Written records are particularly important if the research is directed toward understanding culture change. Some anthropologists have even based their research entirely upon written records and have tried to reconstruct the culture of historical societies, such as the New England village in colonial times. Cultural anthropology became defined as a field of inquiry in Europe and North America in the 19th century as very much part of Euro-American efforts to colonize alien peoples and to control and exploit the labor and material resources of the colonial areas. Anthropological insights and interpretations became valuable to those in positions of power, even in cases where individual cultural anthropologists objected to the uses of their findings. At the same time, the training of anthropologists has spread outside of Europe and the United States so that many countries of the world now have their own anthropologists.
Cultural anthropology has a special holistic perspective .
For example, where an economist usually confines research to markets and political scientist to politics, an anthropologist is inevitably interested in a way in which these and other aspects of culture are interrelated. In order to expand their understanding of culture, anthropology students are encouraged to study one or more of the other social sciences as well as anthropology. The teaching of anthropology reflects the divisions of interests among cultural anthropologists. In addition, there are methodological courses which teach how to conduct field research and applied anthropology courses which focus on how cultural anthropology can be used to address immediate problems in the modern world. The application of cultural anthropology to the problems of today is a central reason for its existence.