Relationship between Sociology and Anthropology

The relationship between Sociology and Anthropology is widely recognized today. Anthropologist
Kroeber pointed out that the two sciences are twin sisters. Anthropology is a general science like
Sociology. The word Anthropology is derived from two Greek words, ‘anthropos’ and ‘logos’ meaning
man and study of respectively. Hence etymologically Anthropology refers to ‘the study of man’.
However, Kroeber defines it as ‘the science of man and his works and behaviour’. Thus Anthropology is
concerned not with particular man but with man in groups, with races and peoples and their happenings
and doings. Though it is youngest of the traditional social sciences, it has made outstanding contributions
to the study of man and in particular has enriched Sociology. Anthropology seems to be the broadest of
all the social sciences as it studies man both as a member of animal kingdom and as a member of human
society. It studies both biological as well as cultural development of man. Anthropology has a wide field
of study. Kroeber mentions two broadest divisions of Anthropology namely, Physical Anthropology and
Cultural Anthropology.

Physical Anthropology: It studies man as a biological being and accepts and uses general principles of
Biology, the laws of heredity and the doctrine of cell development and evolution. It makes use of all the
findings of anatomy, physiology, zoology, paleontology etc. Physical Anthropology is concerned with the
evolution of man, his bodily characteristics, racial features and the influence of environment and heredity
on physical characteristics of man.

Cultural Anthropology: It studies man as a social animal. It is concerned with ancient and savage and
exotic and extinct peoples. It studies all civilizations irrespective of time and place. Its main concern is
the study and development of culture of man and studies different social institutions of primitive
communities of past as well as present.

Relationship between the Two Sciences: According to Hoebel, Sociology and Anthropology in broadest
sense are one and the same. Evans Pritchard considers Social Anthropology as a branch of Sociology and
the latter is greatly benefitted by the anthropological studies. Sociologists depend of anthropologists to
understand the present day social phenomena from our knowledge of the past provided by
anthropologists. The studies made be famous anthropologists like Radcliffe Brown, B.Malinowski, Ralph
Linton, Lowie, Raymond Firth, Margaret Mead, Evans Pritchard and like have been greatly helped
Sociology.

Sociological concepts like origin of family, the beginning of marriage, private property, the genesis of
religion etc. can better be understood in terms of anthropological studies. Knowledge of physical and
cultural anthropology is necessary for sociologists. Understanding of society be gained by comparing
different cultures both modern and primitive.

Moreover, sociology has borrowed many concepts like cultural area, culture traits, interdependent traits,
cultural lag, culture patterns and cultural configuration etc. from anthropology.

Both the disciplines are fast growing and a times both are indistinguishable and in many universities both
are administratively organized in one department. Sociology has also helped Anthropology. Morgan
studied the existence of primitive communism with the help of the concept of private property of modern
times studied by sociologists.
Difference between Sociology and Anthropology: Despite the interdependence of both the sciences they
differ on many counts as well listed as under:

The primitive, pre-literate peoples and their culture form the subject matter of anthropology. It
investigates the complete human society. It not only studies the physical aspects of human society
but also studies the influence itself. On the other hand, sociology studies influence of human race
on social relations and deals with people and their culture in the present context. The subject
matter of Sociology and Anthropology differ from each other.
The subject matter of Anthropology include small and static culture of people belonging to pre-
literate period. In sharp contrast to anthropological concern with small and static cultures,
sociology investigates the culture of society which is vast and dynamic in nature.
Sociology manages second hand data easily but anthropology has to depend on first hand
knowledge only.
Anthropology is concerned with past but sociology is concerned with present. Anthropology is
not concerned with future of social institutions but sociology is deeply concerned with future of
social institutions. Sociology and Anthropology alone studies the human society as it exists.
Finally sociology and anthropology have different methodology as their subject matter differs.
Sociologists make use of statistics and documentary evidences etc. in their study of man and
society. The anthropologists especially social anthropologists use functional methods in their
study of primitive man and his culture. They use generally methods use in natural sciences such
as participant observations whereas sociology uses methods used in social sciences.

Relationship between Sociology and Political Science

Political Science is the science of government. It refers to the systematic study of the state and other
organs of power. It studies the nature of distribution of power in a society, the rules according to which
the competition for power is carried out and the nature of the government and its function such as
legislative, executive and judicial.

Political Science generally studies the complex, advanced and modern societies wherein the state
machinery and written law is found. It is concerned with larger systems such as whole societies and their
political states rather than with micro level units which are concerns of sociologists. Political scientists
don’t carry out pieces of intensive field work with societies rather their data come from published
documents, census and official reports, proceedings of the Parliament and other political organs, surveys
of opinion and election results etc. It implies that political scientists don’t go to field to collect data. The
data they interpret are those data which have been collected and complied by others. They are primarily
concerned with political institutions meaning those institutions which deal with distribution of power in a
society and the maintenance of law and order. Political philosophy is an important are of political science
which deals with emergence of state and need for order.
On the other hand, Sociology studies all types of society namely, tribal, peasant or urban-industrial. It is
comparative in nature. It gives information of distribution of power in those societies that political
scientists don’t study such as tribal and peasant societies. In 1940s Anthropologists studies those societies
that were without political institutions. They were called stateless societies. Nuer of the Sudan is one such
fine example. Anthropologists described how in stateless societies order was maintained. Absences of
state does not imply the absence of deviance and conflict. Each society has its own procedures to handle
the cases of breakdown of rules and customs. Sociology supplements the understanding of political
scientists by providing information about the mechanisms of social control in simple societies.

Political science is mainly concerned with political institutions. Sociology does not give primacy to any
institution as all institutions are equally important because each in its own way contributes to the
functioning of society. Thus for Sociology, political institution is one of the institutions of society and
should be analyzed in relationship with other institutions. The specialized study of political institutions
that sociologists undertake is called Political Sociology. It shares many characteristics common with
political science but it emphasizes on the social bases of distribution of power, control mechanisms and
system of laws. Questions dealing with the relationship between social stratification and distribution of
power, or the role of taboos and other prohibitions in the maintenance of social order or the place of
kinship in political system are sociological question.

Sociologists carry out field work with micro-level units whether they are urban neighborhoods or political
parties. They highlight the processes at work at local levels. By comparing several local situations they
reach at generalizations about political system as a whole. Both political science and sociology aim at
reaching general propositions about political systems but the way they accomplish this task is different.
Political scientists begin with macro units and generalize about them whereas sociologists study micro
units, systematically compare them and then reach at common propositions.

Relationship between Sociology and History

Sociology and history are interrelated. This relationship is concerned with one fundamental question
whether sociology is a science of society like one of natural and biological sciences or a kind of history
writing (historiography). Sociologists of 19th and early 20th centuries thought that sociology was natural
science of society. However, later sociologists felt that their subject was a social science when weakness
of previous started surfacing. Some of them believed that sociology was a kind of historiography.

History is a study of past which people have already lived. Data for historians come in the form of records
from archives, museums, libraries and personal collections of people. Historians also study inscriptions.
Historical data may not be complete. Some might have been destroyed, lost or stolen or inaccessible.
Therefore historians have to build up their interpretations of past on the limitations of the materials.

Historians are concerned with specific societies. They tell about the system prevailed in a society at a
particular time. Their comparisons are of limited scale. They may compare societies inhabiting the same
area but vast comparisons of societies different in scale and time are beyond the scope of history. Hence
historians rarely attempt to generalize about human society as a whole. They provide a detailed account of
a specific social situation.
By comparison Sociology is primarily concerned with the study of contemporary societies. They collect
from field methodically and don’t depend on others for data collection. They generate their own data and
call it “primary data”. Sociologists always go back to field to collect any missing data or information but
a historian has to remain contented with whatever is available.

Though sociologists study contemporary society they always refer to the historical material available for
understanding social and cultural changes. They may also conduct a sociological study of past societies.
In a nutshell, a sociologist may study historical societies through sociological methods and look at the
inter-relationship between different institutions. When this perspective is extended to study the historical
societies, the branch of sociology that deal with it is known as Historical Sociology. The main difference
between history and sociology is that the former is concerned with the past whereas the latter is primarily
concerned with present day society. While history does not concern itself with the contemporary societies,
sociology extends its frontiers to include past societies in its scope.

The other significant difference is that while history confines itself with specific societies, sociology
attempts to generalize about the human societies. Hence sociology studies at micro-level, but aims at the
macro-level. Sociologists also study a specific society in all its details, but he compares the society under
study with others for generalizations. They emphasize on comparative methods because it helps them to
move from specific to general. Sociology is an observational, comparative, and generalizing science
whereas history bases itself on an analysis of documents and its conclusions are bound by considerations
of time and space.