Anthropology has been the center of rigid debate. On the one hand, it is a science that explores human factors in shaping historic, social, and political environments. In holistic terms, anthropology is the science about human kind, human biology, and humanity. It also includes traditions, music, literature, and arts. The social science has sought to develop scientific methods for understanding social actions in general. On the other hand, anthropology might be regarded as an art but in a narrow sense. Specifically, it explores the ancient artifacts related to human sciences which could be regarded as the subjects of art. Nonetheless, anthropology in a broader sense is a science, not an artistic form because it is more concerned with the way humans affected social and cultural environment rather than vice versa.
Anthropology is a science because it focuses on a holistic picture of a man. The discipline is associated with the adoption of various aspects of academic disciplines such as human biology and humanities. At the beginning of the twentieth century, academic disciplines were split into broader sciences. For instance, the natural sciences aim to consider general laws by means of analyzing reproducible and verifiable experiments. The humanities are related to studying local customs and traditions through music, literature, and arts, with reference to understanding specific historic figures, events, and epochs.
The main purpose of anthropology is to deliver a holistic analysis of human nature and humans. In other words, anthropologists do specialize in one category, but they also regard biological, historic, linguistic, and cultural dimension of the problem. Due to the fact that anthropology was initially presented as a science in the Western civilization, the major tendency in anthropology has emphasized a methodological force to explore individuals and their contributions to social life, including social order and political activities. Nowadays, anthropologists employ different terms for explaining the earlier stages of social development and for referring to humans living in pre-industrial era.
With regard to the above, it should be stressed that anthropology cannot be considered an art because it embraces much deeper and generalized notions. In particular, the concept of art in this context is considered through individual perspective. For instance, anthropologists are inclined to study artistic forms, including music, literature, and painting, through the contributions of specific historic figures to the development of artistic epochs, such as Renaissance or the era of Enlightenment. Additionally, anthropological tendencies consider art as a part of educational development. Anthropological perspective on learning art and understanding educational dimensions describes humans as the center of all topics and narrations. What is more important, the main purpose of art is to portray the historic events and adhere to a specific style, which does not always involve the analysis of human nature. Although anthropology and art correlate, their spheres of influence differ significantly.
In conclusion, it should be stressed that anthropology is not an art, but a science, which explores human nature from social, cultural, and political dimensions. It also touches on human biology in a broader, holistic sense. Hence, the main purpose of anthropology is to explain the role of humans in shaping the modern social and political organization. The individualistic perspective plays the central role in describing epochs and events. Therefore, anthropology cannot be considered to be an art because the latter touches not only on human nature, but on other dimensions as well. Its main purpose is much narrower in terms of depicting humans and explaining their roles in shaping civilizations. Although anthropology and art are interconnected, the tags of their connection are not always premised on the discussion of human nature and the role of humans in shaping cultural and social environment.