What is it?

Cultural anthropology is the field of anthropology which is concerned with the study of contemporary human culture - the learned, shared ways of life of people in different societies. In spite of popular stereotypes, cultural anthropology does not exclusively study exotic tribes in remote areas of the world. As the American Anthropological Association notes, anthropology provides global information and thinking skills critical to succeeding in the 21st century. Contemporary cultural anthropologists are interested in people everywhere! We can and do study people in all human cultures - western and non-western, industrialized and non-industrialized. This research even extends into critical aspects of our own society. Just a few recent examples include: Conrad Kottak's Prime Time Society: An Anthropological Analysis of Television and Culture (1990, Wadsworth Publishing Company); Philip DeVita and James Armstrong's Distant Mirrors: America as a Foreign Culture (1998, West/Wadsworth); Marjorie Esman's Henderson, Louisiana: Cultural Adaptation in a Cajun Community (1985, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich); Rhoda Halperin's The Livelihood of Kin: Making Ends Meet the Kentucky Way (1990, University of Texas Press) and Philippe Bourgois' In Search of Respect : Selling Crack in El Barrio (1996, Cambridge University Press). To explore some cultural anthropology websites, click here.