area studies vs humanities

area studies and humanities both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
area studies	Yes	No	No	No
humanities	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, humanities is a hypernym of area studies; that is, humanities is a word with a broader meaning than area studies:

area studies: an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural region.
humanities: studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)

Other hypernyms of area studies include arts, humanistic discipline, liberal arts.

area studies (noun)	humanities (noun)
an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural region.	studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)