Cross-Cultural Studies is a specialization in Anthropology that uses field data from many societies to examine the scope of human behavior and test hypotheses about human behavior and culture. Unlike comparative studies, which examine similar characteristics of a few societies, cross-cultural studies use a sufficiently large sample so that statistical analysis can show relationships or lack or relationships between the traits studied. These studies are surveys of ethongraphic data. Cross-cultural studies, sometimes called Holocultural Studies, have been used by social scientists of many disciplines, particularly, Anthropology and Psychology.

The first cross-cultural studies were done by 19th century anthroplogists, such as Tylor and Morgan.

The modern era of cross-cultural studies began with George Murdock.