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The approach is conventionally understood as having been developed by Franz Boas, who developed the discipline of anthropology in the United States. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] A 2013 re-assessment of the evidence has indicated that the idea of four-field anthropology has a more complex 19th-century history in Europe and North America. [ 3 ]
Inquiry in sociocultural anthropology is guided in part by cultural relativism, the attempt to understand other societies in terms of their own cultural symbols and values. [18] Accepting other cultures in their own terms moderates reductionism in cross-cultural comparison. [30] This project is often accommodated in the field of ethnography.
Manifest functions are the consequences that people see, observe or even expect. It is explicitly stated and understood by the participants in the relevant action. The manifest function of a rain dance, according to Merton in his 1957 Social Theory and Social Structure, is to produce rain, and this outcome is intended and desired by people participating in the ritual.
An 'etic' account is a description of a behavior or belief by a social analyst or scientific observer (a student or scholar of anthropology or sociology, for example), in terms that can be applied across cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be 'culturally neutral', limiting any ethnocentric, political or cultural bias or alienation by ...
A ranked society in anthropology is one that ranks individuals in terms of their genealogical distance from the chief. Another term for a "ranked society" is a chiefdom. Closer relatives of the chief have higher rank or social status than more distant ones. Societies which follow this kind of structure associate rank with power, where other ...
The term ethnogenesis was originally a mid-19th-century neologism [3] that was later introduced into 20th-century academic anthropology. In that context, it refers to the observable phenomenon of the emergence of new social groups that are identified as having a cohesive identity, i.e. an "ethnic group" in anthropological terms.
A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, [1] ethnology [2] and sociology [citation needed] for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users.
Marvin Harris, a historian of anthropology, begins The Rise of Anthropological Theory with the statement that anthropology is "the science of history". [10] He is not suggesting that history be renamed to anthropology, or that there is no distinction between history and prehistory, or that anthropology excludes current social practices, as the general meaning of history, which it has in ...