Scope of Social Anthropology

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Scope of Social Anthropology

• Lecture by Paul Dresch, ISCA, 14.10.2002

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Development of anthropological thought by early
thinkers and philosophers

• Early 18th cent. MONTESQUIEU The spirit of the
  Law, developed an understanding of kinship in
  Athens.
• David HUME Essay on human understanding
  proposed a cool detached attitude.
• 1776 Edward GIBBON The rise and fall of the
  Roman empire developed a social analytic view,
  quite cynic and distant from religion.
• Around 1910-1930 Ferdinand SAUSSURE father of
  linguistics

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Views of historiographies

• Synchronic concerned with the state of an event
  at one time, past or present descriptive, as
  opposed to historical or diachronic.
• Diachronic through time, historical
• Panchronic applied to all societies at all
  stages of their development
• Till the early 20th century people wrote
  diachronic histories, focused on single nations.

across time
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The dichotomy ORIENTAL - PRIMITIVE

• A view that developed during the 19th cent. When
  historical contacts with other nations were
  discovered ( e.g. Sanskrit and indo-european
  linguistic roots)
• SCHWAB The Oriental Renaissance the
  discovery of Indian myths, philosophy, Sanskrit,
  etc., brought focus to the values that European
  history was suppressing.
• Consequently the study of anthropology was based
  on the view that something was european
  oriental- and something else indigenous and
  primitive. This fostered the idea that
  anthropologists had to work in the field outside
  Europe.
• Development of symbolism in art, psychoanalysis,
  anthropology were in a way a reaction to the
  suppression of thought during the time of the
  industrialisation.

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Early Anthropology

• MC LENNON 1865 developed theories of marriage in
  Africa, Pacific islands an South America
• MORGAN 1877 invented the study of kinship and
  placed anthropology into Africa.
• MALINOSWSKI, founder of the functionalist school
  in anthropology
• idea of field work in exotic places
• Margret HEAD anthropology in the US

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Periods in Anthropology

• Till 1920 Evolutionism Henry MAINE
• 1920-30s. Functionalism MALINOWSKI, focus on
  individual, synchronic anthropology
• USA 1930s-50s Cultural anthropology BENEDICT
• 1940s-50s Structural Functionalism RADDCLIFFE
  BROWN focus on structure of society, synchronic
  view
• 1960s Structuralism LEVI STRAUSS
• Till the 1960s, anthropology referred to social
  relationships in selected tribal cultures, did
  not find history of much relevance.
• This is termed the time of modernism.

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Post Modernism in Anthropology

• Anthropological work tries to render intelligibly
  what different people are doing under different
  circumstances at different times and why.
• Internal exoticism remained for a while, but
  today anthropological studies are carried out
  anywhere on the world.
• It has become a part of mainstream society.

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Anthropology works at three levels

• 1. Ethnography produces high quality monographs
• 2. Area Work different areas design their own
  agendas, has reached a high level of methodology
  and linguistics, which makes it more difficult.
  Anthropology is now influencing other subjects,
  has interdisciplinary powers, is no side-stream
  subject anymore.
• 3. All Humanity Anthropology today creates
  themes that influence and address all of
  humanity.

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A few tips for studying anthropology

• Dont evoke (?) the idea of human nature.
• Dont assume in the beginning what you try to
  investigate.
• Use big terms ( culture, etc. ) with caution.
• Argue from evidence only!
• Move carefully from one ethnographic fact to
  another, from one author to another, dont fill
  the gaps with personal common sense.
• Draw intelligible conclusions out of settings.

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Book remarks

• George STOCKING wrote a good history of
  anthropology.
• Adam KUPER collected a lot of facts on the
  history, who did what when, but missed out on the
  accurate development of intellectual thought in
  A.
• Very good to read
• LIENHARDT R G 1964 Social anthropology
• first and last chapter give an easy introduction
• DRESCH P. and JAMES W. 2000 Fieldwork and the
  passage of time, intro to Anthropologists in a
  Wider World.
• DRESCH P 1992 Ethnography and general theory, or
  people versus mankind, Journal of the
  Anthropological Society of Oxford XXIII/1
• KUPER A 1988 The invention of Primitive Society
• LEACH E. 1961 Rethinking Anthropology ( ch. 1)
• SCHWAB R. 1984 The Oriental Renaissance
• EVANS-PRITCHARD E E 1981 A history of
  Anthropological thought