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Why did anthropology first develop mainly in western Europe and North America?

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Svante Paabo stands smiling with one hand on a Neanderthal skeleton model in front of a blue Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology banner. — Anthropology Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology director Svante Pӓӓbo posing with a model of a Neanderthal skeleton.

Anthropology as an academic discipline was primarily instituted in western Europe and North America due to specific historical and economic factors. Its development in the 19th century was driven by intellectual innovations in the Western world, including the questioning of religious dogmas and a growing interest in human origins, anatomy, and the classification of languages and societies.12

The discipline emerged alongside the rise of colonialism, as European powers sought to understand the diverse peoples within their overseas empires. Early anthropological research often focused on documenting life in nonindustrial settings outside of the West, with many scholars viewing industrial societies as the pinnacle of human achievement. Furthermore, the institutionalization of anthropology was supported by Western-style universities and research centers, which provided the necessary infrastructure for the field to grow.3415

While anthropology was initially a Western-dominated scholarly enterprise, it began to expand globally, particularly after World War II, as the discipline was established in various countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.1