Culture & Ethnology

A concise popular exposition of ethnology that treats culture as the central subject of study and examines its psychological, racial, environmental, and historical determinants. The text argues that mental processes, intercultural contact, and diffusion shape cultural traits, critiques purely environmental explanations, and highlights cultural inertia and change. It surveys methodological issues involved in explaining cultural variation and concludes with a concrete application of comparative evidence to kinship terminology and systems of relationship. The presentation emphasizes principles and problems rather than descriptive minutiae and aims to make scholarly ethnological ideas accessible to informed lay readers.