Relationship Between Sociology and Anthropology 

The relation between Sociology and Anthropology is widely recognised today.

In fact, anthro­pologist Kroeber pointed out that the two sciences are twin sisters.It was said because both of them are similar in the way of work.Robert Redfield writes that “viewing the whole United States, one sees that the relations between sociology and anthropology are closer than those between Anthropology and Political Science that is partly due to greater similarity in ways of work”.

Anthropology is a general science like sociology. The etymological meaning of ‘Anthropology’ is the study of man.

More precisely, it is defined by Kroeber as ‘the science of man and his works and behaviour’. Anthropology has a wide field of study. Kroeber men­tions two broad divisions of anthropology: (i) Organic or Physical Anthropology and (ii) the Socio- cultural Anthropology.

(i) Physical Anthropology:

Physical Anthropology studies man as a biological being, that is, as a member of the animal kingdom.It is concerned with the evolution of man, his bodily characteristics, ra­cial features, and the influence of environment and heredity on the physical characteristics of man.

(ii) Sociocultural Anthropology:

This branch of anthropology which is con­cerned with the organic aspects of human behaviour . It deals with the origin and development of man’s culture i.e the primitive society 

The Relationship between the Two Sciences:

The social anthropology(branch of Anthropology )deals with the primitive society and the sociology deals with the modern complex society.Moreover,Sociology is greatly benefited by anthropological studies.

Sociologists have to depend upon anthropologists to understand the present-day social phenomena from our knowledge of the past which is often pro­vided by anthropology.

Sociological topics such as the origin of family, the beginning of marriage, private property,the genesis of religion, etc., can better be understood in the light of anthropological knowledge. 

Further, sociology has borrowed many concepts like cultural area, culture traits, interdepen­dent traits, cultural lag, culture patterns, culture configuration etc., from socio-cultural anthropol­ogy.

The knowledge of anthropology, physical as well as socio-cultural, is necessary for a sociolo­gist. 

Anthropology as a discipline is so closely related to sociology that the two are frequently indistinguishable.  The socio-cultural anthropologists today are also making a study of the present peoples and their societies. The conclusions drawn by sociologists have also helped the anthropologists in their studies. 

Thus,Sociology and anthropology are closely related to each other.