Introductory Cultural Anthropology

Culture is an intricate amalgamation of human beliefs, customs, habits, knowledge, morals, and artistic expression. Culture is acquired by humans through the processes of socialization and enculturation, leading to observed variations influenced by regional and circumstantial changes. Cultural anthropology, a sub-discipline of anthropology, focuses on the study of cultural variation among human societies. Theoretical foundations of cultural anthropology include the critique of evolutionism and cultural relativism. In addition to these, it covers various other theoretical approaches such as feminism, cultural materialism, functionalism, and structuralism. Cultural anthropology employs several methods including ethnography, participant observation, multi-sited ethnography, and cross-cultural comparison. This book is compiled in such a manner, that it will provide in-depth knowledge about the various concepts of cultural anthropology. It will also provide interesting topics for research which interested readers can take up. It will serve as a valuable source of reference for graduate and postgraduate students.