Comparison Of Anthropology Latin America And The Caribbean

“Anthropology, Latin America, and the Caribbean” explains different types of anthropology, including linguistic anthropology, physical or biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology. Linguistic anthropology deals with studying societies from the point of view of their languages. Physical/biological anthropology deals with how the human species ended up evolving. Cultural anthropology deals with the study of cultures and why different societies have different beliefs and behaviors. This reading focused on the cultural anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean and explores why the study is important. The first reason being demography, the reading includes statistics that show that Hispanics/Latinos have become a relatively big ethnic group within the United States. The reading states that more than half of U.S. citizens who were born outside of the country are Hispanics/Latinos. As more and more Hispanics/Latinos are arriving to the United States the customs in the U.S. are changing as well, making it important to study the anthropology of this ethnic group.

It has become common to hear someone speak Spanish, in multiple states including New York and California the reading says: “Spanish is the most important lingua franca”, Spanish is a general language used in the U.S. for people to be able to communicate. Spanish is not only heard in the streets, but also in popular media, with radio stations, newspapers, and televisions incorporating Spanish. The reading mentions Telemundo and Univision which are exclusively Spanish broadcasting stations that play on U.S. televisions, connecting Hispanics to the news of Latin America and within the United States. This ties in with transnationalism, another reason for the cultural anthropology of Hispanics. Hispanics intermingle their Latin American culture with the culture of the United