On the evening of September 27, 2022, the eighth lecture of the Guanya Cross Disciplines Statement was held online and offline simultaneously. Hosted by Professor Liu Feng, Director of the Center for Accounting Studies of Xiamen University, this session invited Professor Augustin F. C. Holl from the School of Sociology and Anthropology of Xiamen University to present a lecture titled "Thinking and Doing Anthropology".

Professor Liu Feng briefly reviewed the development history of anthropology and accounting, and found that anthropology has only a short history as a formal discipline and relatively few scholars have studied anthropology, but it is undeniable that anthropology has occupied an important position in many disciplines. Accounting, on the other hand, has a long history and many scholars, but is often treated as a technical discipline rather than a true science. For this reason, this issue invites Professor Augustin F. C. Holl to introduce the development of anthropology, in the hope that in the future accounting will be linked to human civilization and contribute more to the development of society.

Professor Augustin F. C. Holl began by describing the background of the rise of anthropological thought. With the decline of religious explanations and the rise of secular views of life and history, anthropological thought took off, driven by scholars such as Carl Linnaeus, Charles Lyell, and Charles Darwin. At the end of the 18th century, several great thinkers began a speculative reconstruction of long-term social evolution, such as Karl Marx with his historical materialism, Lewis Morgan with a different theory of evolution, and Siegmund Freud with psychoanalysis. The pioneers of anthropological thought attempted to interpret the development of human civilization from different perspectives. James G. Frazer sought and sketched a common trajectory of the evolution of the human mind through a comparative study of the various religious beliefs and their teachings that have existed and have not yet declined in the world. Bronislaw K. Malinowski, one of the founders of the functional school, proposes that the culture of society is a set of tools designed to satisfy human physical and psychological needs. Leo Frobenius introduced the concept of the "cultural sphere" to explain culture in terms of communication theory.

Professor Augustin F. C. Holl then introduced the main frameworks of anthropological research, which can be subdivided into four areas: cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. Cultural anthropology focuses on the study of human societies and cultural traditions to understand regional and national differences. Linguistic anthropology focuses on the role of language in social identity, group member relations, and the establishment of cultural beliefs and ideologies. Linguistic anthropology does not focus solely on language, but also observes the dependencies of cultural and social structures. Biological anthropology looks at human activity by studying genes (genomes), and their interactions with each other and with the environment. Archaeology, on the other hand, studies human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. Among the archaeological records are artifacts, buildings, biological remains, etc.

To provide a more visual understanding, Professor Augustin F. C. Holl further shared with the audience an illustration of the archaeological approach - funerary rituals, megalithic production and ancestral lineages in ancient Senegambia. By introducing the basic features of megalithic culture, Prof. Augustin F. C. Holl showed the funerary practices in human culture.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Augustin F. C. Holl had an exchange and discussion with the online and offline teachers and students. The lecture was successfully concluded!