Anthropology: Media

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. This is a journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing, and civilization itself, through the millennia in which Africa and Africans shaped not only their own rich civilizations, but also the wider world.

Cultural heritage is a mixture of objects and ideas, traditions and stories – a legacy inherited from past generations, but at the same time providing the foundation on which we bu...

Survey the history of art, from antiquity to the present, on a global scale. This nine-part series reveals the role art and creative imagination have played in forging humanity, and introduces viewers to works of beauty, ingenuity, and illumination across cultures. Principal contributors Simon Schama, Mary Beard, and David Olusoga travel across the globe, visiting such cultural landmarks as the great mosques of Istanbul, the ancient cities of Mesoamerica, the Buddhist caves of Ajanta in India, the Aztecs' Templo Mayor in modern Mexico City, the funeral site of China's first emperor and many more. Narrated by Liev Schreiber.

Having lived as mobile foragers for 99 percent of our time on Earth, why did humans set out on the road to civilization? How did they create villages, towns, cities, and states, and establish the blueprint for the modern world? First Civilizations identifies four cornerstones of civilization - war, religion, cities and trade - and explores each in the context of a different location, from Mexico, Guatemala, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, India, and Pakistan, to Oman, Morocco, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Unearth the latest archeological discoveries, test new theories, and uncover original information as dramatic reconstructions and computer graphics visualize the lost world of the first civilizations. In each of the four episodes, discover how our ancestors were motivated by the same impulses that persist today - the inevitability of war, a need for religion, the lure of the city, and a love of trade.

This film provides an introduction to the history of anthropology as a discipline and explains how physical and cultural anthropology differ. Examine the archaeological methods anthropologist use including artifact collection, ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology, and the grid system.