What's the difference between sociology and anthropology?

Well, well, well... we have a very difficult question here! What these two social sciences are is not even clear to their "scientists". I'm much more an anthropologist than a sociologist, since I'm an anthro major, but I got a BA in social sciences. For this reason I cannot give you a detailed answer about sociology, but I will try to specify what anthropology is. Anthropology is considered a "boundary discipline", a "discipline of the difference". It is a western academic science that was born when the West met the Other and turned it into its own study object (difference). That's why it's said to be a "boundary" science. We cannot say that wherever there's difference there is anthropology, but we can assume that there's not anthropology where there's not difference. Many paradigm have followed one another with the time: from early evolutionism, French Socio-ethnological School, language oriented studies, British social functionalism, structuralism, interpretative studies... up to recent theories. The word "anthropology", according to ancient greek (anthropo= human/man; logos= speech) means "study of the human". Early anthropologists were indeed interested in collecting data about exotic and "races" (as they said at that time) in order to place them into an evolution scale and prove white man's superiority. Anthropology was at that time a means of positive science. Later in time, when the concept of race was no longer in use, due to its inner inconsistence, the difference concept started being shaped by "cultures". Anthropologists traveled and kept getting in touch with different cultures, in order to experience the so called "displacement", the only way to make the normal look odd and the odd look normal. They gradually abandoned the evolution scale and the socio-cultural development concept. Each culture was finally considered just as valuable as anyone else. Recently, the travel remains one of the characterizing features of anthropology, but this discipline has moved its focus from collecting data on foreign cultures to producing a sharp satire of the society it belongs to (Europe, North-America). Anthropology could be characterized by it's peculiar methodology, which consists of many intriguing things, such as field research, participative observation, ethnography, displacement, relativism (which does not mean to justify things, but to understand them)... Other social scientists have tried to approach this methodology, running straight to an epic fail though! Some would say that, in the end, anthropology is not a real discipline, but it's its methodology! I know it sounds kinda complicated, but we're no simple biologists, we like to make the mind spin :) . It could be then compared to some glasses with special lenses: antrho is the glasses, it allows you to watch whatever you want, but through a different perspective. Eventually, as K. Kluckhohn brilliantly stated, the longest way is often the shortest way home... and that's what anthropology is to me: only by being displaced and having learned to watch "other", foreign, far things, from an external point of view, you finally realize you have been exploring and deconstructing yourself the whole time...

Sociology = study of human societies (social structure, industrialized nations) Anthropology = study of humans and our primate ancestors (Biology, Cultural, Linguistics, Archaeology) Society is a structure in which organisms need to function. Bees and ants also have their own societies. Culture is unique to humans.

Quick, dirty answer: Sociologists assume--barring major portions of the brain being missing--that all human behavioral differences are LEARNED and therefore it's theoretically possible to change all behavior over time. Anthropologists understand that human behavior (as well as form) is derived both from learning, biological differences, historical differences, and even linguistic differences. Therefore, if ask a sociologist why some group of people they aren't an expert on behaves the way they do, they will immediately start trying to tell you about that groups learned history and social system. If you ask an anthropologist, if they aren't an expert on them, they'll usually want to go look up the specific group and give you reasons based on observations of and the history of that group of people...

sociology is the psychology of multiple people anthropology has a more historic-biologic focus