Anthropological theory refers to the frameworks and ideas that help researchers understand human behavior, culture, and societies. It encompasses various perspectives, including cultural anthropology, which studies cultural practices, and social anthropology, which focuses on social structures and relationships. These theories aim to explain how humans interact with their environments and each other. Key theories in anthropology include functionalism, which views society as a system of interconnected parts, and cultural relativism, which emphasizes understanding cultures on their own terms. Other important concepts include structuralism, which analyzes underlying patterns in culture, and postmodernism, which critiques the idea of universal truths in human experience.