Key Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

Culture

Beliefs, practices, and symbols shared by a group.

Enculturation

Learning characteristics and expectations of a culture.

Practice

Behaviors motivated by beliefs or routines.

Belief

Convictions held by individuals or groups.

Symbol

An object or concept representing something else.

Cultural anthropology

Study of similarities among diverse societies.

Cultural relativism

Understanding beliefs from another culture's perspective.

Deductive reasoning

General to specific reasoning; hypothesis-driven research.

Inductive reasoning

Specific information to general conclusions; exploratory research.

Ethnocentrism

Viewing one's culture as superior to others.

Ethnography

In-depth study of everyday practices of a culture.

Hominin

Humans and their close relatives and ancestors.

Paleoanthropologist

Biological anthropologists studying ancient human relatives.

Participant-observation

Observing while engaging in the same activities.

Deductive research

Common in natural sciences; hypothesis testing.

Inductive research

Field-based evidence collection; not generalizable.

Worldview

The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.

Lifeways

The ways in which people live their lives.

Integrated whole

A cohesive system of beliefs and practices.

Research hypothesis

A statement predicting the outcome of a study.