It is said that social anthropology traditionally does not study the primitive society in its different institutional aspects. It believes in holistic study. For instance, if an Indian anthropologist studies the Gond society as M.N. Srinivas has studied the Coorgis, all the institutions of tribe, namely, economy, polity, religion, kin, and clan are studied.
This is the kind of holistic study anthropologists have been making. This has also been stressed by Evans-Pritchard and others. There is reason for making a holistic study of the primitives. Social anthropologists try to show the linkages among the social institutions and this gives the whole picture of the primitive society. Evans-Pritchard observes:
With the emergence of functional anthropology it is regarded as the task of social anthropology to study social institutions as interdependent parts of social system, the more it is seen to be an advantage to be able to study those societies which are structurally so simple and culturally so homogeneous, that they can be directly observed as wholes.
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If we conclude the scope and subject matter of social anthropology, as identified by earlier and traditional social anthropologists, it consists of: (i) primitive societies, and (ii) their holistic study.
Social anthropology is rich in the study of primitive peoples. The African tribes, viz., Nuer, Tikopia, Santi, Yao, Bantu, Murle and the Indian tribes, viz., Coorgis, Bodo, and Naga are examples of holistic tribal studies.