Known as the ‘holistic science of mankind’, anthropology attempts to understand humanity in the broadest of comparative perspectives. Among all the liberal arts disciplines, anthropology is unique in its goal of bridging the humanities, natural and social sciences, and in its long view of human time. Topics of study range from primate morphology and evolution, to brain development and cognition, early, past and present social and political formations, cultural practices and culture change, hermeneutics and textuality, representation and interpretation. Cultural anthropology studies living and historical societies. Archaeology attempts to understand prehistory through the study of artifacts. Linguistic anthropology studies cross-cultural variation in language structure and use. Physical anthropology focuses on the biology and evolution of the species Homo sapiens.