The development of social and cultural anthropology is deeply rooted in the broader historical context of European intellectual history, colonial expansion, and evolving methods of understanding human societies. The field emerged as scholars and explorers became increasingly interested in understanding the vast diversity of human life, social organization, and cultural practices observed across the world. The origins of social and cultural anthropology can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries, a period marked by Enlightenment thinking, scientific curiosity, and the early stages of European colonial expansion, which brought Europeans into contact with diverse societies. Enlightenment philosophers such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Kant pondered questions about human nature, society, and the “state of nature,” laying the intellectual groundwork for later anthropological thought. These thinkers sought to classify societies according to reason, morality, and perceived levels of civilization, creating frameworks that influenced the early study of human cultures. In the 19th century, social and cultural anthropology began to take a more formal shape as a discipline. The works of scholars such as Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan were instrumental in this process. Tylor, often considered one of the founding figures of cultural anthropology, introduced the concept of “culture” as a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities acquired by humans as members of society. His comparative approach aimed to understand the evolution of cultures from “primitive” to “civilized” forms, reflecting the evolutionary thinking prevalent at the time. Similarly, Morgan, an American anthropologist, focused on social structures, particularly kinship and social organization, and proposed stages of social evolution ranging from savagery to civilization. These early theorists were influenced by the broader intellectual currents of social Darwinism, which applied the ideas of biological evolution to the study of human societies, although modern anthropology has critically rejected simplistic evolutionary hierarchies. The colonial context played a crucial role in shaping social and cultural anthropology. European colonial powers’ encounters with Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas exposed them to social systems, rituals, and cultural practices that were vastly different from those in Europe. Anthropologists and ethnographers often worked within colonial administrations or relied on reports from