social anthropologyn.
/ˌsəʊʃl ˌanθrəˈpɒlədʒi/, U.S. /ˌsoʊʃ(ə)l ˌænθrəˈpɑlədʒi/ Social Sciences.
The study of human society and culture, and its development. Cf. cultural anthropology n.Social anthropology is the more common term in Britain, with cultural anthropology usually preferred in the United States. The terms tend to reflect a difference in emphasis between the two disciplines, with social anthropology emphasizing the organizational bases of societies and cultures, such as political systems, tribal kinship, and economic organization. In practice, the disciplines coincide in many respects, and the terms are often used interchangeably.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > science of mankind > [noun] > anthropology > cultural or social
ethography1788
symbolics1850
agriology1878
social anthropology1881
culturology1920
cultural anthropology1938
psychographics1968
garbology1972
1881 O. T. Mason in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1880 400 Social Anthropology inquires into the regulative forces of society.
1896 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 4 410 (title) Recent progress of social-anthropology.
1908 J. G. Frazer Psyche's Task (1913) 159 (heading) The scope of social anthropology, an Inaugural Lecture.
1958 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Method in Social Anthropol. i. iv. 102 Political systems, economic systems, and systems of law are studied in social anthropology and also in economics, political science and jurisprudence.
1975 M. Bradbury Hist. Man ix. 147 I worked in social anthropology with him..he's certainly not a racist.
2004 New Scientist 18 Dec. 26/1 The ‘kula’ exchange of the Trobriand Islands was first documented in 1922 by Bronislaw Malinowski, a pioneer of social anthropology.
Derivatives
ˌsocial ˌanthropoˈlogical adj. of or relating to social anthropology.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > science of mankind > [adjective] > anthropology > cultural or social
agriological1878
social anthropological1902
culturological1946
psychographic1969
1902 H. Ellis in Jrnl. Mental Sci. 48 345 Professor Pfitzner has continued his interesting ‘social anthropological studies’ at the Strasburg Anatomical Institute.
1999 R. Dilley Probl. of Context Pref. p. ix The previous meetings in this series..have each generated important contributions to social anthropological theory and practice with respect to such topics as comparison, power and knowledge, violence, traditions of ethnographic writing, and the free market.
ˌsocial ˌanthroˈpologist n. an expert in or student of social anthropology.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > science of mankind > [noun] > anthropology > cultural or social > person
ethologist1828
agriologist1875
social anthropologist1894
cultural anthropologist1911
culturalist1929
culturologist1943
1894 E. J. Simcox Primitive Civilizations III. App. G. 459 The written answers..are printed at length in the report published by the [Malabar Marriage] Commission, which may be recommended as a mine of information for the social anthropologist.
1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Social Anthropol. i. 11 The social anthropologist studies societies as wholes. He studies their oecologies, their economics.., their technologies, their arts, etc.
2002 Wired July 85/2 Social anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss dubbed societies open to trade ‘hot cultures’—they warm quickly to the new, and assimilate change.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1881