The%20Development%20of%20Anthropological%20Thought

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Chapter 4

• The Development of Anthropological Thought

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Chapter Outline

• Nineteenth Century Origins
• Early Twentieth Century Development
• Mid-Century Evolutionary Approaches
• Anthropological Thought Today Divisions

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Chapter Outline

• Scientific Orientations
• Humanistic Orientations
• Either/Or?
• Why Cant All Those Apologists Agree?

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Nineteenth Century Origins

• Anthropology became a separate academic field.
• Studied how humans progressed to a "civilized"
  cultural existence.
• Unilineal Evolution - applied the theory of
  evolution to culture.

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Unlineal Evolution

1. Compile accounts of other cultures written by
   observers.
2. Compare the cultures to determine which are the
   simplest and most complex.
3. Classify the cultures into stages of development.

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Unlineal Evolution

1. Label theses stages Savagery, Barbarism,
   Civilization.
2. Place any new cultures in the classification.
3. Invent an explanation for why the people in one
   stage developed into the next stage.

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American Historical Particularism (ca. 1900-1940)

• Each culture is unique and must be studied on its
  own terms.
• Each culture changes along its own path,
  depending on the influences that affect it.

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American Historical Particularism (ca. 1900-1940)

• Fieldwork is the primary means of acquiring
  reliable information.
• Cultural differences and biological differences
  have little to do with each other.

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Other Theories

• Diffusionists
• Anthropologists who study how cultural elements
  (traits) were transmitted (diffused) from one
  people or region to another.
• Configurationalism
• Each culture develops a distinctive set of
  feelings and motivations that orients the
  thoughts and behaviors of its members.

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British Functionalism(ca.1920-1950)

• The cultural features of a people should be
  explained by the functions they perform.
• Contributions
• Importance of fieldwork.
• Relativism and Holistic perspectives.

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Functionalism

• Theory that analyzes cultural elements in terms
  of their useful effects to individuals or to the
  persistence of the whole society.

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Mid-Century Evolutionary Approaches (ca.
1940-1970)

• Return to cultural evolution.
• White emphasized importance of technology.
• Steward emphasized the adaptation to the local
  environment in making cultures the way they are.

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Anthropology Today

• Scientific Approach
• Studies focus on humans as part of nature and
  seek to account for similarities and differences
  in human cultures.
• Humanistic Approach
• These scholars believe that humans are unique
  because they are conscious, cultural beings, and
  their main goal is to describe and interpret
  particular cultures.

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Scientific Approach

• Sociobiology or Evolutionary Psychology
• Assumes that a body and its behavior are means of
  replicating itself
• Cultural Materialism
• All mammals have the same imperative needs food
  and water, regulation of body temperature
  (shelter and clothing), reproduction, coping with
  disease, competing for resources and so on.

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Humanistic Approach

• Interpretive Anthropology
• Emphasizes the uniqueness and particularity of
  each culture and that all social behavior has an
  inherent symbolic component.

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Humanistic Approach

• Postmodernism
• Emphasizes the relativity of all knowledge and
  focuses on how the knowledge of a particular time
  and place is constructed, especially on how power
  relations affect the creation of ideas and
  beliefs.

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Quick Quiz
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1. Several changes which led to the beginnings
and growth of anthropology are

1. Darwinism and the more ancient age of the earth
2. Historical particularism and functionalism
3. Marxism and cultural materialism
4. Unilineal and multilineal evolutionism

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Answer a

• The new theories of Charles Darwin and the
  knowledge that the earth was older than
  previously thought, led to the development of
  anthropology as a field of study.

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2. The theory of unilineal evolution

1. developed from Darwins ideas on natural
   selection
2. states that different peoples represent different
   grades of development
3. defines stages of savagery, barbarism, and
   civilization
4. all of the above

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Answer d

• The theory of unilineal evolution developed from
  Darwins ideas on natural selection, states that
  different peoples represent different grades of
  development, and defined savagery, barbarism and
  civilization as stages of development.

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3. Materialists emphasize

1. human uniqueness
2. ideas
3. cultural adaptation of resources
4. the cultural construction of resources

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Answer c

• Materialists emphasize the cultural adaptation of
  resources.