Ethnology
According to the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (1996) Ethnology is defined as the 'study of culture' or the 'theory of people'.
This field of study involves examining the distinctive traditions of a community which are expressed through certain rituals, ceremonies, customs, folk myths, crafts, and other practices throughout time and space. (Levinson 1996: 429)
R.H. Lowie (1937) describes the use of ethnology as the following:
By culture, we understand the sum total of what an individual acquires from his society – those beliefs, customs, artistic norms, food habits, and crafts which come to him not by his own creative activity but as legacy from the past, conveyed by formal or informal education. (Levinson 1996: 430)
Culture is said to be a dynamic phenomena due to the ongoing similarities and differences that both distinguish and link different groups of people in different parts of the world. Cultural traits can be spread by mechanisms of migration, displacement, and borrowing that have taken place up to a millenia ago. (Levinson 1996: 430)
Written by Sitha Im 2009