Anthropology
So, this is what I have my degree in. What exactly is it? Good question. Basically, Anthropology is the study of humans with a focus on culture. What's culture? Damned if I know. Damned if Anthropology knows for that matter, and they've been studying it for close to 200 years now. Anthropology is a social science, and coincidentally was the first of the codified social science so here's a big FU to psychology and sociology. Anthropology is broken down into 4 main subfields:
Archaeology- This was my minor. In short, archaeologists dig up a site and draw conclusions from what they find. Unlike what you've seen in the movies, there is very little nazi-killing and tomb raiding with well-endowed chicks packing more heat than an LA street gang on a Friday night. Well, very little, mind you... Archaeology deals with the physical remains of a culture; pot sherds, bones, tools, houses, you name it and archaeologists can go way too in depth explaining what its significance is. This is probably the most scientific of the 4 main subfields and is really interesting if you're into the hard, physical sciences. I'm not. Archaeology isn't all fortune and glory, and never once did you ever hear Indiana Jones tell a beautiful woman to wait for a few hours while he finished cross-dating sites and coming up with a seriation table for his pot sherds. I went on an excavation this past summer in New Mexico. If you're interested in seeing the pictures (how silly, I know you all are) and finding a little more about it, go here
Cultural Anthropology- This was my real area of interest. It focuses on the observation of people and rituals in an attempt to try and get some kind of understanding about their culture. It's kinda like what psychology would be if the psychologists got off their couches and went outside once in awhile. Cultural Anthropology involves lots of fieldwork and is a great excuse to travel. Unfortunately, it tends to get wrapped up in epistemology and has an aversion to the whacky notions of this new-fangled "science" everyone seems to be talking about .
Linguistics- This one speaks for itself. It's an understanding of languages, their structure, semantics, and usage. I wish I had the talents to be a linguist but sadly I lack the abilities to comprehend any language. English included.
Physical Anthropology- This is that "other" Anthropology people think of when you mention that you're an Anthropologist. Everyone assumes you're an Archaeologist at first, then after a few seconds of thought they will most likely say, "Hey, you study evolution, right?" No, Billy, I don't. Some Physical Anthropologists do, however. They also study genetics, pathogens and the ilk, which probably annoys many a biologist. I'm hoping to pursue Darwinian Anthropology (or, Evolutionary Psychology if you prefer), which examines how human behavior evolved. Fun stuff!
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An actual image from my primatology
text explaining how ancestral lemurs migrated from Africa to Madagascar
(Little known fact: lemurs can, and still do, build canoes)
Of course like everything else in this world it only gets more and more complicated. There are subfields within the subfields within the subfields within the milk-chocolate exterior. Since I've probably failed in enlightening you go here if you want to know more about Anthropology and go here if you want to see a broken-english Indiana Jones website which is also available in German. If nothing else, this proves exactly why linguistics is important.