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cultural anthropology

cultural anthropology

2 5.8
The study of how people in different groups live and share beliefs and customs
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌltʃərəl ˌænθrəˈpɑlədʒi/
translation icon : antropología cultural
  • All the subdisciplines of anthropology are reflected in the essays, including physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, and applied anthropology.
  • sociology and cultural anthropology
  • cultural anthropology and linguistics
  • contemporary cultural anthropology

We both studied a part of what we both studied was cultural anthropology was part of.

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Examples

  • She's a lovely girl who's studying cultural anthropology at the University of Hawaii.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Surely her fieldwork in cultural anthropology had led her into stranger and more threatening places than this.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • In fact, one of the classic hallmarks of cultural anthropology is to study "the Other."

    Academic text (2000)
  • Currently, she is working on a memoir about doing cultural anthropology research in seven different countries.

    Blog text (20)
  • When we turn to cultural anthropology, this tension has a specific, local, specialized form that must be attended to.

    Academic text (1993)
  • But when I started in cultural anthropology, one of the first courses I had involved the Gullahs of the Southeastern Lowcountry.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Although anthropologists have been interested in questions of nature and culture from the discipline's earliest days, contemporary cultural anthropology is witnessing an explosion of interest in the environment and environmental movements.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The content of precollegiate anthropology includes all of the traditional subfields (cultural anthropology, linguistics, physical and applied anthropology, and archaeology).

    Academic text (1998)
  • With the development of cultural anthropology, the concept of culture became more democratic.

  • Currently, she is working on a memoir about doing cultural anthropology research in seven different countries.

Synonyms

anthropology
vscultural anthropology
50 6.5

The study of people, their past, and how they live

focuses specifically on societies, cultures, and their development rather than all human study
ethnology
vscultural anthropology
  • Specialized
1 9.1

The study of different groups of people and their ways of life

emphasizes study of cultures and their development within societies rather than cross culture comparison
social anthropology
vscultural anthropology
1 5.9

The study of how people live together, their groups, rules, and customs

focuses more on cultures and their development across time rather than mainly institutions
descriptive anthropology
vscultural anthropology
  • Specialized
7.0

A study that records in detail how specific groups of people live

examines cultures and their development beyond mere description

How Specialized

ethnography
  • Specialized
3 8.5
cultural anthropology
2 5.8
anthropology
50 6.5
social science
  • Specialized
23 3.4

Surface Forms

Morphology

cultural + anthropology

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'cultural' (relating to a society's arts, customs, and norms) modifying 'anthropology' (the study of humans), so it denotes the branch of anthropology focused on culture. This adjective+noun pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.

Etymology

The term cultural anthropology comes from the idea of a person living with a community to notice its food, songs, and rules. Cultural points to those learned ways of life and anthropology means the study of humans, so the phrase means 'the study of people's societies and cultures'.