Anthropology
Open Access

Study of Cultural Variations among People in Anthropology

George Steven^{* *}Correspondence: George Steven, Department of Surgery, Kampala International University, Western Campus, Ishaka, Bushenyi, Uganda, Email:

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Description

A subfield of anthropology called "cultural anthropology" focuses on researching the differences in human cultures. Comparatively, social anthropology sees cultural diversity as a subset of a presupposed anthropological constant. Sociocultural anthropology, a portmanteau phrase, encompasses both social and cultural anthropology traditions.

People can adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways through culture, according to anthropologists, hence people who live in various surroundings frequently have diverse cultures.

An recognition of and interest in the conflict between the particular (local cultures) and the universal (human nature, or the web of links connecting individuals in various settings) led to the development of anthropological thought and also known as fieldwork since it necessitates the anthropologist spending a lot of time at the research site, interviews, and surveys, are just a few of the robust methodologies used in cultural anthropology. When issues about which cultures were "primitive" and which were "civilised" preoccupied the minds of many people, including Freud, the field of cultural anthropology began to emerge.

The first generation of cultural anthropologists were interested in the relative standing of different humans, some of modern advanced technologies such as engines and telegraphs, while others lacked anything but face-to-face communication techniques and still lived a Palaeolithic lifestyle. Colonialism and its processes increasingly brought European thinkers into direct or indirect contact with "primitive others."

The concept of culture

It provides one of the earliest definitions of the term "culture" in terms of anthropology: "Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. This means that culture can either be something that is relevant to all people or something that is particular to a particular group of people, such as African American or Irish American culture. Specific cultures are structured systems, meaning they are highly specifically ordered and adding or removing any element from that system could cause it to break down. As a result, the majority of these anthropologists were more interested in comprehending specific civilizations on their own terms than they were in comparing cultures, making generalisations about human nature, or finding universal rules of cultural development.

The theory of "cultural relativism," which holds that one can only comprehend another person's views and behaviours in the context of the culture in which they live or once lived, was championed by these ethnographers and their pupils.

Conclusion

In the 19^th century, anthropologists were confronted with the challenge of how to break free from the unconscious ties of one's own culture and understand a foreign society. Andre Villas Boas argued that Western ethnocentrism may mediate and so limit one's perceptions in less evident ways than previously thought. Cultural variation refers to the rich diversity in social practices that different cultures exhibit around the world. Cuisine and art all change from one culture to the next, but so do gender roles, economic systems, and social hierarchy among many other humanly organised behaviours. The Cultural variance describes the wide range of social norms that many civilizations around the world display. In addition to gender roles, economic structures, and social hierarchies, there are many more humanly arranged behaviours that vary from one culture to the next, including cuisine and art.