The emergence of a science of society was influenced by various intellectual foundations, including the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason and empirical observation, the Industrial Revolution’s impact on social structures, and thinkers like Auguste Comte, who proposed a systematic study of society based on scientific methods.

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Social anthropology, as a subject, has its roots in the 19th century, growing alongside colonial expansion. Early anthropologists like Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor studied indigenous cultures, seeking to understand human societies’ diversity and evolution. Franz Boas later emphasized cultural relativism, challenging ethnocentrism, while Bronisław Malinowski pioneered ethnographic fieldwork, emphasizing firsthand observation and participant-observation methods. Over time, social anthropology evolved, incorporating various theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to study human societies comprehensively.