Who studies lifestyles and subcultures? Anthropologists or Sociologists?

Question

Who studies lifestyles and subcultures? Anthropologists or Sociologists?

Answer 1

Both do they over lap each other... anthropology came from sociology...it is birth place of anthropology

Answer 2

A quick and dirty answer is that while they both do, Anthropologists tend to focus on older/extinct/declining cultures while Sociologists tend to focus on present day  and evolving culture/trends.

Answer 3

Keep it simple people.

Anthropologist study lifestyles and subcultures

Sociologists study how people interact with one another

Answer 4

Both

Answer 5

They both do, the difference lies in how the study is done (not who is being studied as several answers seem to suggest).  Both anthropologists and sociologists can look at their own or other cultures there are two main differences - while sociologists typically look at one culture, anthropologists look at a culture in relation to others around the world and humanity in general.  Second - anthropology is a holistic view that looks at both biological and cultural interaction, trying to identify how the whole system works.  Although there are generally four accepted subfields of anthropology (cultural, physical, linguistics and archaeology) many academic programs expect a student to have some familiarity with each field and how they work together to provide holistic understandings.

Wikipedia definitions for each identify some of these differences.

Sociology  - an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. Sociological research ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. The field focuses on how and why people are organized in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and institutions.

Anthopology - is the comparative study of the physical and social characteristics of humanity through the examination of historical and present geographical distribution, cultural history, acculturation, and cultural relationships.    

It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all human beings across times and places, and with all dimensions of humanity (evolutionary, biophysical, sociopolitical, economic, cultural, psychological, etc.).

Answer 6

Yes.

Those who study their own societies and subcultures are sociologists; those who study others, anthropologists.