physical anthropology

American  

noun

1. the branch of anthropology dealing with the evolutionary changes in human anatomy and physiology, using mensurational and descriptive techniques.

---

physical anthropology British  

noun

1. the branch of anthropology dealing with the genetic aspect of human development and its physical variations

---

physical anthropology Scientific  

/ fĭz′ĭ-kəl /

1. The branch of anthropology that deals with human evolutionary biology, physical variation, and classification.

2. Compare cultural anthropology

---

Other Word Forms

• physical anthropologist noun

Etymology

Origin of physical anthropology

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

This collaborative effort brought together paleogenomics, clinical genetics, and physical anthropology, with researchers from the University of Vienna working alongside colleagues in Italy, Portugal, and Belgium.

From Science Daily • Feb. 17, 2026

He attends to the racism of early leaders, but more enduring problems came with the growing importance of physical anthropology toward the end of the 19th century.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025

By then, Monge had two roles, one as associate curator in charge, overseeing the museum’s physical anthropology section, and another as an adjunct associate professor in the school’s anthropology department.

From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2022

Despite those critiques, Morton’s approach helped lay the foundation for the burgeoning field of physical anthropology.

From Science Magazine • Jul. 8, 2021

Since all other Niger-Congo speakers, as well as the Bantu, are blacks, we couldn’t have inferred who migrated in which direction just from the evidence of physical anthropology.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond