Download Anthropology Hall of Fame

Anthropology Hall of
Fame
Margaret Mead
The most famous of the
early anthropologists
 Studied cultures in Pacific
islands
 Compared Samoan teens
to American teens
 Conclusion: personality
influenced by society
 Later focus: gender roles

Accused of sloppy
methods
 Used too many personal
stories, not enough
statistics



Many thought she
exaggerated the sexual
liberation of young
Samoans
But: she’s an important
pioneer, she popularized
anthropology
Ruth Benedict

Studied role of
religion  human
personality

Studied Aboriginal
peoples of US Plains

Culture “personality
writ large”

i.e., the sum of all the
personality types of its
people

Studied Japanese
culture to assist
redevelopment after
WWII
Bronislaw Malinowski
 Social
Anthropologist

 All
social institutions
are designed &
modified to meet
needs of most of the
population
 (founder)
 Studies
& compares
social organizations
in different societies
 Studied
people of
New Guinea &
Trobriand Islands
His functional theory

Rejected Cultural
Evolutionism
Cultural Evolutionism?

All societies develop in a regular series of predictable stages

Savage  Primitive  Sophisticated

Criticisms against Cultural Evolutionism:


It’s racist

Implied that newer is more advanced

Ethnocentric, judges Western civilization as best, others compared
to it
Malinowski: anthropology to explain, not judge

Don’t rate cultures,

Point out similarities, differences

REQUIRES: exhaustive observation & detailed record-keeping
Raymond Dart Physical Anthropologist



Examine fossils /
other remains
To understand
evolutionary
development of
humans
Skull found 1924,
Australopithecus
“Southern Ape”

Findings disputed

1947, found more
evidence supporting
claim

Today,
Australopithecus a
valuable discovery
Louis & Mary Leakey
Likely the most
famous family of
physical
anthropologists
 1930’s people thought
human origins in Asia
 Leakey disagreed,
went to Africa
 Australopithecus
 Homo habilis

Experimented with
ancient tools  how
ancestors hunted
 Thought: study of
primates would help
us to understand our
ancestors

Jane Goodall

Worked with Leakeys

Alpha male wins supremacy,
has the right to mate with
the females

Observed & recorded lives of
chimpanzees

Initially from a distance,
once she gained their trust,
from close up

Eventually usurped, has a
privileged role as respected
grandparent

Key findings:

Our human ancestors:

Chimps make & use tools


They aren’t strictly
vegetarian
Highly developed social
structure, based on
aggression

Originally vegetarian,
became meat eaters when
able to co-operate to hunt

They have a social structure
Biruté Galdikas
Focus: orangutans
 Why?
 Share 98% genetic
material with humans
 Foster parent to a 1
year old male

Observations
 (similar to Goodall’s)
 Highly structured
social communities
 Violence always
possible
 “looking into the
…eyes of an
orangutan…image of
our own creation…

Dian Fossey
 “Gorillas
in the
Mist”
 Observed gorillas,
from a distance,
close up
 They show
affection  family
 Aggression 
outsiders

Common theme:
primates share much
in common with our
early human ancestors