History of Anthropological Thought

Aspects for Comparison:

In order to understand the development of anthropology as a discipline and the notion of CULTURE in particular you should have know a brief definition of each of the major theoretical schools that we covered in class as well as the ability to compare and contrast the theories on the basis of the following criteria:

1. definition of culture (singular, plural, ideological, adaptive)
2. methodology (how are hypotheses created and data collected)
3. synchronic vs diachronic (temporal focus for analysis)
4. empirical vs speculative (scientific method)
5. emic (insider) vs etic(outsider) (perspective)

It is also important to understand that theories are culture bound and as such are inherently biased because they are a product of the culture at the time in which they are created. They ask questions that are relevant to the cultures which create them according to their understanding of the nature of reality. being aware of this ethnocentric bias is important to understanding other cultures and our own.

Unilineal Cultural Evolution (Morgan, Tyler, Stewart)

• arose out of the AGE OF DISCOVERY, where Western cultures tried to understand the diversity they saw out in the world. First asked the question: ARE THEY HUMAN? Then, once this was established, needed to explain how these humans could be soooo different from "Civilized" "Advanced" cultures like those found in Europe.
• Based on the ENLIGHTENMENT notion of PROGRESS
• people we see in the modern world can be placed on an evolutionary continuum from "PRIMITIVE" to "ADVANCED".
• based on TECHNO-ECONOMIC FEATURES (material products of culture)
• some cultures have "stalled" in their evolution and are "SURVIVALS" from a earlier more primitive time.
• racist explanations for why they failed to advance were common
• focus on classification into category from savage, barbarism, to civilized based on these features.

• CULTURE is singular and you have more or less of it. Culture is also ADAPTIVE
• Armchair theorizing, no collection of data. relied on travelers accounts and other information which was often rife with falsities and exaggeration (SPECULATIVE and nonscientific)
• DIACHRONIC (focused on the process by which peoples existed in the state that they did
• etic

Kulturkreislehre (German Anthropology) "Culture Essence Circle"

• Arose out of the study of German Folklore (Grimm, etc.)
• Centered around the importance of the cultural core or "GEIST". 
• consistent with the rise of German nationalism and the emphasis on racial purity. Kulturkreislehre tried to uncover the unadulterated culture.
• DIFFUSION: concept used to describe the process of cultural transmission (and corruption) which explains the diversity in human populations
• Grand Diffusionism: All culture originated at one point place in time (Greek & Egyptian Civilizations-seat of original Aryan knowledge) and diffused from their like a pebble dropping in the pond. With each successive wave there is greater corruption of the central ideas from the cultural core.
• Aim to find the PURE GEIST through an analysis of folktales which hold the core concepts (ideologies) of Germanness. 
• Other people failed to receive cultural traits from this original source or have corrupted them. This explains their inferiority to the pure Aryan culture 

• Culture is singular and ideological
• methodology is to trace back folktales and find their origin to purge them of their corruptions
• diachronic
• speculative
• etic

BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Functionalism (Malinowski)

•  systems model of culture where all of the INSTITUTIONS (sociology) are parts of the machine of culture which FUNCTION to SATISFY the BASIC NEEDS of the individuals in it. Three basic needs:
• Biological: food, water, procreation
• Instrumental: law, social order, education
• Integrative: religion, art, language

• the object of anthropology is to describe how these needs might be fulfilled by all societies.Cultures are LOGICAL SYSTEMS and people everywhere have the same basic needs.
• etic
• synchronic (snapshot description of the culture-no attempt to describe how cultural variation around the world is created)
• Culture is PLURAL (there are many cultures) and is adaptive (functions to fulfill a basic need)
• Empirical.methodology based on FIELDWORK and the structuring of hypotheses and collection of data in native settings.

Structural-Functionalism (Radcliffe-Brown)

• Built on the premises of functionalism, but adding the concepts from the Hegelian Dialectic (that a culture is greater than the sum of  its parts) Rather than fulfilling basic needs, the society serves to PERPETUATE ITSELF. The study of anthropology is now to see how the structures of society solve the problems of or contribute to the maintenance of the system (rather than functioning to fulfill a list of basic needs). 
• Emphasis on the interrelationship of the parts of the structure and how they impact one another.
• see connections between various aspects of culture
• Synchronis & etic
• culture is plural & adaptive
• methodology is scientific and empirical, collecting data to test hypotheses through fieldwork.

Structuralism (Levi-Strauss)

• Building on the two previous schools of British Social Anthropology and French Linguistics, Levi Strauss aimed to study the STRUCTURE on which a culture rests without looking at how its parts function.
• Looks at minimal conceptual pairs which through their constrast uncover meaning structures in culture.
• focuses on  structural (ideological & symbolic) aspects of culture like, language, religion, the arts and ritual to look for these conceptual contrasts
• etic & synchronic
• culture as ideological system & plural
• empirical & scientific

American Anthropology (Boas)

• Sometimes called Diffusionism, Boas aimed to make anthropology a scientific discipline in reaction against the German School and Nazi racist theoretical perspectives.
• Coincident with the Bristish School of Social Anthropology these two schools developed together. Sharing theoretical and methodological developments.
• Boas known as the FATHER OF ANTHROPOLOGY because of the contributions he made to the field:
• scientificizing anthropological study
• FIELDWORK through PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
• attack on grand diffusionism insisting that there are two mechanisms that explain cultural change. Scientific investigation must uncover which is the source.
• independent invention 
• diffusion
•  distinction between EMIC & ETIC analysis and insistence on the collection of both kinds of data. Anthropology lies in the discrepancies between the two. It aims to answer the question WHY? not just describing WHAT?.
• notions of ETHNOCENTRISM and CULTURAL RELATIVITY. Boas insisted that researchers must take a culturally relative perspective and that ethnocentrism prevented anthropologists from understanding cultures.
• Identified SYNCHRONIC & DIACHRONIC perspectives and insisted that anthropology needed both to truly understand cultures.

• Trained generations of anthropologists, especially female anthropologists. This legacy still strong in the discipline ( Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, etal)

Cultural Ecology (Harris, Diamond, Sahlins, White)

• A reawakening of materialism, in response to the philosophical principles of Marx & Engels. Analysis focuses on the TECHNO-ECONOMIC features of culture and the adaptation of these components to the local ENVIRONMENT in which the culture exists. ---all cultural traits are created in response to the environment.
• Environmental determinism. 
• REDUCTIONIST theory
• Culture is plural and adaptive
• empirical & scientific
• diachronic & etic in focus

American Structuralism/Symbolic Anthropology (Turner, Geertz)

• Continuation of structuralism of Levi-Strauss with Postmoderm influences.