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The Difference Between Sociology And Social Anthropology

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Sociology is the study of society, it uses its methods in systematic way, and are usually empirical. Since it is the study of scientific society, human social life, more than aggregate of individuals. In order to understand any issue related to sociology such as race, gender, caste, culture and marriage etc. We need to understand its three main perspectives, functionalist perspective, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. Functionalist Perspective is all about progress in the society through harmony, because society has a system which is interconnected Therefore, we need to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton have largely contributed …show more content…

Sociology and Social Anthropology had different origins. Sociology originated from philosophy of history, some elements of political science and positivism which was proposed by Auguste Comte whereas anthropology originated from biology. During the early period sociology and social anthropology had really close convergence that the work between two could not be divided any further or individually. A time came when there was an extreme divergence between the two. This extreme divergence occurred because the functional approach was adopted in anthropology. The broad differences between sociology and social anthropology that emerged during the period of divergence can easily be related to the differences. Social Anthropologists were involved in studying small societies, they usually live in the society in order to observe and record what they see. Sociologists rely on statistics and questionnaires. As we know sociology and social anthropology had an extreme divergence in 19th century, but it was not a permanent issue, there has been a good matter of convergence in modern times. Since anthropologist did not mainly focus on the industrial part of the world as sociologists did. Due to lack of sophistication of technology and westernisation …show more content…

They both are very closely linked to each other, related to each other and dependent on each other. In order to understand the relationship between both the disciplines we have to analyse the inter-relationship and mutual dependency. By inter-relationship and mutual dependency we mean some sociological terms or theories cannot be understood without psychology and some psychological terms or theories cannot be understood without sociology. Sociology deals with social phenomena, it is also known for collective behaviour. It basically studies how humans interact or behave when they are in groups, institutions etc. However, psychology deals with human mind or how people interact at times. Psychology is more analysing on attitudes, emotions, perception, process of learning and it values individuals and also deals with the process of personality formation in society. Social Anthropologists like Radcliffe-Brown thinks or argues that sociology and psychology has no relation because sociology is study social system while psychology is study of mental system, so they both have no connection. Psychologists like Freud and others have enhanced sociology in many aspects.They expressed that the whole social problems and social phenomenon must have a psychological basis. This combination of of sociology and psychology

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