What Is Cultural Anthropology?
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Written by Devin Proctor, a digital anthropologist at Elon University, this article from SAPIENS offers a comprehensive introduction to cultural anthropology—the branch of anthropology concerned with what humans do, believe, experience, and create. Unlike fields that seek universal laws, cultural anthropology focuses on specific social contexts, using long-term fieldwork and ethnographic research to understand how people make meaning in their lives across diverse settings.
The article traces the discipline’s evolution from 19th-century village studies to contemporary investigations of social media, AI, climate change, and systemic injustice. It explains the practice of participant observation, the principle of cultural relativism, and the growing collaborative nature of anthropological work. It also highlights the real-world value of an anthropology degree, with employment in applied fields ranging from public health to corporate user-experience research projected to grow 6% by 2031.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Culture as the Core Subject
Cultural anthropology uniquely focuses on human beliefs, practices, experiences, and creations—asking what it truly means to live as a human being in the world.
Ethnography as Method
Ethnographic fieldwork—often lasting years—is the discipline’s primary data-collection tool, producing rich, context-specific accounts of human communities and social life.
Participant Observation in Practice
Anthropologists don’t just watch—they live, work, eat, and celebrate alongside their interlocutors, gaining insider perspectives unavailable through detached observation alone.
An Expanding Field of Study
From colonial-era village studies to today’s research on AI, social media, policing, and climate change, cultural anthropology continuously broadens who and what it studies.
Cultural Relativism Over Ethnocentrism
A foundational principle of the discipline is understanding cultures on their own terms rather than judging them through the lens of one’s own cultural assumptions and biases.
Applied Anthropology Has Real Careers
Anthropology graduates work in public health, journalism, corporations, and NGOs—with employment projected to grow 6% between 2021 and 2031 due to demand for human insight.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Understanding Culture Through Deep Human Engagement
Cultural anthropology seeks to answer what it means to be human by studying the full complexity of human belief, practice, and social life. Unlike sciences that pursue universal laws, it prizes rich, context-specific knowledge gained through sustained relationships—making it uniquely positioned to reveal how diversity and commonality coexist across human societies.
Purpose
To Educate and Advocate for the Discipline
Proctor’s purpose is primarily to inform a general audience about what cultural anthropology is, how it works, and why it matters. The article also implicitly advocates for the field’s value—academically, socially, and professionally—by demonstrating its breadth and real-world applicability in addressing contemporary global challenges.
Structure
Definitional → Methodological → Applied
The article follows a clear FAQ-style structure: it opens by defining cultural anthropology and its scope, moves into core methods like ethnography and participant observation, then turns to foundational principles like cultural relativism. It concludes by addressing contemporary relevance and career applications—moving from abstract definition toward concrete, practical significance.
Tone
Accessible, Enthusiastic & Inviting
Proctor writes with warmth and genuine enthusiasm, using inclusive language and even a touch of wit (“If that last prospect terrifies you, maybe cultural anthropology is not for you”). The tone is approachable without being simplistic, designed to draw in curious readers while remaining intellectually substantive throughout the piece.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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Dependent on uncertain circumstances; dangerously unstable or insecure.
“Humans live an ever-changing and precarious existence.”
Firmly established and deeply embedded within a place or situation over a long period.
“Over this long, entrenched period, cultural anthropologists may write field notes…”
Severe economic conditions marked by government-imposed reductions in public spending and social benefits.
“…the social effects of economic surplus and austerity, among other topics.”
To systematically take apart or undermine an established institution, structure, or system.
“Cultural anthropologists often focus on how people can work to dismantle unjust systems.”
The process by which a person adopts increasingly extreme political, social, or religious views, often leading to support for radical action.
“…projects that address the process of radicalization into online white power extremism.”
Supreme authority and self-governance over a territory or domain, free from external control.
“Cultural anthropology shows us…explores sovereignty on Mars…”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1Cultural anthropologists typically begin their fieldwork with a clear hypothesis that they then set out to prove or disprove through their research.
2According to the article, what distinguishes cultural anthropology from other scientific disciplines that use large datasets?
3Which sentence best explains why long-term fieldwork is preferred in cultural anthropology?
4Evaluate the following statements about participant observation as described in the article.
Participant observation requires anthropologists to learn the language of the community they are studying before entering the field.
Participant observation means the anthropologist observes from a distance and takes detailed notes without interfering in the community’s daily activities.
An anthropologist who is already a member of the society they are studying can still practice participant observation.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5Based on the article’s discussion of how anthropological products are evolving, what can we infer about the discipline’s changing relationship with the communities it studies?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Fieldwork refers to the process of collecting data by living within a community in the real world. Ethnography, as the article explains, is both a practice and a product—it describes the act of doing in-depth research (ethnographic research) and the detailed written account that results from it. In short, you do fieldwork in order to write an ethnography.
Cultural relativism is the foundational anthropological principle of understanding a culture’s practices on its own terms rather than judging them by another culture’s standards—the opposite of ethnocentrism. It matters because it allows anthropologists to study human diversity accurately, without imposing bias. Without this principle, research risks misrepresenting communities or reinforcing existing prejudices about who or what is “normal.”
Historically, cultural anthropology focused on European or North American researchers studying villages in Latin America, Africa, Asia, or Oceania. Today, the field has dramatically expanded both in who practices it and what counts as the “field”—now including global commodity chains, social media platforms, AI-driven technologies, climate politics, refugee movements, and systemic injustice across contemporary societies worldwide.
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This article is rated Intermediate. It introduces technical disciplinary vocabulary—such as ethnography, participant observation, cultural relativism, and interlocutor—and requires readers to grasp abstract concepts like the holistic approach and the distinction between ethnocentrism and relativism. While written accessibly, the density of concepts and the need for inference make it most suitable for readers with some prior exposure to social science.
Devin Proctor is a cultural anthropologist who earned his Ph.D. from George Washington University and serves as an assistant professor at Elon University. He specializes in digital anthropology—studying identity and group formation in online spaces. His active research on online radicalization and COVID-19 misinformation gives him both academic authority and practical contemporary relevance on the topics the article addresses.
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