Ethnology

Definitions

The branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes different human cultures and the relationships between them.

uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“This book is the result⟳ of fourteen thousand miles in the saddle and four years in the library. It describes the lives of the inhabitants of France – wherever possible, through their own⟳ eyes – and the exploration and colonization of their land⟳ by foreigners and natives, from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth. It follows a roughly chronological route, from the end⟳ of the reign of Louis XIV to the outbreak of the First World War, with occasional detours through pre-Roman Gaul and present-day France. Part One describes the populations of France, their languages, beliefs and daily lives, their travels and discoveries, and the other creatures with whom they shared the land⟳. In Part Two, the land⟳ is mapped, colonized by rulers and tourists, refashioned politically and physically, and turned into a modern state. The difference between the two parts, broadly speaking, is the difference between ethnology and history: the world that was always the same and the world that was always changing. I have⟳ tried to give⟳ a sense⟳ of the orrery of disparate, concurrent spheres, to show⟳ a land⟳ in which mule trains coincided with railway trains, and where witches and explorers were still gainfully employed when Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris.”

CEFR level