Anthropology--the study the human (the anthropos)--has a complicated relationship with itself.

The field crystallized in the 19th century at the confluence of several historical, political, and scientific moments:

- The discovery of evolution, including human evolution, in the fossil record and in the direct observation of natural selection, which called into question religious origin stories

- The expansion of European colonialism across the world, which placed extraordinarily different people in extended contact with one another

- The rise of nationalism in Europe, which drove cultural and linguistic homogenization within European countries (i.e. created "state cultures" that wiped out less politically powerful local dialects, forms of dress, and religious practices)

- The rapid extinction of countless languages and folk cultures worldwide as a result of both European and non-European conquests and genocides, accelerated by the technologically-enabled growth of state power