What is the Cultural Applications Principle?
A distinctive theme of the Elon Sociology and Anthropology Department is the Cultural Applications Principle, or CAP. This theme integrates the perspectives, theories, and methods of sociology and anthropology and applies them to the socio-cultural contexts of human action. Although (as indicated below) the CAP theme contains several different elements, perhaps the central one is the idea of cultural relativism. In our program, students are taught how to identify and analyze cultural differences — between societies or between subgroups within societies — in ways that are attentive to the circumstances of the people being studied and respectful of the people themselves. In this sense, the long-term goal of our program is to help students understand and then apply socio-cultural knowledge and skills in concrete, practical, responsible ways throughout their personal lives and professional careers. To thrive in today’s increasingly global world, it is important that students approach pro
