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THEORY
different cultures during the mid-nineteenth century, they needed to be able to explain the cultural differences and similarities they found
The desire to account for the vast cultural variation
questions such as Why do people behave as they do? and How do we account for human diversity?
evolutionism
In an attempt to account for
the diversity of human cultures, the first anthropologists, writing during the last half of the 19th century suggested the theory of cultural evolutionism.
evolutionism
All societies pass through a series of distinct
evolutionary stages. We find differences in contemporary cultures because they are at different evolutionary stages of development.
evolutionism
Edward Tylor
Evolutionism
Euro-American cultures were at
the top of the evolutionary ladder and less-developed cultures on the lower rungs.
The evolutionary process was
thought to progress from simpler (lower) forms to increasingly more complex (higher) forms of culture.
>wrote Ancient Society (1877) and developed a system of classifying cultures to determine their evolutionary niche
and civilization according to the presence or absence of certain technological features. 1. Lower savagery-from earliest forms of humanity subsisting on fruits and nuts 2. Middle savagery-began with the discovery of fishing technology and the use of fire 3. Upper savagery-began with invention of bow and arrow
making 5. Middle barbarism-began with the domestication of plants and animals in the Old World and irrigation cultivation in the New World 6. Upper barbarism-began with the smelting of iron and use of iron tools 7. Civilization-began with the invention of the phonetic alphabet and writing.
Criticisms of Evolutionism
Ethnocentrism Armchair speculators
*Both Morgan and Tylor were trying to establish secular evolutionary rationales rather than relying on the supernatural
Diffusionism
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
diffusionists addressed the question of cultural differences in the world by determining that humans were essentially uninventive
Certain cultural features developed in one or several
parts of the world and then spread, through the process of diffusion, to other cultures.
diffusionists
All societies change as a result of
the general theory of diffusion being applied to explain specific cases of cultural diversity
Diffusionism overemphasized the
American Historicism
A reaction to the deductive
approach and headed by Franz Boas, this school of anthropological thought was prominent in the first part of the 20th century and insisted upon the collection of ethnographic data through direct fieldwork prior to making cross-cultural generalizations
American Historicism
Ethnographic facts must precede the development of
from other cultures Direct fieldwork is absolutely essential Each culture is, to some degree unique Ethnographers should try to get the view of those being studied (emic) not their own view (etic)
Functionalism
Theory of social stratification holding that social
appear, it had a meaning and performed some useful function the well-being of the individual or the society; the job of the researcher is to become sufficiently immersed in the culture and language to be able to identify these functions
Functionalism-Bronislaw Malinowski
Like Boas, Malinowski was a strong
advocate of fieldwork, but he had no interest in asking how a cultural item got to be the way it is. Focused on how contemporary cultures operated or functioned
Ex: the kula among the Trobriand
Islanders
the needs of the individual, Radcliffe-Brown saw them in terms of contributions to the well-being of the society
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown
Because of the emphasis on
social functions rather than individual functions, Radcliffe-Browns theory has taken the name STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
functionalism
The functionalist approach is based on two
fundamental principles:
Universal Functions-every part of a culture has a function 2. Functional Unity-a culture is an integrated whole composed of a number of interrelated parts; a change in one part of the culture is likely to produce change in other parts
1.
Psychological Anthropology
Looks at the relationships among
Anthropologists became interested in the relationship between culture and the individual
Psychological Anthropology
Some of Boass students began asking questions
about what role personality played in human behavior, should personality be viewed as a part of the cultural system or if personality variables are part of culture, how are they causally related to the rest of the system
Edward Sapir
Individuals learn their cultural
interaction of individuals
Margaret Mead
Early interest in adolescence in the
U.S.
Coming of age in Samoa (1928)
Research on Gender
Psychological Anthropology
Anthropologists need to explore the relationships
Neoevolutionism
School of thought that attempted to refine the earlier
century evolutionists, in part because they made sweeping generalizations based on inadequate data. Yet no one was able to demonstrate that cultures do not develop or evolve in certain ways over time
Leslie White
Resurrected the theories of the
evolutionists
Felt their major shortcoming was an
absence of data
Culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year increases or as the efficiency of the means of putting energy to work is increased *C=E x T
Julian Steward
More interested in developing
propositions about specific cultures or groups of cultures *unilinear evolution-an attempt to place particular cultures into specific evolutionary phases
Julian Steward
*multilinear evolution-suggestion that specific cultures can evolve independently of all others even if they follow the same evolutionary process *cultural ecology-assumption that people who reside in similar environments are likely to develop similar technologies, social structures, and political institutions
Neoevolutionism
Cultures evolve in direct proportion to their capacity
to harness energy
Culture is shaped by environmental conditions Through culture, human populations continuously
French Structuralism
Theoretical orientation holding that cultures are the
French Structuralism
Human cultures are shaped by certain
preprogrammed codes of the human mind Theory focuses on the underlying principles that generate behavior rather than the observable empirical behavior itself Emphasizes repetitive structures rather than sociocultural change
French Structuralism
Rather than examining attitudes,
values and beliefs, structuralists concentrate on what happens at the unconscious level
Ethnoscience
Theoretical school popular in the 1950s and 60s that
tries to understand a culture from the point of view of the people being studied
Ethnoscience
Attempts to make ethnographic description more
accurate and replicable Describes a culture by using the categories of the people under study rather than by imposing categories from the ethnographers culture Because it is time-consuming, ethnoscience has been confined to describing very small segments of a culture Difficult to compare data collected by ethnoscientists
Feminist Anthropology
Seeks to describe and
Feminist Anthropology
All aspects of culture have a gender dimension that
must be considered in any balanced ethnographic description Theory represents a long overdue corrective to male bias in traditional ethnographies More subjective and collaborative than objective and scientific Largely critical of a value-free orientation
Cultural Materialism
Cultural systems are most
*Marvin Harris
Cultural Materialism
Material conditions determine human thoughts and
behavior Theorists assume the viewpoint of the anthropologist, not the native informant Anthropology is seen as scientific, empirical and capable of generating causal explanations De-emphasizes the role of ideas and values in determining the conditions of social life
Postmodernism
Human behavior stems from the way
aspects of cultural systems are subjective factors such as values, ideas and worldviews *Clifford Geertz
Postmodernism
Calls on anthropologists to switch from cultural
generalization and laws to description, interpretation and the search for meaning Ethnographies should be written from several voicesthat of the anthropologist along with those of the people under analysis Involves a return to cultural relativism