Anthropological Theory

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Anthropological Theory

• Anthropology 330
• Kimberly Porter Martin

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What is Theory?

• KEY COMPONENTS
• Definitions for the central concepts used for
  explanation or prediction
• Logical connections between concepts to create a
  system of explanation and/or prediction
• Explanation and/or prediction
• The development of assumptions that affect the
  way a problem or issue is viewed.

• DEFINITION
• Definition a set of related hypotheses that
  provide a better explanation than any single
  hypothesis.

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The World of Theories

• Theories can be based on logic, ideas or belief
  without the use of empirical evidence
• Grounded theories are derived from empirical
  evidence, and are continuously tested against new
  empirical evidence
• Many different and sometimes conflicting theories
  can coexist and be used for different purposes
• Theories are the basis from which world views are
  developed and changed

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General Types of Theories

• Materialist Theories
• Focus on practical, concrete economic factors
  such as technology and distribution systems as
  the shapers of culture.
• Ideological Theories
• Focus on ideas, beliefs and symbols such as
  religion and values as the shapers of culture.

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Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
Theory Major Assumption Advocates
Evolutionism All societies pass through a series of stages. Tylor, Morgan
Diffusionism All societies change as a result of cultural borrowing, Graebner, Smith
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Evolutionism

• The nineteenth-century school of cultural
  anthropology, represented by Tylor and Morgan,
  that attempted to explain variations in world
  cultures by the single deductive theory that they
  all pass through a series of evolutionary stages.

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Lewis Henry Morgan Edward Tylor
19th Century Evolutionists
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Evolutionism in Brief

• All cultures pass through the same developmental
  stages in the same order.
• Evolution is unidirectional and leads to higher
  levels of culture.
• Ethnocentric because evolutionists put their own
  societies at the top.

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Evolutionary Stages

• Lower savagery From the earliest forms of
  humanity subsisting on fruits and nuts.
• Middle savagery Began with the discovery of
  fishing technology and the use of fire.
• Upper savagery Began with the invention of the
  bow and arrow.
• Lower barbarism Began with the art of pottery
  making.
• Middle barbarism Began with domestication of
  plants and animals in the Old World and
  irrigation cultivation in the New World.
• Upper barbarism Began with the smelting of iron
  and use of iron tools.
• Civilization Began with the invention of the
  phonetic alphabet and writing.

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Diffusionism in Brief

• Societies change as a result of cultural
  borrowing from one another.
• Overemphasized the essentially valid idea of
  diffusion.
• Very popular in Europe especially Germany

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American Historicism in Brief

• Ethnographic facts must precede development of
  cultural theories (induction).
• Any culture is partially composed of traits
  diffused from other cultures.
• Direct fieldwork is essential.
• Each culture is, to some degree, unique because
  of the specific history of events that caused it
  to change over time.
• Ethnographers should try to get the view of those
  being studied, not their own view.

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Franz Boas

• Franz Boas, the teacher of the first generation
  of cultural anthropologists in the United States,
  put the discipline on a firm empirical basis.
• Developed the theory of American Historicism AKA
  Historical Particularism

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Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
Theory Major Assumption Advocates
Functionalism Understand how cultures satisfy the needs of individuals. Malinowski
Structural functionalism Determine how cultural elements function for the well-being of the society. Radcliffe-Brown
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Functionalism in Brief

• Through fieldwork, anthropologists can understand
  how cultures work for the individual and the
  society.
• Society is like a biological organism with many
  interconnected parts.
• All parts of a culture are interconnected so a
  change in one part of the culture is likely to
  bring about change in other parts.
• Empirical fieldwork is essential.
• The cultural traditions of a society persist
  because serve a purpose in society.

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Bronislav Malinowski

• During one of the longest uninterrupted
  fieldwork experiences on record, Bronislav
  Malinowski not only set the standard for
  conducting fieldwork but also developed an
  important new way of looking at cultures known as
  functionalism.

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Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
Theory Major Assumption Advocates
Psychological anthropology Show the relationship among psychological and cultural variables. Benedict, Mead
Neoevolutionism Cultures evolve in proportion to their capacity to harness energy. White, Steward
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Psychological Anthropology in Brief

• Anthropologists need to explore the relationships
  between psychological and cultural variables.
• Concluded that nurture was more important than
  nature with regard to personality and gender
  traits.
• Focused on socialization and enculturation of
  children.

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Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict

• Margaret Mead devoted much of her long and
  distinguished career in anthropology to the study
  of how culture affects the process of growing up.

Ruth Benedict Benedict described whole cultures
in terms of individual personality
characteristics.
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Psychological Anthropologists

• Interested in exploring relationship between
  culture and the individual.
• Benedict studied Native Americans and wrote about
  the Japanese during World War II to make them
  intelligible to Americans
• Meads early research brought her to Samoa to
  study emotional problems associated with
  adolescence.
• Later she studied male and female gender roles in
  New Guinea.

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Neoevolutionism in Brief

• Cultures evolve in proportion to their capacity
  to harness energy.
• Culture is shaped by environmental conditions.
• Human populations continuously adapt to
  techno-environmental conditions.

Leslie White
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Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
School Major Assumption Advocates
French structuralism Human cultures are shaped by the preprogrammed way the human mind is organized. Lévi-Strauss
Ethnoscience Cultures must be described in terms of native categories. Frake, Goodenough
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French Structuralism

• Culture as Mental Structures
• Structures of knowledge about kinship. All
  kinship systems classify relationships by gender,
  generation and collaterality.
• Structures of meaning within myths. Myths
  consist of (1) elements that oppose or contradict
  each other and (2) other elements that "mediate",
  or resolve, those oppositions.

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Ethnoscience

• An attempt at cultural description from a totally
  emic standpoint, using only the concepts and
  categories of the people being studied.
• Ethnographic Interviews to elicit native
  categories.

Charles Frake
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Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
School Major Assumption Advocates
Cultural materialism Material conditions determine human consciousness and behavior. Harris
Postmodernism Human behavior comes from how people perceive and classify their world. Rosaldo
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Cultural Materialism

• All aspects of culture can be explained by
  economic factors.
• Sacred cows in India.
• Aggression and protein in the Amazon Basin

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Postmodernism

• Rejects the existence of objective facts in favor
  of emic perspectives.
• Studies culture as a phenomenon that creates
  different realities for each person and each
  society.
• Writes descriptions rather than research reports

Renato Rosaldo
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Powerpoint Study Guide

• Theory
• Grounded Theory
• Materialist Theory
• Ideological Theory
• Evolutionism
• Diffusionism
• American Historicism
• Functionalism

Structural Functionalism Psychological
Anthropology Neoevolutionism French
Structuralism Ethnoscience Cultural
Materialism Postmodernism