Gofman A.B. Sociology and Social Anthropology: Two Disciplines or One? Russian Sociological Review. 2026. Vol. 25. No. 2. Pp. 9-27.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://sociologica.hse.ru/article/view/38831 (дата обращения 02.07.2026)

Abstract

This article elucidates the interconnections, disciplinary boundaries and differences between sociology and social anthropology. The author provides a number of examples from the history of both disciplines, which demonstrate their proximity and close relationship, as well as the mobility, conventionality and permeability of the boundaries between them. Many prominent representatives of each of these social sciences belonged and attributed themselves, at different times or simultaneously, to both of them. The paper argues that in terms of subject matter and methods their relationship can be described as that between a part (social anthropology) and the whole (sociology). Sociology subsums social anthropology, including cross-cultural studies, as one of its subdisciplines, branches or problem areas concerned with comparative study of various societies, civilizations and basic institutions. Social anthropology is always sociology (as many social anthropologists have recognized), whereas sociology is not always social anthropology. In the future, social anthropology will probably remain a sociological discipline, one of the subdisciplines of sociology. Sociology, in turn, given the proliferation of the most diverse sociocultural ties, is likely to attach increasing importance to the comparative method in its various versions and become largely “anthropologized” in its themes and scope. Researchers’ recognition of and attention to such phenomena as “basic human needs” and “human nature” should play an important role in this process, providing a fundamental system of coordinates for comparative study of cultures and societies. The shifting disciplinary boundaries and distinctions call for periodical demarcation and sharpening, but what is in any case more crucial is the professional level of studies, their quality and results.