The Four Disciplines of Anthropology - Assignment Example

Comparativism is the investigation of contrasts and parallels in humans. This involves their biological and cultural aspects, for example, comparing one person to another. According to Lassiter, (2009), culture is an intriguing whole that comprises art, law, custom, belief, knowledge, abilities, and customs that man has obtained as a societal element. An example is the American culture (Lassiter, 2009).

Lassiter’s definition of culture is divided into various parts that include culture as an allocated and consulted structure of meaning; the other part is that of culture as enlightened by facts that associate with structure. There is also the part of the culture as practice and learning. It is well known that through practice, one learns. It is from this individual that others learn and society learns as a whole thus creating a culture. Learning results in enculturation which is the systemic attaining of the features and customs of the culture by an individual (Lassiter, 2009). Ethnocentrism is the inclination to scrutinize the world from an individual’s familiarity, Lasset (2009) notes that familiarity is limited, for example, with that of traditions. Cultural relativism implies that a person has to comprehend each culture based on its stipulations. Importantly, comprehension does not mean one has to concur with every cultural practice (Lassiter, 2009).