1.2.1.Anthropology

1.2.1.Anthropology

Social Anthropology is the study of how contemporary human beings behave in social groups . Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies (including participant observation methods), the social organization of a particular person: customs , economic and political organization, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange , kinship and family structure, gender relations , child rearing and socialization , religion , and so on.

Social anthropology also explores the role of meanings, ambiguities and contradictions of social life , patterns of sociality, violence and conflict; and the underlying logics of social behavior . Social anthropologists are trained in the interpretation of narrative , ritual and symbolic behavior, not merely as text , but with communication examined in relation to action, practice, and the historical context in which it is embedded.

Last modified: Wednesday, 1 February 2012, 9:33 AM