Cultural anthropologists study the culture of a society and analyze how it has changed and evolved over the years. They also try to analyze the impact of global, political and financial factors on the culture of a region. The fact is that the living circumstances, faith, beliefs, foods etc of a region determine the culture of that region. Cultural anthropologists analyze the impact of all these factors on the culture of a society. Anthropologists feel that culture is actually a part of human nature and humans learn and adopt cultural and social norms depending on their circumstances. This is called the process of enculturation and socialization. Another aspect of this science is that culture is not genetically inherited. It changes as one’s environment and circumstances change. This explains why different societies have different cultures. Cultural anthropologists carry out heir studies through field work. This means that they go into the society they are studying and observe the culture there. They also carry out interviews and surveys to understand the opinions of the people in that society.

A cultural anthropologist may have to stay for an extended period of time in the society which he is studying. The time period may last from a few weeks to a few years or even a lifetime. Cultural anthropology is derived from an older science called ethnology. Ethnology refers to the study of a culture and the comparison of different societies. This science compares different human societies and tries to understand how they evolved and how their customs and traditions underwent change with time. Such cultural anthropologists often write ethnographies which are discourses about the ways of living of a certain people at a certain time.  The information presented in ethnogrhies is obtained through participant observation. The anthropologist lives among the people and participates in their customs and traditions for a period of time. Ethnographies also include information about climate, geography etc of the region since these factors shape the culture and lifestyle of an area. A new trend in ethnography is the development of multi-sited ethnography. This refers to the study of societies with reference to the world at large. This may involve tracking a subject or a thing across the world and studying the impact of social, climate, economic and other changes. Popular cultural anthropologists include Lewis Henry Morgan, , Julian Steward,Claude Lévi-Strauss , Bronisław Malinowski and so on.

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