cultural anthropology

Save This Word!

noun

the branch of anthropology dealing with the origins, history, and development of human culture, and including in its scope the fields of archaeology, ethnology, and ethnography.

QUIZ

GOOSES. GEESES. I WANT THIS QUIZ ON PLURAL NOUNS!

Test how much you really know about regular and irregular plural nouns with this quiz.

Question 1 of 9

Which of the following nouns has an irregular plural form?

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Also called social anthropology.

Compare physical anthropology.

Origin of cultural anthropology

First recorded in 1920–25

OTHER WORDS FROM cultural anthropology

cultural anthropologist, noun

Words nearby cultural anthropology

cultivation, cultivator, cult of personality, cultrate, cultural, cultural anthropology, cultural appropriation, cultural capital, cultural cringe, cultural diversity, cultural exchange

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use cultural anthropology in a sentence

The stage has expanded from musicology to evolutionary biology to cultural anthropology.
What Makes Music Universal - Issue 99: Universality|Kevin Berger|April 29, 2021|Nautilus
These generally come from the outside, from cultural pressures and messages.
How Skinny Is Too Skinny? Israel Bans ‘Underweight’ Models|Carrie Arnold|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Is it anti-Semitism, or are less insidious cultural forces at work?
Why Was Bess Myerson the First and Last Jewish Miss America?|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
So my way to point out his cultural cluelessness is to be even more clueless?
Patton Oswalt on Fighting Conservatives With Satire|William O’Connor|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST

In the absence of cultural shifts, then, new reproductive technology might not matter as much for women as it would for men.
Men Will Someday Have Kids Without Women|Samantha Allen|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Instead, local life is defined by cultural products that are more national or more global—think of the Sunday New York Times.
Will Texas Stay Texan?|David Fontana|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This organization marked the formal beginning of Richmond as a cultural center in Virginia.
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia|Dorothy M. Torpey
Education, the "backbone" of cultural activities, is one of the most challenging current problems facing Virginia.
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia|Dorothy M. Torpey
Boulanger's ideas on philosophy, mythology, anthropology and history are of extraordinary interest today.
Baron d'Holbach|Max Pearson Cushing
But famous as he was as a surgeon, his name is associated most closely with the modern school of anthropology.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3|Various
They belong, it would appear, to a stock of common inheritance from an uncertain cultural centre of immense antiquity.
Myths of Babylonia and Assyria|Donald A. Mackenzie

British Dictionary definitions for cultural anthropology

cultural anthropology

noun

the branch of anthropology dealing with cultural as opposed to biological and racial features

Derived forms of cultural anthropology

cultural anthropologist, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for cultural anthropology

cultural anthropology

[ kŭl′chər-əl ]

The branch of anthropology that studies the development of human cultures based on ethnographic, linguistic, social, and psychological data. Compare physical anthropology.