Anthropic units

The term anthropic unit (from Greek άνθρωπος meaning human) is used with different meanings in archaeology, in measurement and in social studies.

This article may lack focus or may be about more than one topic. (February 2023)

In archaeology, anthropic units are strata, or deposits of material containing a high proportion of man-made detritus. For example:^[1]

"… 'degraded anthropic units', i.e., deposits produced by weathering and decay of fired bricks and mixed fill with non-selected inclusions …"

— Massimo Vidale (1990)

Following the coinage of the term "anthropic principle" by Brandon Carter in 1973–4,^[2] units of measurement that are on a human scale are occasionally referred to as "anthropic units", as for example here:^[3]

"… the metre and kilogram occupy a reasonably central position as far as symmetry in positive and negative powers of ten is concerned, emphasising that the SI units are natural anthropic units …"

— Brian William Petley (1985)

In fields of study such as sociology and ethnography, anthropic units are identifiable groupings of people. For example:^[4]

"Ethnographers have been accustomed to deal with the 'race', the 'tribe' and the 'nation' as social or anthropic units …"

— J. J. Thomson (1896)

and:^[5]

"... among the more primitive anthropic units it seems a grave ineptitude for the Chukchees not to adopt the snowhouse building complex from the neighboring Eskimos"

— Jacob Robert Kantor (1944)

• Anthropic principle
• Anthropocentrism
• List of human-based units of measurement