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Cultural Anthropology
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| Cultural Anthropology is the study of all aspects
of human behavior. Cultural anthropology has its beginnings during
the Age of Exploration, when Europeans started to encounter people who
were different from themselves. They became increasingly aware of what
they termed "primitive societies" of Asia and Africa. As more
Europeans came to the New World, interest in the societies and
traditions of Native Americans grew. Interested individuals began
studying these traditional societies and writing descriptive accounts,
what we call ethnographies. Often these are the only
accounts we have of cultures that have since become extinct. Cultural Anthropology has changed a great deal in the last century. Field research is still a major part of the discipline, but the locations have become more diverse. |
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The scope of Cultural Anthropology has
broadened to include subgroups within Western Culture. Some of the
traditional areas of study have been subsistence, kinship, religion, law,
marriage, and language. Some subjects areas that have grown in popularity
recently are medical anthropology, economic anthropology, and development
and culture change. It is difficult to turn the microscope on ourselves; thus, the work of anthropology will not be complete until people from other areas of the world come to the United States to study our many cultures. |
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