Download Chapter 4 - Cengage Learning

Chapter 4
The Growth of
Anthropological Theory
What We Will Learn
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Who have been the important theorists in
cultural anthropology since the midnineteenth century?
What theories have anthropologists used to
explain cultural differences and similarities
among the peoples of the world?
How can anthropological data be used to
make large-scale comparisons among
cultures?
Anthropological Theories
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A theory is a statement that suggests a
relationship among phenomena.
Theories enable us to reduce reality to an
abstract set of principles.
Anthropological principles help us make sense
of ethnographic information from different parts
of the world.
Theories can generate hypotheses to be tested
in an empirical research investigation.
Evolutionism in Brief
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All cultures pass through the same
developmental stages in the same order.
Evolution is unidirectional and leads to
higher levels of culture.
A deductive approach is used to apply
general theories to specific cases.
Ethnocentric because evolutionists put
their own societies at the top.
Morgan’s Evolutionary
Stages
1.
Lower savagery: From the earliest forms of
humanity subsisting on fruits and nuts.
2.
Middle savagery: Began with the discovery of
fishing technology and the use of fire.
3.
Upper savagery: Began with the invention of
the bow and arrow.
Morgan’s Evolutionary
Stages
4.
Lower barbarism: Began with the art of
pottery making.
5.
Middle barbarism: Began with domestication
of plants and animals in the Old World and
irrigation cultivation in the New World.
Morgan’s Evolutionary
Stages
6.
Upper barbarism: Began with the smelting of
iron and use of iron tools.
7.
Civilization: Began with the invention of the
phonetic alphabet and writing.
Anthropological Theories and
Their Proponents
School
Major
Assumption
Advocates
Evolutionism
All societies pass
through a series
of stages.
Tylor, Morgan
Diffusionism
All societies
change as a result
of cultural
borrowing,
Graebner, Smith
Anthropological Theories and
Their Proponents
School
Major Assumption
Advocates
Functionalism
Understand how
cultures work for wellbeing of the individual.
Malinowski
Structural
functionalism
Determine how
cultural elements
function for the wellbeing of the society.
Radcliffe-Brown
Anthropological Theories and
Their Proponents
School
Psychological
anthropology
Neoevolutionism
Major Assumption
Show the
relationship among
psychological and
cultural variables.
Cultures evolve in
proportion to their
capacity to harness
energy.
Advocates
Benedict, Mead
White, Steward
Anthropological Theories and
Their Proponents
School
Major Assumption
French
structuralism
Human cultures are
shaped by
preprogrammed
codes of the human
mind.
Ethnoscience
Cultures must be
described in terms of
native categories.
Advocates
Lévi-Strauss
Sturtevant,
Goodenough
Anthropological Theories and
Their Proponents
School
Major Assumption
Advocates
Harris
Cultural
materialism
Material conditions
determine human
consciousness
and behavior.
Postmodernism
Human behavior
comes from how
people perceive and
classify their world.
Geertz
Diffusionism in Brief
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Societies change as a result of cultural
borrowing from one another.
A deductive approach is used by applying
general theories to explain specific cases.
Overemphasized the essentially valid idea
of diffusion.
American Historicism in Brief
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Ethnographic facts must precede development
of cultural theories (induction).
Any culture is partially composed of traits
diffused from other cultures.
Direct fieldwork is essential.
Each culture is, to some degree, unique.
Ethnographers should try to get the view of
those being studied, not their own view.
Functionalism in Brief
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Through fieldwork, anthropologists can
understand how cultures work for the individual
and the society.
Society is like a biological organism with many
interconnected parts.
Empirical fieldwork is essential.
The structure of any society contains
indispensable functions without which the
society could not continue.
British Functionalists
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Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown were
strong advocates of fieldwork.
Concentrated on how contemporary
cultures meet the needs of individuals and
perpetuate the society.
All parts of a culture are interconnected
so a change in one part of the culture is
likely to bring about change in other parts.
Psychological Anthropology
in Brief
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Anthropologists need to explore the
relationships between psychological and
cultural variables.
Personality is largely the result of cultural
learning.
Universal temperaments associated with
males and females do not exist.
Psychological Anthropologists
Benedict and Mead
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Interested in exploring relationship between
culture and the individual.
Benedict described whole cultures in terms of
individual personality characteristics.
Mead’s early research brought her to Samoa to
study emotional problems associated with
adolescence.
Later she studied male and female gender roles
in New Guinea.
Neoevolutionism in Brief
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Cultures evolve in proportion to their capacity to
harness energy.
Culture is shaped by environmental conditions.
Human populations continuously adapt to
techno-environmental conditions.
Because technological and environmental
factors shape culture, individual factors are deemphasized.
Lévi-Strauss
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Mental structures preprogrammed in the
human mind are responsible for culture
and social behavior.
The human mind thinks in opposites.
 People classify the units of their culture
and relate them to the world around
them.
French Structuralism in Brief
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Human cultures are shaped by preprogrammed
codes of the human mind.
Focus on underlying principles that generate
behavior.
Emphasizes repetitive structures rather than
sociocultural change.
Assumes the human mind categorizes
phenomena in terms of binary oppositions.
Ethnoscience in Brief
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Attempts to make ethnographic description
more accurate and replicable.
Describes a culture using the categories of the
people under study rather than categories from
the ethnographer’s culture.
Because it is time-consuming, has been used to
describing very small segments of a culture.
Cultural Materialism in Brief
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Material conditions determine human thoughts
and behavior.
Theorists assume the viewpoint of the
anthropologist, not the native informant.
Anthropology is seen as capable of generating
causal explanations.
Deemphasizes the role of ideas and values in
determining the conditions of social life.
Postmodernism in Brief
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Calls on anthropologists to switch from cultural
generalization and laws to description,
interpretation, and the search for meaning.
Ethnographies should be written from several
voices—that of the anthropologist along with
those of the people under analysis.
Involves a return to cultural relativism.
Quick Quiz
1. A ________ is a statement that suggests
a relationship among phenomena.
a) fact
b) theory
c) hypothesis
d) position
Answer: b
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A theory is a statement that suggests a
relationship among phenomena.
2. The premise that all societies pass
through a series of distinct stages is
known as:
a) cultural evolutionism.
b) cultural determinism.
c) kulturkreis.
d) structural functionalism.
Answer: a
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The premise that all societies pass
through a series of distinct stages is
known as cultural evolutionism.
3. Holding that humans are basically
uninventive, ________ is a theory that
claims certain cultural features were
invented in one or several parts of the
world, and then spread to other cultures.
a) cultural materialism
b) structural functionalism
c) diffusionism
d) evolutionism
Answer: c
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Holding that humans are basically
uninventive, diffusionism is a theory
that claims certain cultural features were
invented in one or several parts of the
world, and then spread to other cultures.
4. Claude Levi-Strauss' ________
concentrates on identifying the mental
structures that undergird social behavior.
a) American historicism
b) French structuralism
c) structural functionalism
d) economic determinism
Answer: b
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Claude Levi-Strauss' French
structuralism concentrates on
identifying the mental structures that
undergird social behavior.
5. Structural functionalism places emphasis
on the social functions rather than the
individual functions of culture.
a) True
b) False
Answer: True
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Structural functionalism places
emphasis on the social functions rather
than the individual functions of culture.