Franz Boas: Biography and Contributions ( Cultural Relativism)

German-American Anthropologist Franz Boas is best known for his contributions on ‘cultural relativism’ and the re-organisation of American Anthropology.  He specifically explored the cultural and linguistic features of the native North American societies. Franz Boas: Life History (1858- 1942) Born on July 9, 1858, in Westphalia, Franz Boas grew up as a liberal and intellectually … Read more

10 Best Anthropology Books for Beginners

Read this article to know about 10 best Anthropology books for beginners! American Anthropological Association, AAA, calls anthropology ‘the study of what makes us human’. It is the discipline which explores the rise and fall of human civilizations. It tries to understand the cultural development and biological evolvement of homo sapiens from a variety of … Read more

Radcliffe Brown: Biography, Contributions and Books

Early life: Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown was born in Birmingham in 1881. He belonged to the English lower middle class. With economic support from his brother, Radcliffe-Brown embarked on medical studies. But his teachers encouraged him to move to Cambridge and study anthropology. While at Cambridge, Radcliffe-Brown became a pupil of pioneering ethnologist W. H. R. … Read more

Undoing Invisibility: A Review of Feminist Anthropology

Feminist anthropology is an anthropological approach which primarily critiques the century-old phenomena of anthropological bias. It specifically critiques the euro-centric, heteronormative and patriarchally oriented bias (Anderson, 2012). It wishes to encourage the inclusivity of women (and other minorities) in the practice of anthropology. It also promotes the need to acknowledge the subjectivity of the experiences … Read more

Margaret Mead: Sex and Temperament in three primitive societies

Abstract: This paper reviews the work Margaret Mead undertook by summarizing the key observations she made in her world-famous book, Sex and Temperament in three primitive societies. This paper helps us to understand how the conventional sexual division of labour based on gender roles is entirely modelled by the society we live in today and … Read more