It is one of the main tasks of anthropology to discover and explain such variability in how people live. Here the general focus is on culture, the set of symbols and ideas that govern the learned behaviors of human beings and on social relations and organization. Culture is the basic means of human adaptation and is the major attribute that distinguishes human beings from all other animals. They study a variety of peoples ranging from hunting and gathering groups in Africa or Australia to urban dwellers in North America, not only as distinct communities but also in terms of how they are connected with each other. In attempting to account for the differences and similarities between societies, cultural anthropologists are concerned about the how, when, where, and, especially, the why of cultural variation.
Cultural anthropologists use their knowledge to help in the analysis and planning of social change.
Archaeologists are a type of cultural anthropologist, since they are concerned with societies and patterns of cultural behavior in the past. They reconstruct past societies from their material remains. The study of human cultural evolution is central to archaeology, as archaeologists examine how and why historic and prehistoric societies have developed and changed. Increasingly, archaeologists also investigate how material culture helps to constitute society in the present. Another type of cultural anthropologist is the linguistic anthropologist.