SU Sociology 144 Social Anthropology: Culture and Society Notes

Social Anthropology asks how human beings make meaning together—how everyday life becomes organized through shared knowledge, symbols, norms, and institutions. SU Sociology 144 (“Social Anthropology: Culture and Society”) frames culture not as “customs on display,” but as a living system of practices that people learn, negotiate, and sometimes resist. Across the course, the central exam themes typically involve defining culture and society, tracing how anthropologists study them, comparing key theoretical approaches, and applying those ideas to real cases in South Africa and beyond.

This study guide is organized around the kinds of questions that commonly appear in midterms and exams for anthropology modules: conceptual clarity, theoretical comparisons, methodological reasoning, and the ability to apply anthropological concepts to South African social realities.

Section 1: Core Concepts—Culture, Society, Meaning, and Power

Culture as a “Way of Life,” and Why Anthropologists Disagree

A common early definition of culture describes it as a “way of life.” This captures something important: culture includes patterns of living—how people eat, worship, raise children, mark seasons, resolve disputes, and celebrate milestones. However, anthropology complicates the phrase “way of life” in at least four key ways:

Culture is learned, not inherited biologically. People acquire culture through socialization—family, schools, peer groups, religious communities, workplaces, and media.
Culture is shared, but not identical. Members of the same society may disagree over values; communities contain diversity based on gender, class, age, ethnicity, migration status, and political position.
Culture changes over time. Globalization, policy reforms, urbanization, pandemics, and digital media create new meanings and new practices.
Culture is contested and power-laden. “Shared values” may reflect domination (some groups define norms; others adapt or resist).

A practical exam-ready way to phrase culture is: Culture is the patterned, meaningful practices through which people produce social life—under conditions shaped by power and history. This definition avoids treating culture as a static museum piece.

Society: Institutions, Relationships, and Social Order

If culture refers to meaning-making patterns, society refers to the organized relationships that structure life. Society can be discussed at multiple scales:

Micro-level: families, peer groups, workplaces, neighborhoods.
Meso-level: churches, schools, local councils, unions, NGOs.
Macro-level: state institutions, legal systems, national economies, global regimes.

Anthropological thinking often emphasizes that society is not merely a collection of individuals—it is an ongoing process. Social order is continually reproduced through rituals, routine practices, enforcement mechanisms, and negotiation.

In exam answers, you should connect culture and society explicitly. For example:

Culture influences how people interpret laws, health advice, gender expectations, or punishment.
Society influences which cultural meanings become “official,” “normal,” or “respectable.”

Meaning, Symbols, and Ritual

Anthropologists treat symbols as something more than decoration. Symbols condense meaning: they stand for values, histories, and moral claims. Rituals (religious ceremonies, initiation rites, funerals, weddings, commemorations, protest marches) often do four things:

Mark transitions (child to adult, living to dead).
Reaffirm social bonds and authority structures.
Translate emotion into form (grief, joy, fear, solidarity).
Make ideology public (what a group claims is “right” and “true”).

In South Africa, you can use examples like funerals or initiation practices to show how ritual organizes belonging. Even when people differ in belief systems, common patterns of respect, mourning, and community involvement reveal a culturally shaped social order.

Power: Who Defines Culture and Society?

A frequent anthropology theme is that culture is not neutral. It reflects and reproduces power. Power can operate through:

Legislation and bureaucratic categories (e.g., how states define citizenship, “households,” or “property”).
Cultural authority (elders, priests, traditional leaders, teachers, medical professionals).
Economic control (employment access, wages, land ownership).
Violence and coercion (formal policing and informal intimidation).
Representation (who is portrayed as credible, “modern,” “traditional,” or “deviant”).

So, when exam prompts ask something like “Explain culture as contested,” a strong response includes how some groups gain the capacity to define norms—and how other groups comply, negotiate, or resist.

Culture vs. Culturalism: Avoid the Common Trap

Culturalism is the error of treating cultural difference as the sole cause of social problems. Culturalism often appears in everyday claims like:

“They do it that way because of their culture.”
“Crime is high because of cultural values.”

Anthropology warns against reducing structural issues (poverty, unemployment, inequality, housing shortages, colonial histories, migration restrictions) to cultural explanations alone. Culture can shape behaviour, but outcomes often emerge from the interaction between culture, institutions, and material conditions.

A good exam answer distinguishes:

Cultural meaning (how people interpret actions).
Structural constraints (what options people have).
Historical trajectories (how past policies shape present realities).

Key Distinctions: Emic vs. Etic and “Thick Description”

Anthropologists often distinguish between:

Emic perspective: the insider’s view—how people themselves explain their world.
Etic perspective: the analyst’s view—categories and explanations used for comparison.

To combine these, ethnographers aim for “thick description,” a term associated with Clifford Geertz. Thick description records not only what happened (thin description), but also why it mattered to participants—how it connects to broader meanings.

In an exam, thick description can be demonstrated by:

describing an event (e.g., a burial),
identifying participants’ interpretations (beliefs, moral claims),
connecting it to social structures (kinship obligations, religious authority),
analyzing how it maintains or changes social order.

Cultural Domains: Kinship, Economy, Politics, Religion

Anthropology examines culture through domains that students can memorize as a useful framework. For culture and society courses, focus often lands on:

Kinship: how relationships are organized (marriage rules, descent, caregiving).
Economy: how value is produced and distributed (work, reciprocity, markets).
Politics: how power is organized (leadership, decision-making, governance).
Religion and cosmology: how people understand reality and morality.
Law and normativity: how rules are enforced and justified.
Gender and embodiment: how bodies become sites of meaning and regulation.

A sophisticated answer shows these domains are interconnected—for instance, economic precarity may reshape kinship obligations; religion may influence politics; gender norms often guide access to resources.

Section 2: Anthropological Approaches—From Classic Theory to Contemporary Debates

Early Foundations: Evolutionism, Diffusionism, and Their Limits

Early anthropology often tried to explain human diversity through broad theories of stages of development. In evolutionist frameworks, societies were arranged along a ladder from “simple” to “advanced.” Diffusionism emphasized that cultural traits spread from cultural “centers” to others.

Modern anthropology critiques these approaches for reasons relevant to exams:

Eurocentrism: measuring others by European standards.
Overgeneralization: turning diverse histories into a single linear story.
Lack of historical specificity: treating culture as if it only spreads rather than responding to local conditions.

Still, classic theories remain useful as a historical reference point because they show what anthropology tried to solve: how to explain difference while avoiding misunderstanding.

Functionalism: Social Order Through Interdependence

Functionalism (especially associated with thinkers like Bronislaw Malinowski and later developments in British anthropology) treats cultural practices as serving functions in maintaining social order. In functionalist reasoning:

Each institution (family, religion, law) contributes to the stability of society.
Rituals can be explained as mechanisms to handle emotions or reinforce norms.
Social roles help coordinate behaviour.

A strengths-based exam argument for functionalism:

It offers a systematic way to analyze how practices “work” together.
It emphasizes the coherence of social life.

A critical counter-argument:

It may underplay change, conflict, and historical violence.
It risks treating social structures as harmonious when they are often contested.

Functionalism can still be used in exams if you explicitly mention its tendency to focus on stability and its vulnerability to ignoring power dynamics.

Structuralism: Underlying Patterns of Thought

Structuralism focuses on patterns in human thought that shape culture. Instead of interpreting each custom in isolation, structuralists seek underlying structures (often based on how people organize oppositions: life/death, nature/culture, purity/impurity).

A classic structuralist approach looks for deep grammar-like rules in myths and rituals. In exam responses, structuralism is often evaluated through:

Strength: it highlights how meaning systems can be patterned and comparable.
Weakness: it can be too abstract and detach from lived experience and historical context.
Risk: reducing agency (“people simply follow structures”).

You can strengthen your answer by referencing that structuralism is better at describing patterns of meaning than explaining power struggles or rapid social transformations.

Historical Particularism and Culture as History

Historical approaches emphasize that culture reflects specific histories. Rather than assume universal stages, anthropologists look at how events—colonialism, migration, warfare, state formation—shape current practices.

For SU Sociology 144, the historical approach matters particularly for South African contexts. Post-apartheid transformation, labour migration patterns, land reform debates, and shifting urban governance are all historical processes that influence how people interpret culture and society today.

A strong exam argument:

Cultural practices should be understood in relation to historical trajectories and material transformation.
“Tradition” is often not static; it is reinvented under new conditions.

Interpretive Anthropology: Meaning, Narrative, and Experience

Interpretive approaches focus on how people interpret their worlds. Here, anthropology is less about deriving laws and more about understanding meaning through ethnographic detail, dialogue, and attention to context.

In interpretive reasoning:

Culture is a set of shared meanings, not a mechanical set of functions.
Ethnography should reveal how people create moral worlds and make sense of suffering, joy, and uncertainty.

Critiques often emphasize:

Overemphasis on meaning may neglect structural constraints.
Ethnographic description may seem “subjective” if not grounded in systematic analysis.

A high-scoring exam answer balances interpretive insight with structural awareness.

Critical and Postcolonial Anthropology: Power, Colonial Legacies, and Representation

Critical and postcolonial anthropology highlight how colonial regimes shaped knowledge itself. They ask:

Who had the authority to define “tribes,” “customs,” or “development”?
How do academic categories reproduce hierarchies?
How do global systems affect local life?

In a South African sociology course, postcolonial themes can connect to:

how apartheid and colonial policies shaped spatial segregation and economic inequality,
how state welfare and policing affect daily life,
how “culture” becomes politicized in debates about tradition, land, and identity.

An exam-ready claim:

Anthropology is not only “about culture”—it is also about how knowledge about culture is produced and used.

Ethnography and Method as Theory

Anthropological approaches are not only theoretical; they are also methodological. Fieldwork practices (participant observation, interviewing, archiving, comparative analysis) influence the kinds of knowledge produced.

Key exam link:

A structuralist lens may seek patterns in symbolic systems.
A historical lens may seek archives and genealogies of institutions.
A critical lens may ask who benefits from certain representations and what harm is done by misclassification.

So, you should connect theoretical approach to method explicitly in exam responses.

Section 3: Ethnography and Methods—How Anthropologists Study Culture and Society

The Ethnographic Project: Participant Observation and Its Challenges

Ethnography is the core method of social anthropology. A classical ethnographic model includes participant observation, where the researcher spends prolonged time in a community or social setting, participating in daily life while systematically observing.

Key skills and decisions in ethnography:

Gaining access: building relationships with gatekeepers.
Learning language and local categories: understanding how people classify their world.
Keeping field notes: recording observations, questions, and reflections.
Ethical positioning: recognizing that research affects the field and participants.

Exams often test whether students understand that ethnography is not “being there” only. It is also interpretation—a structured practice of making meaning from observation and conversation.

Sampling and “Field Sites” in Social Anthropology

Contrary to stereotypes, anthropology doesn’t always mean long-term immersion in a small isolated village. Social anthropology often focuses on:

workplaces (e.g., factory life, markets, informal economies),
institutions (schools, clinics, courts),
online communities,
migration routes and refugee settlements,
religious movements.

In exam responses, you can explain that “field site” is chosen based on the research question rather than being limited to rural settings. In South Africa, many “culture and society” studies examine urban life, taxi routes, church networks, youth groups, shebeens (where appropriate and ethically studied), or community organizations.

Interviewing: Semi-Structured Conversations and Local Explanations

Interviews can range from formal structured surveys to more flexible conversations. In qualitative anthropology, semi-structured interviews are common because they:

allow comparison across respondents,
preserve participants’ ability to define terms,
support deeper follow-up questions.

A key concept is translation of meaning. Researchers must avoid forcing answers into external categories. For instance:

When participants speak about “respect,” it may combine moral values, social ranking, kinship obligations, and religious obligations.
When participants speak about “family,” it may extend beyond biological ties.

A strong exam answer includes that anthropology treats interview data as narratives with social context, not merely “information.”

Triangulation: Combining Evidence Types

Because ethnography relies on interpretation, anthropologists often use triangulation to improve reliability. Triangulation can mean:

using multiple data sources (interviews + observation + documents),
comparing participants’ accounts with observed practices,
using different time periods (events across months/years),
checking patterns across different subgroups.

In exams, triangulation shows methodological maturity. It demonstrates awareness that any single method can be biased or limited.

Ethics: Consent, Confidentiality, Harm, and Power

Anthropological research involves ethical responsibilities. Common exam-relevant principles include:

Informed consent: participants understand what participation involves.
Confidentiality: protecting identities and sensitive details.
Minimizing harm: avoiding actions that could expose participants to retaliation or stigma.
Reciprocity: considering what participants gain from the research.
Reflexivity: understanding how the researcher’s social position shapes interactions.

A critical exam point: anthropology is conducted in real power relations. Even if researchers promise confidentiality, participants may face risks if a story is identifiable. Students should show they understand ethics as ongoing, not a one-time signature.

Reflexivity: The Researcher as Part of the Field

Reflexivity means the researcher reflects on:

their own cultural assumptions,
their role in producing knowledge,
how their identity (race, gender, class, language proficiency, nationality) affects access and interpretation.

A common exam phrase is: ethnography is co-produced. The researcher influences what participants say and how they behave in the research encounter.

Interpreting Data: From Notes to Arguments

Ethnographic analysis involves moving from raw material to claims. A useful exam framework:

Describe: what happened? what was said? what was observed?
Contextualize: what social relationship or setting shaped this?
Interpret: what meaning or value system does this reveal?
Relate: how does it connect to broader cultural patterns or institutional structures?
Compare: how does it align or differ across subgroups or cases?

If your exam answer uses this chain, markers often reward you for clarity.

Section 4: Culture in Action—Kinship, Religion, Economy, Gender, and Everyday Life in Society

Kinship: Descent, Marriage, Residence, and Moral Obligations

Kinship is one of the strongest domains for demonstrating anthropology’s relevance to exams because it connects cultural meaning to social organization.

When discussing kinship, exam answers should often cover:

Descent systems: how lineage and inheritance are traced (through mothers, fathers, or both).
Marriage rules: who can marry whom; what counts as acceptable.
Residence patterns: where couples live after marriage (with kin, in separate households, etc.).
Exchange and obligation: how reciprocity and support occur across relationships.

Kinship is also moral. People experience kinship as duty, respect, and sometimes conflict. For example, obligations to elders may affect decisions about caregiving. Marriage and fertility can be emotionally meaningful and socially regulated.

A strong exam response acknowledges variation within a society. For instance:

people may practice official rules differently depending on migration, urban residence, or economic pressures.
intergenerational differences can produce tension between “traditional expectations” and “modern choices.”

Religion: Cosmology, Ritual Practice, and Community Authority

Religion in anthropology is not only belief. It involves:

cosmology (how reality and morality are understood),
ritual practice (what people do repeatedly),
community formation (belonging and authority),
healing and moral regulation (what counts as sickness, purity, wrongdoing).

In a “Culture and Society” course, religion can be used to explain:

how people cope with uncertainty,
how communities create moral discipline,
how contested values are negotiated.

A common exam challenge is avoiding reducing religion to “superstition.” Anthropology frames religious practice as meaningful systems that address existential and social needs, including suffering, death, inequality, and hope.

Economy: Gifts, Markets, Labour, and Informality

Economy is a domain where culture and society intersect directly. Anthropologists study:

how people value goods and labour,
the social meaning of work,
how trust and reciprocity are produced outside formal institutions.

A classic anthropological distinction is between gift exchange and market exchange:

Gift exchange is often guided by reciprocity and social obligation. Even when goods are not exchanged “immediately,” relationships are created or strengthened.
Market exchange is guided by prices, contracts, and impersonal transactions.

In South Africa, informal economies and household survival strategies often show how value is created through networks. People may rely on kin networks, church communities, and neighbourhood mutual aid to manage unemployment, illness, or housing insecurity.

In exams, it helps to connect economic practices to social relationships:

Who provides support during crises?
How does unemployment reshape kin obligations?
How do people interpret “success” culturally?

Gender: Social Construction, Power, and Embodied Life

Gender is a core cultural domain because it structures access to resources, authority, safety, and respect. Anthropology examines:

gender roles and expectations,
gendered division of labour,
norms around sexuality and reproduction,
how masculinity and femininity are performed and policed.

A sophisticated answer notes that gender is not only ideology; it is embodied in daily practices:

how people dress,
how they speak,
who can control mobility and decision-making,
how violence and harassment shape life opportunities.

In South African contexts, discussions may connect to:

debates about gender-based violence,
legal reforms and their social uptake,
intersections between gender and economic inequality.

A key exam skill is using “intersectionality” carefully: gender interacts with race, class, age, disability, and migration status. Anthropology often emphasizes that inequality is produced through multiple axes, not a single identity label.

Everyday Life: Habits, Affects, and Moral Sentiments

Culture and society show up most clearly in everyday routines: commuting, shopping, caregiving, parenting, greeting practices, dispute resolution, and humor. Anthropologists also examine affect—emotions—as social phenomena.

Examples of everyday cultural elements include:

how people signal respect or disrespect,
informal rules about queues, timekeeping, and public spaces,
how illness narratives circulate and gain legitimacy.

In exams, everyday life is a strong testing ground for applying theory:

Functionalism may explain how norms stabilize routine life.
Interpretive anthropology may explain how people make moral sense of routines.
Critical approaches may explain how daily choices are shaped by structural constraints.

Section 5: South African Applications and Exam Skills—Linking Theory to Cases, Arguments, and Responses

Why South Africa Matters for Culture and Society Courses

A course like SU Sociology 144 often uses South Africa as a central learning ground because it contains layered histories and social institutions that make anthropology’s themes visible. South African society includes:

multiple languages and cultural traditions,
diverse religious landscapes,
urban–rural linkages through migration and labour,
post-apartheid legal and policy transformation,
continuing inequality shaped by historical dispossession.

This context allows students to analyze how culture and society are intertwined through concrete domains:

kinship and caregiving under economic stress,
religious authority and moral regulation,
informal economies and survival strategies,
gender norms and debates about justice and safety,
political identity and contestations over tradition and law.

Applying Anthropological Concepts to Case Analysis: A Method for Exams

When exam prompts ask you to “apply anthropological theory to a case,” you can use a structured approach.

Case Analysis Framework (Exam-Friendly)

Identify the cultural domain: kinship, religion, economy, gender, ritual, politics.
Define the problem: what social issue is being analyzed (conflict, inequality, change, moral dilemma)?
Extract key meanings: what do participants think they are doing and why?
Locate social structures: what institutions and power relations constrain options?
Choose relevant theory:
- Functionalism: what stabilizes social order?
- Structuralism: what patterns of meaning organize practice?
- Interpretive: what meanings and narratives are central?
- Critical/historical: what power and history shape outcomes?
Evaluate strengths and limitations: what does the theory explain well, what does it miss?
Conclude with a balanced synthesis: connect culture, society, and power.

This framework prevents scattered answers and helps you demonstrate command of both concept and application.

Example Case 1: Kinship, Migration, and Household Survival

A common type of exam case in South Africa involves migration—people moving for work, returning for holidays, and maintaining household ties across distance. Kinship becomes a practical system for organizing support.

Possible exam analysis points:

Meaning: kin obligations are often understood as moral duties (care, respect, support).
Structure: labour markets and transport costs shape who can move and when.
Change: urban life may weaken some practices while strengthening others (e.g., new forms of parenting communication across cities).
Conflict: disagreements about responsibilities can arise between generations or between those who stay and those who migrate.

A high-scoring answer would show that “culture” is not simply tradition. Instead, kinship practices adapt to new economic constraints and urban realities.

Example Case 2: Religion, Healing, and Competing Authorities

Religious healing and moral guidance often create multiple “authorities” in a community: traditional healers, churches, doctors, state clinics, and family elders.

Anthropological analysis can focus on:

Legitimacy: what makes healing “real” for participants?
Ritual: how healing rituals build trust, hope, and community support.
Social effects: religious communities may provide networks for employment or caregiving.
Power: competing authorities can reflect social inequality—who is believed, who is dismissed.

A strong interpretive-cum-critical answer would note:

participants’ meaning systems matter,
but the credibility of authorities is also shaped by education, state recognition, and histories of marginalization.

Example Case 3: Gender Norms, Violence, and Moral Politics

Gender norms can be analyzed through:

how masculinity is associated with power and economic provision,
how femininity is linked to respectability, fertility, or caregiving,
how violence disrupts family structures and community safety.

Anthropological insight emphasizes:

gender is performed in daily life (speech, movement, relationships),
institutions (police, courts, schools) mediate whether norms change,
moral politics around “what counts as justice” becomes part of the cultural landscape.

In exam writing, avoid making gender inequality sound inevitable or purely cultural. Instead, show the interaction between:

cultural meanings (what people think should happen),
institutional capacity (how systems respond),
structural constraints (poverty, unemployment, housing insecurity).

Example Case 4: Informal Economies and Social Trust

Informal economies—street vending, small-scale trading, informal transport—often rely on trust and social networks because formal enforcement and documentation may be limited.

Analysis points:

Economic value is shaped by relationships (who supplies stock, who buys on credit, who introduces buyers).
Culture influences norms around honesty, reliability, and reputation.
Risk and vulnerability affect participation (harassment, confiscation, competition).
Policy context matters: regulations can increase vulnerability if they are inconsistent or discriminatory.

A strong exam answer ties informal economic behaviour to broader social trust and power relations—showing culture and society as mutually constitutive.

Comparative Analysis in Answers: How to Score Higher

Exams often reward comparative thinking. Use comparisons that are logically structured:

Compare two theories: e.g., functionalism vs. critical anthropology.
Compare two interpretations: participants’ emic meanings vs. etic analytic categories.
Compare two groups: women and men, youth and elders, urban and rural actors.
Compare two time periods: “before and after” policy change or migration patterns.

A quick comparative example sentence style:

“Functionalism explains how the practice maintains stability, but it underplays how power determines whose stability counts as legitimate; interpretive accounts highlight meaning, while critical approaches explain historical constraints.”

Writing an Exam Answer: Structure That Markers Appreciate

A high-quality anthropology exam response usually includes:

Clear thesis statement: what you argue about culture and society in the prompt.
Concept definitions: define key terms like culture, society, power, ritual, kinship, legitimacy.
Theoretical integration: show how theory helps explain the case.
Evidence and examples: use concrete situations or illustrative examples.
Counterpoint: acknowledge limitations of your approach.
Conclusion: synthesize without introducing brand-new topics.

Common Prompt Types and Response Templates

“Define and explain…”
- Provide definition → break into components → show implications → use one example → mention limits.
“Compare two approaches…”
- Summarize both → explain what each explains well → explain what each misses → recommend when each is most useful.
“Apply to a case…”
- Identify domain → show meanings → show structures/power → interpret with theory → evaluate.
“Discuss strengths and limitations of ethnography…”
- Explain methods → show how ethnography builds thick description → discuss biases and ethical risks → show mitigation (reflexivity, triangulation, transparency).

Key Exam Vocabulary to Use Correctly

To perform well, you need accurate vocabulary. Below is a vocabulary bank consistent with the themes above:

Culture: shared, learned, meaningful practices; contested and historically shaped.
Society: structured relationships and institutions that organize social life.
Emic / Etic: insider meanings vs analyst categories.
Thick description: detailed contextual interpretation linking event to meaning and social structure.
Ritual: patterned practices that mark transitions and reinforce or challenge authority.
Legitimacy: credibility and acceptance of an authority or practice.
Power: capacity to shape outcomes, define norms, and control representation.
Reflexivity: awareness of how researcher position shapes knowledge.
Triangulation: combining multiple sources to strengthen analysis.
Kinship: structured relationships organized by descent, marriage, residence, and obligation.
Cosmology: people’s understanding of reality and morality.

Using these terms correctly demonstrates that you understand the discipline, not just facts.

A Consolidated “Rapid Review” Summary of Themes

If time is limited during revision, focus on these anchor ideas:

Culture is not a fixed list of customs; it is a dynamic system of meaning and practice shaped by power.
Society is organized through institutions and relationships; culture influences how they operate and how people interpret them.
Anthropology studies lived meaning through ethnography—participant observation, interviews, and careful interpretation.
Theoretical approaches differ: functionalism emphasizes stability, structuralism emphasizes patterns, interpretive anthropology emphasizes meaning, and critical/historical approaches emphasize power and context.
South Africa provides strong case materials: migration, postcolonial legacies, gender debates, informal economies, and religious pluralism reveal anthropology’s central concerns.
Your exam answers should link theory to case and show you can evaluate strengths and limitations.

Final Exam Readiness Checklist

Before the exam, ensure you can do the following:

Define culture, society, power, legitimacy, ritual, kinship clearly and accurately.
Distinguish at least four anthropological approaches and explain their implications.
Explain ethnography and justify methodological choices using concepts like triangulation and reflexivity.
Apply theory to at least four South Africa-relevant domains: migration/kinship, religion/healing, informal economy, and gender/violence.
Structure answers with definitions, theory, case evidence, counterpoints, and synthesis.

This set of competencies aligns closely with the typical evaluative aims of a “Culture and Society” module: conceptual precision, theoretical understanding, methodological reasoning, and the ability to produce coherent, evidence-based arguments anchored in social anthropological perspectives.