A range of theories that anthropologists use to understand human behavior, culture, and society.
Culture: The customs, traditions, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people.
Ethnography: The study of a culture through fieldwork or firsthand observation.
Ethnocentrism: The belief that one's own culture is superior to others and the tendency to judge other cultures based on one's own cultural standards.
Relativism: The idea that cultural practices and beliefs should be evaluated and understood within their own cultural context rather than judged by the standards of another culture.
Functionalism: A theoretical approach that views cultural practices and beliefs as serving a purpose or function in maintaining social order and stability.
Structuralism: A theoretical approach that emphasizes the underlying structures, patterns, and systems that shape culture and society.
Post-structuralism: A theoretical approach that challenges the idea of stable underlying structures and instead emphasizes the fluidity and contingency of cultural meaning and identity.
Symbolism: The use of symbols and symbolic systems to communicate meaning and represent cultural values, beliefs, and practices.
Agency: The capacity of individuals and groups to actively shape and influence their social and cultural context.
Power: The ability to influence and control the behavior of others, often through unequal distribution of resources and social status.
Material culture: The physical objects and artifacts created by a culture and used to communicate cultural values, beliefs, and practices.
Kinship: The system of social relationships that governs family and kinship ties, often including rules of descent, inheritance, and marriage.
Gender: The cultural and social construction of masculinity and femininity and the ways in which gender shapes individual identities and social relations.
Race and ethnicity: The social and cultural categories used to classify people based on characteristics such as skin color, ancestry, and cultural heritage.
Colonialism: The historical and ongoing process by which powerful nations dominate and control less powerful ones for economic, political, and cultural gain.
Globalization: The increasing interconnectedness of people, cultures, and economies across national borders.