Qualities and Types of Social Anthropology ntroduction Social anthropology is the field of anthropology that studies how living human beings behave in social groups. This essay seeks to exp 1300w
Qualities and Types of Social Anthropology ntroduction Social anthropology is the field of anthropology that studies how living human beings behave in social groups. This essay seeks to exp 1300w
Qualities and Types of Social Anthropology 1300w
Introduction
Social anthropology is the field of anthropology that studies how living human beings behave in social groups. This essay seeks to explore the history, meaning and essential qualities of social anthropology which distinguish it from other branches of anthropology.
In the UK, anthropology is usually primarily concerned with the study of culture. This area is termed ‘social anthropology’ and it is this designation which is used in England, and to some extent in America, to assign an area of a larger subject of anthropology, the study of humanity from a number of viewpoints. In England social anthropology was only introduced and studied relatively recently during the later decades of the nineteenth century. It became widely recognised as a discipline later on and it has been taught under that name since. However, its academic base goes back further.
E. E. Evans-Pritchard, (2004)
The beginnings of social anthropology lay in the nineteenth century. Examining its roots, we can see an early definition of culture from one of the pioneers of of social anthropology. Sir Edward Burnett Taylor (2 October 1832 – 2 January 1917), an English anthropologist, defined the term culture as, “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Evans Pritchard, (2004) Subsequent study has led anthropologists to determine that culture is not innate, rather it is learned by a person from family and society. Therefore, it does not have any genetic connection, because even if a person is brought up in a culture different from that in which he was born, he absorbs the culture of the society later on. It has also been observed that people also feel the need to follow their beliefs and traditions of their own culture in adulthood, even though they might not agree with certain beliefs in it. Edmund Ronald Leach, (1982)
The refinement of theories of culture which are used today owes much to the work of the founders of the subject. However, social anthropology was also a product of its time; it was formulated at the time European societies had empires. Despite the fact there has been much controversial argument a