Cultural Anthropology Otherwise Known as the Socio-Cultural

Cultural anthropology otherwise known as the socio-cultural anthropology or social anthropology is basically the study of culture and is mainly founded on ethnography. Ethnography is based on the methodology of collection of primary data and is purely a product of research where inductive method is used as well as a heavy reliance on the participant observers.

It is considered as the holistic and scientific study of humanity and majorly the branch that focuses on the study of human cultures, myths, practices, beliefs, values, economies, cognitive organizations and even technologies in the contemporary environment.

The significance of the participatory research is to help the individual place the rules of moral conduct, the cognitive structures and the social life patterns in their own socio-cultural context hence becoming very relevant and meaningful despite how 'strange' or 'bizarre' it might look to the persons from other cultures. The concept of cultural relativism goes against the ethnocentrism and spells out that there are no cultures that are superior or inferior to the other but all are meaningful when put in their own socio-cultural context (Yutaka Yamada, 2011).

Further, symbolic anthropology is a social anthropology that delves into the way people understand their surrounding and the utterances and actions of the other member of the society. The interpretations form a shared meaning though there could be some varying degrees. Here there is a deep study of symbols and processes by which meanings are assigned to symbols to address human social life. Here, there are two major assumptions; that the beliefs, in as much as they may be unintelligible, when understood as part of the cultural system become comprehensible. Secondly is that the actions of the members of a society are guided by interpretation of the symbols like the religion, ritual activity, cosmology and mythology. This symbolic anthropology is widely considered as a reaction to structuralism that was basically grounded on linguistics and semiotics as pioneered by sages like Levi-Strauss. It is also seen as a reaction against Marxism and materialism that described culture in terms of observable behavior and patterns (University of Alabama, 2009).

One good case of cultural relativism is the widely known Ojibwa Indians culture and how they are tied to their environment in the view of the happenings around them. This case study reveals the meaning and power of cultural world view and how these inform the ethical principles and practices. In the study of the Ojibwa there is an apparent close tie between the narratives and the relationship that they have with the environment. This tie between the narratives and environment goes further to indicate how the experience of the Ojibwa is cognitively organized in terms of environmental ethics and the cultural world view. It is apparent that the close tie to the environment and the rampant reference to the environmental factors by the Ojibwa narratives is a clear indication of the effect of the cognitive capability to shape the culture of a people.

It is true that culture is a shared entity in that the values, concepts, ideas, and rules of behaviors (implicit or explicit) that allows a social group to perpetuate itself and function is what culture is. This is against the presumption that the presence of a given attribute can constitute culture. This is apparent among the Ojibwa who have the common reference to the environment to dictate their ethics. This is a shared attribute and can be traced in almost all the narratives from the Ojibwa hence being a factor that binds them as a culture (International Society for Quality in Health Care, 2011).

From the Ojibwa culture, it can also be noted that culture is cumulative, dynamic and adaptive. As the environment changes, there is the response that each culture will put forth in an effort to cope with the changes. These are the adaptive responses to the internal and external changes that come into a culture. A study among the Ojibwa showed how the children from acculturated families failed to influence their parents and even showed less responsiveness to parent's proposal or interference, a feature that is different in the times before the acculturation started creeping into the Ojibwa culture. This is also a pointer to the cumulative nature of culture as the child will behave as they are brought up. With the acculturation catching up with the Ojibwa culture, the children continuously accumulated a different set of environmental values and behaviors (Stephen T. Bogg, 2011).

Culture is also integrated in each and every society. In a given society, there is an aspect of culture influencing almost every part of the lifestyle in that, one aspect of culture may not stand alone but is intricately connected to another aspect to make a single whole. Among the Ojibwa, there is the aspect of attachment to the environment that controls almost every other aspect of their life. The economy, religion, rituals and daily engagements among these people are integrated in one way or the other to the environment to make one whole Ojibwa culture that is environmental ethics controlled.