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Scope of Social Anthropology
Lecture by Paul Dresch, ISCA, 14.10.2002
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
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
across time
• Till the early 20th century people wrote diachronic
histories, focused on single nations.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
A few tips for studying anthropology
Don’t evoke (?) the idea of human nature.
Don’t 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, don’t fill the gaps with personal common sense.
Draw intelligible conclusions out of settings.
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