Anthropology is a very vast subject of study that includes four sub-fields: linguistic, biological/physical, archaeology, and cultural. Then within those fields are more smaller categories, for example, biological anthropology encompasses all of the genetic, health, and evolution aspects involved in humans, primates, and their predecessors. In search of a sub-field of biological anthropology, I stumbled upon a few I found interesting, but the one that piqued my interest was molecular anthropology.

The article is titled, “What Is Molecular Anthropology? What Can It Be?” by Jonathan Marks, which I found through the Wiley Library’s online database. Molecular anthropology is a relatively new branch with the term being coined in 1962. The intent of this study is to relate the field of human evolution to the structure of biomolecules. The main idea is to corroborate rather than strictly apply and by this I mean the data collected from molecular studies can be added as ammunition to confirm anthropological studies. Marks says, “I argue instead for the conjunction of molecular data and an anthropological approach in molecular anthropology. I consider an ‘anthropological’ approach to be one that is classically holistic as opposed to reductive; approaches questions of nature from the standpoint of historical and social perspectives…” This shows how the science based evidence for biological similarities and evidence of lineage can be combined with the original study of anthropology to create proof of various evolutionary links.

There are studies that could be considered part of this discipline that date back as early as the 1920s when serology studies were being done on different races to observe similarities and differences in the blood types of the people from different continents. Serology is the study of blood serum and its constituents, therefore, observing the biomolecules that make it what it is and can show differences in species and races. The scientists at the time may not have known exactly what they were looking for but the pretense was there. However, no conclusions could be drawn from these studies since the technology was not available at the time.

One of the most noteworthy instances of this overlap in the two sciences is the case of chimpanzees and humans being 99% genetically identical. DNA is made up of nucleotides and phosphates and sugar backbones that can be so intensely studied on the molecular level that the information it can tell us is endless. If we can study the biomolecular aspects of all of the evolutionary links leading up to the present state of humans and apes and monkeys, we could learn so much, not to mention how they interacted and possibly learned from each other. For instance how one species could have led to the downfall or adaptation of the other since anthropology is the study of culture and behavior affect each other is a circular way. This can lend to the broader aspect of anthropology and the other branches of the field because the evidence gathered in terms of molecules can only add to the connections scientists can make with this knowledge.

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Reference: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/evan.10031