomical terms and surgical techniques exist in medicine to this day. Undoubtedly, the study of the experience and way of thinking of the great scientists of ancient times will make it possible to better understand the laws and trends in the development of modern natural sciences.
| Period | Thinkers/scientists | Contribution to science |
| 6th–5th centuries | Heraclid (Greek thinker) |
|
| 384–322 BC | Aristotle (Greek thinker) |
|
| 460–377 BC | Hippocrates (medicine of antiquity) |
|
| 130–200 AD | Claudius Galen (Roman physician, successor to the ideas of Hippocrates) |
|
| 1452–1519 | Leonardo da Vinci (Italian artist and scientist) | He studied, recorded and sketched the structure of the human body. |
| 1483–1520 | Raphael Santi (great Italian artist) | He believed that for the correct image of a person, one must know the location of the bones of his skeleton in one position or another. |
| 1587–1657 | William Harvey (English scientist) |
|
| First half of the XVII | René Descartes (French philosopher) | reflex opening. |
| 1829–1905, 1849–1936 | I. M. Sechenov, I. P. Pavlov | Works with reflex |
| Early XIX to the present day | Louis Pasteur (French scientist), I. I. Mechnikov (Russian scientist) | Works with reflex |
Middle Ages, until recently considered barbaric, made a significant contribution to the cultural history of mankind. The peoples of Western Europe have gone through a difficult path from tribal relations to developed feudalism, the natural sciences of that time experienced periods of almost complete oblivion and rigid church dogmas in order to, turning to the rich heritage of the past, be reborn again, but at a new, higher level, using experience and experiment to new discoveries.
Nowadays when humanity returns to understanding the importance of the priority of universal human values, the study of the historical and cultural heritage of the Middle Ages allows us to see how in the era Renaissance the cultural horizons of the world began to expand, as scientists, at the risk of their lives, overthrew scholastic (knowledge divorced from life) authorities and broke the boundaries of national narrowness; exploring nature, they served, above all, truth and humanism.
Anthropology - the science of man
Term
The term "Anthropology" is of Greek origin and literally means "the science of man" (anthropos - man; logos - science). Its first use is attributed to Aristotle, who used this word mainly in the study of the spiritual nature of man. In relation to the physical structure of man, the term "anthropology" seems to be first encountered in the title of a book by Magnus Hundt, published in Leipzig in 1501: "Anthropology on the dignity, nature and properties of man and on the elements, parts and members of the human body." This essay is purely anatomical. In 1533, the book Anthropology, or Discourse on Human Nature, published by the Italian Galeazzo Capella, contains data on individual variations in man. In 1594 Kasman's essay "Anthropological psychology, or the doctrine of the human soul" was published, followed by the 2nd part - "On the structure of the human body in a methodical description."
In the works of Western European scientists, the term "anthropology" had a dual meaning - as an anatomical science (about the human body) and about the spiritual essence of man. At the beginning of the 18th century, when the word "anthropology" was just beginning to come into scientific use, it meant "a treatise on the soul and body of man." Subsequently, this term was interpreted in a general form in the same way, combining a comprehensive study of a person, his biological, social and spiritual properties. During the 19th century and up to the present day, many foreign countries (England, France, USA) adopted the broad concept of anthropology as a general science of man.
French encyclopedists gave the term "anthropology" a very broad meaning, understanding it as the totality of knowledge about man. The German philosophers of the 18th and early 19th centuries, in particular Kant, included in anthropology mainly questions of psychology. During the 19th century and to this day in England, America and France, anthropology is understood as the doctrine, firstly, of the physical organization of man and, secondly, of the culture and life of various peoples and tribes in the past and present.
In Soviet science, a strict division of the terms "anthropology", "ethnography", "archeology" is accepted. Archeology is understood as a science that studies the historical past of mankind from material sources, ethnography is a branch of history that studies all aspects of the culture and life of living peoples, the origin of these peoples, the history of their settlement, movement and cultural and historical relationships. Anthropology, on the other hand, studies the variations in the physical type of a person in time and space.
background
The prehistory of the development of the science of man is quite large. Anthropological knowledge accumulated gradually, simultaneously with general biological and medical knowledge, and anthropological views and theories developed in close connection with social and philosophical thought. The gradual accumulation of anthropological information - data on human anatomy, on the physical characteristics of the peoples of various regions of the earth, general theoretical ideas about the origin of man - began from ancient times.
Already in the countries of the Ancient East - in Babylonia, Egypt - they showed interest in neighboring countries and peoples. In graphic images, in rock inscriptions and bas-reliefs, in written sources one can find a lot of information about the peoples of Western Asia and North Africa. The "History" of Herodotus (5th century BC) contains interesting data on the tribes and peoples of the Middle East, a description of the barbarian tribes - the inhabitants of the Northern Black Sea region. The writings of Strabo (1st century AD) describe many peoples who inhabited the ancient states of Central Asia, India, Spain, and the British Isles. The great ancient Roman thinker, materialist poet Lucretius Carus (I century BC) created a whole theory of the gradual development of human culture from primitive to the first sprouts of civilization, in which he developed the idea of the natural origin of the organic world and man. In the early Middle Ages, the traditions of ancient authors are continued in the works of scientists from Byzantium (Procopius of Caesarea), China (Xuan Jiang, Kun Inda), Central Asia (Ibn Sina, Biruni).
A new rise in anthropological knowledge begins in the era of great geographical discoveries (XV-XVII centuries). European travelers saw new countries and continents with a peculiar, outlandish world, got acquainted with the peoples of distant continents (India, China, America, Africa), with their culture, way of life, rights, languages.
Accumulation of factual material
The accumulation of factual material went inextricably with the construction of theories about the origin of man with a change in the usual, almost unshakable views on the world around and nature, ideas were born about the universality of the law of change of things, about the development of living nature. Later, in the XVIII century. numerous natural classifications were created, where a person was assigned a place in the order of primates, as a genus and species of Homo sapiens. The first classifications of human races appeared, in which scientists tried to systematize, streamline all the diversity of human diversity. In the beginning, racial divisions were "built" only on purely visual observations and on the basis of an assessment of external differences between people, often with the involvement of ethnographic descriptions - the life, culture, language of a particular people. In the classifications of C. Linnaeus (1775), J. Buffon (1740), and later I.F. Blumenbach, DGK. Genter, P. Camper and others, attempts have already been made to classify humanity, touching on the origin of races, the influence of the environment on the formation of racial characteristics, a comparative study of human anatomical features, and craniological features on skulls belonging to representatives of different races.
The works of French materialist philosophers (D. Diderot, C. Helvetius, P. Holbach) and the greatest evolutionary biologists of the 18th century. (J.-B. Lamarck, J. Cuvier, K. Linnaeus) had a revolutionary influence on the development of many areas of natural science, including anthropology. The task of explaining the essence of nature, of considering man as part of the material world, subject to its laws, was the main thing in the activity of the French Enlightenment. In such works of materialist thinkers as “Thoughts on the explanation of nature” by D. Diderot, “The system of nature” by P. Holbach, “On the mind”, “On man” by K. Helvetius, the idea of the primacy of matter is clearly traced, that only matter is the only reality, the basis of the diversity of everything that exists. Nature is a connected chain of beings, it is subject to its own laws. Only the objectively existing world of nature is the only object of knowledge. The knowledge of nature, the material world, the surrounding man, as well as the man himself, separated from nature, has always developed in an interconnected and contradictory way. The allocation by K. Linnaeus of man as a species of Homo Sariens (reasonable man), who for the first time determined the place of man in the general systematics of living nature, was a turning point in the general system of natural science.
An equally important circumstance for the further development of anthropology was the first theory of evolution by J.-B. Lamarck, the greatest predecessor of Charles Darwin in the field of biology. In his Philosophy of Zoology (1809), he provides a number of proofs of evolution in the world of animals and plants, arguing that all modern organisms, including humans, have evolved from older forms through evolutionary development. In the second half of the 18th century, natural science also began to develop rapidly in Russia.
The opening of Moscow University in 1755, which soon became the center of culture and education in Russia, was of great importance in the development of advanced social and political life. The largest scientists and educators of the late 18th century worked in it. (D.S. Anichkov, S.V. Desnitsky, S.G. Zybelin), whose works, although not directly related to anthropology, but, permeated with deeply humanistic ideas, had a beneficial effect on the development of natural science, in particular, on anthropology. Thus, the scientific and social activities of a progressive scientist, hygienist, author of well-known works in the field of medicine (pediatrics, epidemiology) S.G. Zybelin contributed to the knowledge of the human body, the upbringing and hardening of children, and thus created the foundations of one of the sections of Russian anthropology - age. Very bold for their time were the views of A. Kaverznev, who in his treatise "Philosophical Discourse on the Rebirth of Animals", published first in German and then twice published in Russian (1778 in Moscow), raises the question of the common origin and kinship of all animals, including humans. He discusses the variability of species, explaining the phenomenon of the variability of animals and humans by the influence of environmental conditions on them, the creation by man of a special artificial environment that protects him from adverse influences. The climate can change the color of the skin, the color of the hair and eyes.
Era personality. Russia
A surprisingly bright personality for his era, who made a significant contribution to the development of scientific knowledge in Russia, was V.N. Tatishchev. Prominent diplomat, politician, military man, talented administrator and versatile scientist. Tatishchev for many years collected a variety of material about Russia and its peoples. He owns numerous, fundamental works on ethnic history, geography, linguistics of many peoples of the Russian state.
V. Tatishchev was the author of the first questionnaire program in the history of world science for collecting information on geography, history and ethnography of various regions of the country. The questionnaire included more than 198 questions, such as the name of the people, its origin, occupation, family and legal norms, various rituals, beliefs, diseases, healing, etc. But most importantly, it contained questions of a special anthropological nature, allowing to describe in detail the external morphological features. Tatishchev's program formed the basis for subsequent, more detailed anthropological questionnaires developed for numerous ethnographic expeditions, which were so rich in the 18th century.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the first Russian large expeditions, a significant part of which was organized on the initiative of M.V. Lomonosov and was conducted by the Academy of Sciences with the aim of a comprehensive study of Russia. Expeditions were organized to remote areas of the state to collect geographical and ethnographic materials, among which were the first anthropological descriptions of many peoples of Siberia and Kamchatka. So, a huge amount of material was collected during the Great Northern, or Second Kamchatka Expeditions (1733-1743) by such scientists as the historian G.F. Miller, naturalist I.G. Gmelin, geographer J. Lindenau, ethnographer S.P. Krasheninnikov, who gave the first anthropological characteristics to many northeastern peoples - Yakuts and Kamchadals, Tungus and Buryats, Koryaks, Voguls, peoples of the Volga region (Udmurts, Maris, Chuvashs, Tatars, etc.).
Interesting anthropological and ethnographic materials were collected by the Great Academic Expedition of 1768-1774. under the guidance of Academician P.S. Pallas, some detachments of which were headed by naturalists (N.I. Rychkov, I.I. Lepekhin, V.F. Zuev, N.Ya. Ozeretskovsky, I.G. Grigori). The expedition lasted six years and covered the area from the shores of the White Sea and the Transbaikal steppes to Transcaucasia and Moscow. During this time, numerous peoples were collected and described, most of which were still little known.
The work of I.G. Grigori "Description of all peoples living in the Russian state", published in 1776-1777. This was the first attempt to give a general picture of the ethnic composition of Russia and the life of its individual peoples, to classify them according to anthropological type, language and origin, to analyze historical relationships.
In the last decades of the XVIII century. A number of expeditions were organized: to the Pacific coast of North America, to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands. They brought not only the most valuable ethnographic materials, but also the first descriptions of the physical type of many peoples in science. The expeditions marked the beginning of independent anthropological studies of the peoples of Russia, contributed to the development of interest in the science of man. Anthropology as an independent science was formed in the middle of the 19th century.
The main sections of anthropology
The main sections of anthropology:
- human morphology;
- the doctrine of anthropogenesis;
- racial science.
First Anthropological Society
The first Anthropological Society was founded in Paris in 1859 on the initiative of the famous French anatomist Paul Broca, then in London (1863), in Rome (1868), and in subsequent years in many capitals of European states. In 1863, the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography (OLEAE) was created at Moscow University, the founder of which was the famous zoologist Professor A.P. Bogdanov. With his name, the first period of Russian anthropology, which is often called "Bogdanov", is brought down.
Since the beginning of the activity of the OLEAE, anthropology has taken one of the leading places in its work. The clearly formulated program of the society stated that it was created to study Russia "in natural history and to disseminate scientific knowledge among the masses of the public." - The main tasks that the OLEAE faced were collecting collections, expeditions, setting up exhibitions and museums, giving lectures and publishing works.
In 1864, a year after the creation of the OLEA, an anthropological department was organized within it, which, in fact, became the center of anthropological research. The work program of the department included anthropological, ethnographic and archaeological research, the compilation of craniological collections and their description, the anthropological and ethnographic study of many tribes and peoples of various provinces of Russia, the elucidation of their racial and ethnic characteristics, the excavation of burial mounds and ancient cemeteries, the collection of archaeological material. The development of anthropological methods occupied a special place in the work of the anthropological department.
Thanks to the work of the society, four exhibitions were opened in Moscow, which formed the basis for the creation of four museums (an ethnographic exhibition (1867); a polytechnic exhibition (1872); a geographical exhibition (1892); an anthropological collection (1867)
In 1888, the Russian Anthropological Society (RAS) arose at St. Petersburg University, whose members consisted of anthropologists, doctors, archaeologists, and ethnographers. The main direction of the society is the study of various ethnic communities in Russia, the physical development of professional and age categories of the population, and the popularization of anthropology. In 1893 in St. Petersburg, another anthropological center was founded at the Military Medical Academy, headed by the Russian anatomist Professor A.I. Taranetsky. Anthropological work was also carried out in Tomsk, Odessa, Kharkov, Tiflis, Tartu.
Anthropology as a science
Anthropology is a branch of natural science that occupies a special place among the biological sciences. It studies the origin and evolution of the physical organization of man and his races. This is the science of the variability of the human body in space and time, the laws of this variability and the factors that govern it. Anthropology, as it were, crowns natural science.
But since human life is inextricably linked with the social environment, then anthropology, studying a person, enters the area where there are socio-historical patterns. This is the specificity of anthropology, the complexity of its research, this is its difference from other biological sciences, its direct connection with the historical sciences - archeology, ethnography, history.
Considering the consistent development of individual branches of natural science, Engels wrote: "At the end of the last century, the foundations of geology were laid, in modern times - the so-called (unsuccessfully) anthropology, which mediates the transition from the morphology and physiology of man and his races to history." This characteristic of anthropology is an application to the concrete science of Engels' general view of the classification of sciences. He pointed out that each science analyzes a separate form of motion of matter or a number of forms of motion, interconnected and passing into each other. Therefore, the classification of sciences is a classification or hierarchy of forms of movement. "Just as one form of movement develops from another, so the reflections of these forms, the various sciences, must necessarily follow one from the other." Anthropology is a branch of natural science that studies the origin and evolution of the physical organization of man and his races. But since man is a qualitatively unique being, whose life can proceed only in the conditions of society and collectively carried out production, it is clear that anthropology cannot be put on a par with the private branches of zoology. Anthropology cannot study man from the same positions from which entomology studies insects, ornithology studies birds, etc. Human anthropology is studied by more than 200 sciences.
Anthropology has an interdisciplinary character. We note the sciences that are most directly related to anthropology:
- Biology is a system of sciences about living nature. Studies the structure and functioning of a living system. Biology is a natural science for the study of man in the world around him.
- Psychology - studies the psyche of human and animal behavior. Social psychology - studies interpersonal relationships in small groups of a person. Sociology - considers social phenomena, considered through the prism of human interaction. From the point of view of anthropology, the relationship of man in society is of interest.
- Ethnography (translated from Greek. tribe, people) or ethnology (ethnology) - science studies the life and cult of the characteristics of the peoples of the world.
- Ethnos is the origin of peoples. Ethnography is the settlement of peoples. Philosophy - study the most general laws of society and knowledge.
- Culturology is the study of the function of culture, factors of development, interactions of culture, development of symbolic systems. Anthropology - culture as an indicator of human development.
Taskanthropology
The task of anthropology is to trace the process of transition from biological laws, to which the existence of the animal ancestor of man was subject, to social laws. Thus, anthropology occupies a special place in the circle of biological disciplines. Having the subject of its study of man, it cannot but go beyond the limits of questions of natural history; studying a person, it enters the field of knowledge where socio-historical factors operate. From this boundary position of anthropology in a number of sciences, its relation to related branches of knowledge also follows. Anthropology is inextricably linked with other biological sciences and at the same time is in close contact with the social sciences. Anthropology in this sense, as it were, crowns natural science. The founder of anthropological science in Russia, A.P. Bogdanov, in a speech at a solemn meeting of Moscow University in January 1876, pointed out that natural science without anthropology remains incomplete and only “with anthropology, natural science is not some kind of special island, separated by an abyss from other sciences purely human, so to speak, that is, concerning the highest, the most fascinating aspects of its nature, its history and its existence for the mind.
