Anthropology arose in a colonial context, and in its early days studied societies it described as “primitive”. That is a part of its history that cannot be denied.
But the field turned on itself early: it became clear that dividing societies into primitive and civilised is not a scientific description but a value judgement.
Today
Today the stock exchange is studied as the village is studied, and the laboratory as the market is studied. Anthropology is a way of looking rather than a fixed subject: it asks how people make meaning, wherever they are.
And why does this matter to us?
Because studying your own society with the tools of anthropology means looking at the familiar as though you were seeing it for the first time. That is the hardest skill in the field, and the most useful.
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