Cultural Anthropology encompasses three broad topics within which
are numerous other specialties. Ethnology involves the study of contemporary
societies, or societies that exist today. Ethnologists use a technique called
participant observation in their research that was developed by
Franz Boas.
Marshall
Sahlins used the participant observation method and developed the theory of
the original affluent society. He said that foragers are the original affluent
society, because members of these societies spend less time working than
members of so called civilized societies, and thus have more time for leisure.
Napoleon
Chagnon has recently studied the Yanomamo using the participant
observation method. The study of linguistics is the study of language. Two
important ideas in the study of linguistics are the tabula rasa which was
developed by John Locke and the
Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis. Archaeologists typically study
prehistory by reconstructing a society based on remains. A new subfield of
archaeology, historical archaeology, however, deals with history.
Lewis
Binford and Gordon Willey
are important American Archaeologists today.