The paper gives an outline of the concept of historical anthropology. In a historic survey it shows the specific interests of anthropology, a philosophical discipline created in the 16th century as a self-reflection of man and his position in the world. Historical anthropology is a rather new development of this discipline influenced by scholars like M. Mauss, N. Elias, M. Foucault, and P. Bourdieu. At the center of its studies is situated man considered (1) with his material make-up of his bodily existence, (2) in his social life world which produces him and which he in turn reproduces in his activity of world-making, (3) as an object seen by his fellow men and an object of theoretical observations. As theories about man share with their object the historical nature, they too have to be perceived in a historical perspective.