Download Theories of Anthropology

THEORIES & METHODS OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
PART ONE: BUILDING THE
DISCIPLINE
AIM: Why did historical particularism fade away?
HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM
Three schools of Diffusionism

Kulturkreise School
 Explain
the development of culture through migration
and diffusion

British Diffusionism
 Implausable
claim that Egypt was source of virtually all
cultural traits and innovations, which then diffused to
rest of the planet
 Short-lived

Historical Particularism

Main aspect was diffusionism
 Diffusionism
– an aspect of culture, such as discover of
the wheel, religious belief, or marital practices tend to
spread from one culture to another, eventually
becoming integrated into all of the cultures in a given
geographical area
 No
longer need for each culture to evolve through specific
stages in a specific order
Historical Particularism

Historical particularism was main argument in America
against evolutionism (Assumption all cultures had gone
through same stages of evolution, in the same order)
Basic Features of Historical Particularism


Focus on one culture (or cultural area) and that the history of that culture be
reconstructed
Diffusion






Culture is a loosely organized entity, rather then a tightly fused system
Culture is to some extent unique
Focus on emic analysis
Social life is guided by habit and tradition
Relativism




Any particular culture was partly composed of elements diffused from other
cultures
Since each culture is to some degree unique, unacceptable to pass judgment on
beliefs and actions found in other cultures
Cautious generalizations
Emphasis on original fieldwork
Inductive procedure
KEY FIGURES IN HISTORICAL
PARTICULARISM
Franz Boas (1858-1942)



Born and educated in Germany
Focus on importance of culture
Rigorous fieldwork standards
 Collect
native texts, vernacular
accounts of aspects of culture

Inductivist
 Only
after masses of solid data had
been collected could stabs at
explanation and generalization be
made
Ruth Benedict (1887-1948)



Trained by Boas
1934 – Patterns of Culture
Leading figure in culture and personality
school


Believed each culture promoted a distinct
personality type, and that there was a high
degree of consistency between cultural type
and patterns of emotion
Modal Personalities

A statistically most prominent personality
which left room for other types

Eventually view emerged that each culture had
several modal personalities
Evaluation

Boas’s emphasis on:
 Subjectivity
(personal interpretation)
 Insistence on collection of original texts (emic)
 Distrust in grand theoretical schemes
 Promotion of relativism
AIM: How did structural functionalism become the
dominant anthropological theory?
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
Structural Functionalism


Initial reaction in British anthropology against
evolutionism took form of diffusionsim
From late 1800s until 1950s/60s, structural
functionalism was leading theory in British
anthropology
Basic Features of Structural Functionalism

Organic Analogy


Natural science orientation


Society is like a biological organism, with structures and
functions
Empirical, orderly, patterned
Narrow conceptual territory
Investigations should be restricted to social structure (society)
 Rarely paid much attention to art, language, ideology, the
individual, technology, or environmental factors


Existing structures and institutions in any particular
society contained indispensable functions without which
the society would fall apart, and these structures and
functions or their equivalents were found in all healthy
societies
Basic Features of Structural Functionalism


Significance of kinship system and the family
Equilibrium



Society exhibited long-term stability
Anti-historical


Society was not only thought to be highly patterned, but
also in a state of equilibrium and would re-equilibrate when
disruptions occurred
Did not encourage a historical perspective
Fieldwork Orientation

Devoted to first-hand, participant observational research
KEY FIGURES IN STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONALISM
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)


Born in England
Promoted three stages of
scientific investigation
 Observation
(collecting data)
 Taxonomy (classifying the data)
 Generalizations (theoretical
excursions)

Believed cross-cultural
comparisons and generalizations
were essential to anthropology
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942)

Father of Modern Fieldwork
 Long-term
participant observation
in a small community

Research among Trobrianders
 Remained
among them for four
years, setting standard for future
fieldwork
 Kula Ring
The Kula Ring





Necklaces were exchanged clockwise from
one Trobriand island to another
Armshells were exchanged counterclockwise
Exchange was ceremonial (neither item had
any intrinsic value)
Exchanges increased level of interaction
and decreased the degree of hostility
among the people of various islands
Made bartering for valuable resources
possible with others


Could not barter with groups you exchanged
necklaces or armbands with
Contributed to social solidarity and prevented
squabbles over who got the best deal
Malinowski vs. Radcliffe-Brown

Malinowski placed emphasis more on function than
structure
Focused more on what institutions actually contributed to a
society
 Radcliffe-Brown gave priority to social structure




Malinowski argued that the function of institutions was to
satisfy biological needs. Radcliffe-Brown saw their function
as fulfilling the mechanical needs of society
Malinowski stressed the importance of gathering native
texts, or accounts of beliefs and behaviors in native’s own
words
Malinowski & Radcliffe-Brown held many of the same
views as well
Evaluation




Structural functionalism provided anthropology with
a coherent and tidy framework
At its most basic level, procedure only required
ethnographers to identify patterns of action and
belief, and specify their functions.
Downplayed conflict and almost ignored social
change
Structural functionalism suited to maintaining
colonial empires once they had been established
CONCLUSIONS

Through the first phase of anthropology, there was
a general commitment to establishing a scientific
study of culture or society
AIM: What methods did anthropologists use through the
first phase of theories?
METHODS
The Fieldwork Situation

In the late 1800s, there was a division of labor between the
professional anthropologist and amateur fieldworker



By early 20th century, anthropologists themselves began to
do fieldwork
At first the emphasis was on fieldwork rather then participation
When 1913 edition of Notes and Queries was published there was
an argument for intensive participant observation studies, to be
carried out by a sole researcher in a small population over a period
of at least a year


Anthropologist remained in comfort of the library and museum
Amateurs travelled to remote parts of the world collecting
materials
Basic Techniques and Related Elements - Fieldwork









Participant observation
Reliance on informants
The interview (usually unstructured)
Genealogies & life histories
Collecting census material
Long period of fieldwork
Learning indigenous language
Emphasis on actor’s point of view (emic)
Emphasis on informal rather than formal
structure


Emphasis on validity rather than reliability




Back rather then front stage
Validity implies ‘truth’
Reliability just means that repeat studies will
produce same results
Limit on size of population
Comparative method as alternative to
controlled lab experiment

Inductive research design



Search for virgin territory
Exaggeration of the degree of cultural
uniqueness



The more exotic, the better
One’s research site should be as remote
and isolated as possible so no other
anthropologist will ever check up on one’s
ethnographic findings
Fieldwork personality



Reaching conclusion based on observation:
generalizing to produce a universal claim
or principle from observed instances
Flexible and perceptive, sense of humor
Strong constitution, good listener
Sustained disbelief

Doubt about what people said, about their
explanations for beliefs and
behavior…anthropologists had to get to
the truth
AIM: How did future theories help to fill in some of the
holes of earlier anthropological theories?
PART TWO: PATCHING THE
FOUNDATION
AIM: How did future theories help to fill in some of the
holes of earlier anthropological theories?
CONFLICT THEORY
Conflict Theory

Structural functionalism was dominant theoretical
orientation in British social anthropology right up to
the 1950s
A
healthy society rested on a unified set of
indispensable, universal functions and equilibrium was
maintained


Critics complained it puts cart before the horse
Structural functionalism was incapable to cope with
social change
Basic Features of Conflict Theory

Conflict is normal and widespread

Opposite to structural functionalism





Conflict was viewed as abnormal and rare
Conflict knits society together, and thus maintains society
in a state of equilibrium
Conflict with an outside group generates internal
solidarity
Society consists of criss-crossing identities, loyalties, and
strains which ultimately nullify each other, resulting in
harmony and integration
Societal equilibrium is the product of the balance of
oppositions
KEY FIGURES IN CONFLICT
THEORY
Max Gluckman (1911 – 1975)


Gluckman argued conflict is
essential to social interaction
Society achieves equilibrium,
product of conflict
 People
tend to create different sets of
loyalties and allegiances which clash
with each other
 Criss-crossing loyalties cancel each
other out
Lewis Coser (1913 – 2003)




Portrayed conflict as normal, widespread, and positive,
contributing to the integration of society and acting as a
safety valve for strains that might otherwise build up and
tear society apart
Group cohesion due to external conflict
In some cases, external conflict is intentionally fostered by
societal elites in order to deflect hostility and tension within
a community onto an imaginary enemy
Realistic Conflict


Non-Realistic Conflict


Arises from frustration between two or more persons
Free-floating frustrations; aggression flies off in all directions,
and rather than resolving the frustrations, aggression is an end
in itself
Criticism was conflict model was disguised as an equilibrium
model, slightly different then structural functionalism
Evaluation


During the several decades in which structural
functionalism had dominated, conflict and strain had
been ignored
Conflict theorists emphasize interests which divide
people in society unite them, not common values
AIM: How did future theories help to fill in some of the
holes of earlier anthropological theories?
SOCIAL ACTION THEORY
Social Action Theory (Interactional Theory)


When conflict theory proved to be an inadequate
substitute for structural functionalism, British social
anthropologists began to play around with other
theoretical approaches
Central message in structural functionalism is that human
beings conduct their behavior in accordance with the rules
laid down by society


Others argued social life is messy and disjointed. People say
one thing but do another; rather than adhering perfectly to the
rules of society, they bend, twist, and ignore these rules as selfinterest dictates
Theory that emerged had the capacity to cope with both
social change and conflict
Basic Features of Interactional Theory








Society is constantly changing
Norms are ambiguous and unclear, even contradictory
There is a gap between normative order and actual
behavior, which means rules or norms do not explain
behavior
Human beings are in constant competition for scarce goods
and rewards
Humans must constantly choose between alternatives
Emphasis on the individual as a self-interested manipulator
and innovator
Emphasis on reciprocity, exchange, and transaction
Focus on informal (back stage) rather than formal structure
(front stage)
KEY FIGURES IN
INTERACTIONAL THEORY
F.G. Bailey (1929 - _ )

Bailey challenged assumption that there is a simple, direct
relationship between normative order and actual behavior



Assumption fails to take into account the degree to which individuals
manipulate the world around them
Most people are guided by self-interest, thread our way between
norms, seeking the most advantageous route
Bailey distinguishes between normative and pragmatic rules of
behavior




Normative rules – general guides to conduct; make up the public,
formal, or ideal rules of a society
Pragmatic rules – deviations from the ideal rules; tactics and strategies
that individuals resort to in order to effectively achieve their goals
When pragmatic rules drastically increased, the normative order, or
ideals of a society, must be rebuilt to fit current realities
Bailey’s assumption is that pragmatic rules more closely correspond to
how people actually behave



The people portrayed by Bailey are not
puppets controlled by institutional
framework
People are active, choice-making agents
locked in competitive struggle
Social structure is dynamic, continuously
being reshaped by shifting allegiances,
coalitions, and conflicts that characterize
human interaction
Jeremy Boissevain (1928 - __)

1974 – Friends of Friends
 Social
life unfolds in the informal arena, where
what counts is one’s contacts – who one knows
rather than what one is qualified to do
 In reality, people do what is best for themselves


Boissevain believes structural functionalism
just documents how people are supposed to
behave, not how they actually behave
Everyday life is acted out in an arena of
competition and conflict, and social change
rather than stability is the normal state of
affairs
Fredrik Barth (1928 - __)

Describes relationship between leaders and
followers as a form of transaction



Leaders provide protection, followers allegiance
Self-interested individuals manipulating
values and norms to their own advantage,
choosing between alternative strategies, and
establishing relationships and alliances
governed by reciprocity, with the whole
process feeding back on and transforming
the value system and social organization
Advocated a focus on the processes that
produce structural form


Central to this is the capacity of people to make
choices
End products are patterns of behavior which are
formed and reformed over time
Victor Turner (1920 – 1983)

Turner analyzed three types of conflict:
 Conflict
between principles of social organization
 Contradictions
embedded in the social structure
 Conflict
between individuals and cliques striving for
power, prestige, and wealth
 Inconsistent,
even contradictory, norms exist side by side
 People must select and discard norms most advantageous to
their interests
 Internal
conflict between egoism and altruism (selfish or
social motives)
Max Weber (1864 – 1920)



According to Weber, society consisted of 4 quasiautonomous spheres - economic, political, legal,
religious – and ideas, beliefs, and values had an
independent causal impact on human conduct
Weber defined social action as intentional,
meaningful, and oriented to others
The only real or concrete phenomenon was the
individual human act
Social institutions are not concrete realities, instead,
they consisted of a plurality of actors who only have a
high probability of interacting for a particular purpose
 Social Relation – two or more persons guided by
meaningful conduct and oriented to each other


Bridged the gap between actor and social institution.
Evaluation


Gap between what people say and what they do,
or between rules of behavior and actual behavior
Incorporated conflict into framework
Critique



By concentrating on the intricate and complex
maneuvers of individuals and coalitions, focus is lost
on the larger social structural context
Fail to take history into account, and the degree to
which it explains the present
Macro-Micro Dilemma
 How
to achieve a sensitive, detailed analysis of the
local situation while simultaneously bringing into play
the wider structural-historical context
AIM: What methods did anthropologists use through the
second phase of theories?
METHODS
Methods Literature

Young anthropologists began to write about their own fieldwork
experiences and set off an explosion of publications on ethnographic
method



Qualitative methods became very popular



Goal was make open and public what has been previously closed and
mysterious
‘How To’ textbooks
Profiled qualitative methods as a distinctive research approach, and gave it
some legitimacy
Students learned methods by actually doing research, which was basically
the attitude of earlier anthropologists
Purpose of methods literature was to demystify the fieldwork process, to
render it more scientific

Slight problem  degree to which one’s data and interpretations are shaped
by one’s informants



Two different informants can result in two radically different ethnographies
Also pointed out role played by chance and accident in fieldwork
Cast doubt on anthropology as science
Fieldwork Situation

Greater emphasis was placed on theory, and fieldwork became shorter
Students were encouraged to narrow the focus of their studies, and to
concentrate on limited number of sharply defined problems rather then
trying to cover everything
Recognition that outside social and historical forces always penetrate
and shape the small community and must be taken into account
Recognition that cultures being studied were no longer primitive
Interview emerged as a principle technique
Increased emphasis on the ethics of fieldwork

Greater sensitivity to ethical issues (rationalization)









Anthropologists began to accept they did not have a right to intrude on people’s lives
Demand for research to be useful
Fieldworkers to make research goals explicit
Seek permission from and respect the privacy of people
New Rules of Thumb for Fieldwork



Use multi-methods, not just participant observation and informants
Keep daily diary on methods
Appendix on methods in report, thesis, or book


Keep data separated





Quantitative data…more specific then “more, less, a lot, a little”
Provide universities in countries where research is conducted with copies of one’s publication


Leading up to WWII, anthropologists looked for virgin territory
Let the research problem dictate your choice of methods
Learn to count


Distinction between actor’s and observer’s interpretation is usually blurred
Clearly identify native analytic concepts and observer analytic concepts in report, book, or
thesis
Select research project on basis of a problem to be solved, rather than an area or tribe to
investigate


Information for the reader to understand methodological approach
Part of new ethical stance
Assure informants represent all sectors of a community
Do fieldwork abroad and at home
PART THREE: DEMOLITION
AND RECONSTRUCTION
Theory



For the one hundred years prior to the 1970s, the discipline
of anthropology of swung back and forth between hard
and soft versions of science
Goal throughout was of a scientific study of society
Emergence of structuralism, postmodernism, and feminist
anthropology basically discarded science
Structuralism – questioned positivism, emphasis on empirical
data, evidence, confirmation of a hypothesis
 Postmodernism & Feminists – questioned fieldwork. Ethnographic
fieldwork accused of gender and cultural bias, as powerful and
privileged academics misrepresented the lives of natives and
women for the benefit of Western males.

AIM: Why did structuralism appear?
STRUCTURALISM
Basic Features of Structuralism

Deep structure vs. Surface structure


Primacy of unconscious over conscious


What motivates people lies beyond their consciousness at the level of deep structure
Etic vs. Emic analysis



Structuralists examine the underlying principles and variables (deep structure) that
generate behavior instead of empirical, observable behavior (surface structure)
Structuralism places priority on etic analysis.
Relegates to the explanatory sidelines the individual human being, whose motives and
actions are seen as largely irrelevant and merely a distraction to the researcher
Reversibility of time

Distinction drawn between chronological (historical) and mechanical (anthropological) time



Chronological time is cumulative; events unfold across history
Mechanical time is repetitive, events unfold across space
According to structuralists, social organization supposedly is reproduced generation after
generation
Basic Features of Structuralism

Transformational analysis


Linguistic analogy



Is there any difference between humans and other animals?
Humans as classifiers


Emphasis on belief systems, cognitive maps, and oral and written thought
Main focus on mythology, understood as a distinctive ‘language’ or ‘code’ that reflects the way the
human brain operates and articulates fundamental themes, dilemma's, and contradictions in life
Nature-culture bridge


Aspects of culture derive their meaning in the context of the overall system of relationships in which
they are embedded
Focus on mental life


Assumed different institutions of human existence – economic organization, marriage systems,
architecture, ritual – are transformations of each other, manifestations of the same finite set of
underlying principles
Central to structuralism is contention that what makes humans unique is capacity for classification
Reduced models

Types of culture or categories of culture reduced to most simplistic, elementary properties

Primitive culture contains basic elements that characterize human existence everywhere
KEY FIGURES IN
STRUCTURALISM
Claude Levi-Strauss (1908 – 2009)
Challenged empirical, positivistic tradition,
arguing that culture is more like a language or
logical system of signs than a biological organism
(analogy used by structural-functionalists)
 Several reasons, according to Levi-Strauss for not focusing on
surface structure

At the level of observable human interaction there are too many
facts, too much going on
 At the empirical level there is a degree of randomness that makes
systematic analysis exceedingly difficult


When investigating cultural life, the focus is on underlying
principles which generate the surface patterns, not the
patterns themselves

Best known for his imaginative analysis of mythology





Assumed that myths constitute a kind of language
Myths are vehicles which supposedly take the analyst close to the
workings of the brain
Concerned with what myths indicate about the brain ‘operations’
Not so much in what humans think as in how they think
Rejected basic methodological principle  beliefs and
behaviors must be explained in their specific cultural context



One version of a myth is not better then another
Attempts to explain myths that occur in one part of the world with
those that are found in other parts of the world
In mechanical time, cultural materials such as myths do not
progress chronologically; they are simply reproduced across
space
Edmund Leach (1910 – 1989)

Political Systems of Highland Burma (1965)
 Drew
a distinction between actual behavior and
anthropological models used to explain it.
 Everyday behavior is dynamic, messy, driven by choice,
contradiction, power
 Anthropological models, in contrast, are always
equilibrium models
 Provide
universe
a sense of orderliness in an otherwise chaotic
Evaluation

Levi-Strauss placed big question about humankind back on the
anthropological agenda…what does it mean to be human?





There are no superior societies
Threw out conventional, positivistic science
Argued structuralism constituted the appropriate scientific
procedure for the investigation of culture
Defined social structure not as a general representation of the
empirical world, but rather as an abstraction or model in which
variables consist of logical relationships between things instead of
things themselves
Given his popularity, it is amazing how quickly structuralism
fell out of favor

Dealt almost exclusively with mentalist data, failed to relate data
to material world, and sidestepped major social and political issues
AIM: Why did Feminist Anthropology appear?
FEMINIST ANTHROPOLOGY
Feminist Anthropology


Academic feminism has been paralleled and fuelled
by the ongoing actions and changes in the empirical
world, notably in connection to the women’s
movement.
Anthropology has provided the basis for exploring
numerous issues significant to feminism, such as
whether gender roles and female oppression have
been universally the same or culturally diverse.
Basic Features of Feminist Anthropology

All social relations and knowledge is gendered


Distinctive epistemology




Research should be a collaborative, dialogical affair
Subjectivity (bias) is associated with females, and is superior to ‘male’ objectivity
(neutrality)
Urges female scholars to incorporate their own subjective experiences of
oppression into their research projects
Distinctive ethics


Gender must be included alongside class, status, role, power, and age as a basic
term
Primary purpose of research is to empower women and eliminate oppression
Anti-positivism


Language of science is regarded as the language of oppression. Positivistic
research is said to serve the interest of elites.
Value-neutrality, even if possible, would be ruled out, because feminist research
unapologetically promotes the interests of women
Basic Features of Feminist Anthropology

Preference for qualitative methods
 Empathy,
subjectivity, and dialogue supposedly allow the
investigator to understand the inner worlds of women, helping
them to articulate and combat their oppression

Female essence
 Provides

a counter-balance to misogynist representations
Universal sexual asymmetry
 Anthropology
has proved to be fertile ground for examining
two key questions.
 Has
gender inequality existed in all cultures at all times?
 Has gender inequality increased or decreased as human societies
have moved through history?
KEY FIGURES IN FEMINIST
ANTHROPOLOGY
Elvi Whittaker

Concerned with the representation of women by
men
 Relationship
between men and women is comparable to
that between the colonized and colonizer.
 In both, Western, white, heterosexual males have
imposed their world view on the other (women and
colonial peoples)
Feminism and Postmodernism

Both concerned with the issue of representation
 Feminism
– woman’s voice
 Postmodernism – multiple voices
Evaluation


Although there are a several varieties of feminism,
they all start off from the assumption that
conventional social science has been male-biased
Four reactions to this…
 Don’t
do anything
 How
 Add
most social scientists have responded
women when convenient to one’s analysis
 Women-centered research
 Non-sexist research