What makes human life both diverse and interconnected? This introductory course handout approaches that question through the foundations of cultural anthropology. It first distinguishes the study of culture from physical anthropology, archaeology, and anthropological linguistics, then explains how ethnography documents particular communities while ethnology compares cultures to identify broader patterns. Culture emerges here as the possessions, ideas, values, and learned behaviors shared within a society. Everyday routines illustrate enculturation, while family support networks and clothing adapted to cold environments demonstrate the practical flexibility of cultural systems. Pollution provides a contrasting example of practices that can become harmful. Discussions of individuality and subcultures show why shared culture does not produce identical people. The theoretical lessons trace evolutionism, diffusionism, historicism, psychological anthropology, functionalism, and theories linking cultural development to energy and technology. Later sections introduce structuralism, ethno-science, cultural materialism, postmodernism, and interpretive anthropology, comparing their assumptions and limitations. The distinction between emic and etic perspectives highlights the tension between local understandings and researchers’ analytical categories. The handout also connects anthropology to policy evaluation, community needs, health, education, and economic activity. Ethical responsibilities accompany these applications. Its fieldwork section outlines research problems, hypotheses, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, using urbanization and family interaction to clarify variables. Glossaries and suggested readings support students as they move from introductory concepts toward research design.