Anthropological Theory

Anthropology and gender
Introduction: anthropology and its theories
Before tackling subareas and intersections of the field such as anthropology and gender, it is necessary to question what Anthropology is. The common knowledge about this discipline is most of the time permeated with misconceptions and myths, which La Fontaine tries to refute in his book “What is Social Anthropology” (1985). Firs of all, the author starts from exposing what anthropology is not: it is not the study of exotic and primitive societies (no good or bad savage) with emphasis on the progressive social evolution, and it is not sociology in what concerns its theoretical and practical approaches. Most of theses assumptions contains a kernel of truth and are related to the fact that it has been usual to regard anthropology 's traditional focus on small-scale non-industrial societies as one of its distinctive characteristic. However, changes in the world and in the discipline itself made such features no longer an accurate description. In fact, practically any social system can be studied anthropologically and contemporary anthropological research displays an enormous range, empirically as well as thematically.
Beyond what anthropology is not, it is necessary to have a positive concept of the discipline, one that is able to understand what it is, how to do it and its practical use. However, “construct a single perspective that encompasses the variety of anthropological viewpoints is impossible” (Peacock,1986:ix) so here a very general, rough and concise one will be explored. It is in its widest sense, anthropology would be the study of cultural diversity, the search for cultural universals, the unlocking of social structure, the interpretation of symbolism, and numerous related problems.
Anthropology is an intellectually challenging, theoretically ambitious subject which tries to achieve an understanding of culture, society and humanity through detailed studies of local life, supplemented

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