Why are cultures and societies so different, and simultaneously, so similar? This introductory course examines some of the theoretical and methodological approaches of anthropology in exploring human culture and society. We explore various ethnographic examples to develop an anthropological perspective on economy and politics, social organization, kinship and family life, ideology and ritual, ecology and adaptation, as well as a focus on the sources and dynamics of inequality. Further, we focus on the dynamics of change in contemporary life-globalization, migration, political collapse, environmental calamity and social reorganization-and how these processes challenge social scientists to construct appropriate paradigms to describe and understand the production of cultural meanings in the increasingly globalized world, and to identify cultural differences and human universals.