Question

What is a good topic for a college research paper on cultural anthropology? Please provide supporting details.

Answer 1

Cultural anthropology is the branch of anthropology that deals with the study of human societies & cultures along with their development. Now i will focus on the topic culture - its components & its nature. A famous cultural anthropologist says 'culture is the manmade part of the environment'. Every society has its own culture based on the nature of structure, geographical environment & population relating it to certain norms & rules. These norms & rules allow performing roles & responsibilities in the society relating it with other societies.In order to have a successful understanding we need to know the components or the structure of culture. The aspect of cuture can be differentiated into real or ideal, material or non -material of which the smallest units of it is known as culture trait. The transforrmation of raw material into usable forms through the knowledge of employment is utmost important in the achievement of material culture. However, non-material culture is the unseen human creations created for achieving behavioural influence in the society. For example- symbols, languages, values & norms. To understand the meaning of cultural trait let us take the example of a clssroom where we have, table, chair, benches, desks, blackboard, chalk, duster & students. Each of these is considered as cultural trait as each of them gives a minimally definiable or functional element in the class room. Now if we combine two or more culture traits & represent it into a functional network of relationships then it is known as culture complex. In the example the classroom itself is the representation of the culture complex where more than one culture traits combines & become functional for the deliveration of lectures or classroom teachings. When we understood the changing nature of society then it is imperative that culture is not static but dynamic in nature.