Cultural Anthropology

Cultural (social) anthropology studies the diversity of human cultures — beliefs, practices, and social organization — through ethnographic fieldwork and comparison.

Scope

It covers culture and meaning, kinship and social organization, ritual and belief, and cultural variation and change, grounded in participant observation.

Core questions

• What is culture and how does it vary?
• How are societies organized?
• How do people make meaning?
• How should one culture understand another?

Key concepts

• Culture
• Cultural relativism
• Thick description
• Kinship
• Ritual
• Fieldwork

Key theories

Historical particularism

Boas insisted cultures be understood in their own terms, rejecting racial determinism.

Culture and personality

Mead's comparative work linked culture to personality and challenged biological determinism.

Interpretive anthropology

Geertz framed culture as webs of meaning read through 'thick description'.

History

Cultural anthropology moved from evolutionism to Boasian particularism, through functionalism and structuralism, to interpretive and reflexive approaches, remaining centred on ethnographic fieldwork.

Debates

Universalism versus relativism

How far cultures share universals versus require understanding on their own terms.

Key figures

• Franz Boas
• Margaret Mead
• Clifford Geertz

Seminal works

• boas-1911
• mead-1928
• geertz-1973

Frequently asked questions

What is thick description?

Geertz's method of interpreting behaviour together with its layers of cultural meaning, not just describing the act.