Cross-Cultural Studies

From Free net encyclopedia

Cross-Cultural Studies is a specialization in Anthropology that uses field data from many societies to examine the scope of human behavior and test hypotheses about human behavior and culture. Unlike comparative studies, which examines similar characteristics of a few societies, cross-cultural studies uses a sufficiently large sample that statistical analysis can be made to show relationships or lack or relationships between the traits in question. These studies are surveys of ethnographic data. Cross-cultural studies, sometimes called Holocultural Studies, has been used by social scientists of many disciplines, particularly Anthropology and Psychology.

The first cross-cultural studies were done by 19th century anthroplogists such as Tylor and Morgan.

The modern era of cross-cultural studies began with George Murdock.