A Brief History of Anthropology Slide 2 Industrial Revolution
Science Positivism Rationalism Reason Rapid Change Progress
Christianity under attack Age of Empire Philosophy of History 19 th
Century Characteristics With the industrial revolution literally
steaming ahead the 19 th century was a century of rapid change
Slide 3 To the Victorian mind it was far better to be civilized
than to be a savage Slide 4 Anthropology: A Branch of History ` the
history, not of tribes or nations, but of the condition of
knowledge, religion, art, custom, and the like among them' (Tylor
1871 I: 5). "no conception can be understood except through its
history is a maxim which all ethnographers may adopt as a standing
rule". (Tylor 1871). `the past is continuously needed to explain
the present and the whole to explain the part' (Tylor 1865: 2).
`there seems no human thought so primitive as to have lost its
bearing on our own thought, nor so ancient as to have broken its
connection with our own life' (Tylor 1871). Slide 5 Making Stone
Tools New Guinea Australia The Savage Becomes the Primitive ` the
master-key to the investigation of man's primeval condition is held
by Prehistoric Archaeology. This key is the evidence of the Stone
Age, proving that men of remotely ancient ages were in the savage
state' (Tylor 1871 I: 58). Slide 6 Looking over a collection of
their [quaternary man's] implements and weapons on a museum shelf
we may fairly judge by analogy that in their moral habits, as in
their material arts, they had much in common with the rudest
savages of modern times, users like them of chipped stone and
flint. (Tylor 1873a: 702) Slide 7 Anthropologists could then use
the `indirect evidence' provided by contemporary savagery `as a
means of re-constructing the lost records of early or barbarous
times' (1865: 5). The condition of savage and barbarous tribes
often more or less fairly represent stages of culture through which
our own ancestors passed long ago' (Tylor 1871) Central tenet Ona
of Tierra del Fuego Slide 8 CIVILIZATION: Writing, urban life;
flowering of arts, architecture BARBARISM: settled life; markets,
rise of chiefs and kings, agriculture, arts develop SAVAGERY:
hunting and gathering; no surplus production; no permanent cohesive
unit wider than band, stone tools universal sequence of stages
through which it was hypothesized all societies will sooner or
later pass unless their development is arrested by some exogenous
circumstance (extinction, conquest, absorption by another society
or achieving a perfect equilibrium with the environment) Slide 9 U
N I F O R M I T Y O F S T A G E S A present day society in the
stage of Barbarism (e.g. Hawaii or Samoa) could shed light on the
distant past when northern European society was in the stage of
Barbarism just as an Australian Aboriginal society could inform
Europeans of their history in the stage of Savagery Hawaii
Europeans Australian Aborigines Slide 10 Uniformitarian principle
The same kind of development in culture which has gone on inside
our range of knowledge has also gone on outside it, its course of
proceeding being unaffected by our having or not having reporters
present. If any one holds that human thought and action were worked
out in primval times according to laws essentially other than those
of the modern world, it is for him to prove by valid evidence this
anomalous state of things, otherwise the doctrine of permanent
principle will hold good, as in astronomy or geology. That the
tendency of culture has been similar throughout the existence of
human society, and that we may fairly judge from its known historic
course what its prehistoric course may have been, is a theory
clearly entitled to precedence as a fundamental principle of
ethnographic research. (1871a I: 32-33) Slide 11 Hand Gonne c.1400
Matchlock 1400-1700 Wheellock 1500-1820 Flintlock 1608-1865 The
phenomena of Culture may be classified and arranged, stage by
stage, in a probable order of evolution (1871 I: 6) it is desirable
to work out a systematically as possible a scheme of evolution of
this culture along its many lines. P. 21 Slide 12 Among evidence
aiding us to trace the course which the civilization of the world
has actually followed, is that great class of facts to denote which
I have found it convenient to introduce the term Survivals.
Survivals These are processes, customs, opinions, and so forth
which have been carried on by force of habit into a new state of
society different from that in which they had their original home,
and they thus remain as proofs and examples of an older condition
of culture out of which a newer has evolved. Such examples lead us
back to the habits of hundreds and even thousands of years ago, p.
16. games, popular sayings, customs, superstitions, and the like.
Maypole Dancing Outskirts of London, 1891 Slide 13 E.B. Tylor
1832-1917 1871 Primitive Culture correlates the three levels of
social evolution to types of religion: Savagery animism barbarism
polytheism civilization monotheism Also linked to morality Slide 14
first stage was a time of sexual promiscuity Female infanticide led
to a shortage of women, who had to be shared in a polyandrous
matriarchal situation John Ferguson McLennan, (1827-81) 1865
Primitive Marriage: An Enquiry into the Origin of the Form of
Capture in Marriage Ceremonies Because men dont like to share wives
they captured them from neighbors (exogamy) patriarchy and monogamy
Slide 15 Lewis Henry Morgan (1818 1881) 1851 League of the Iroquois
1871 Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity 1877 Ancient Society
Slide 16 Assumptions of Nineteenth Century Evolutionism 1. Like the
natural world the cultural world is governed by laws that science
can discover. 2. These laws operated on the distant past as they do
on the present. - Uniformitarianism 3. The present grows out of the
past by a continuous process - developmentalism 4. This growth is
simple to complex. 5. All humans share a single psychic nature are
rational 6. The moving force of cultural development is interaction
with the environment. Slide 17 7. Different development is due to
different environments. 8. These differences can be measured. 9. In
these terms cultures can be ordered in a hierarchical manner. 10.
Certain contemporary cultures are like earlier stages. 11. In the
absence of data these stages can be reconstructed by the
comparative method. 12. The results of the comparative method can
be confirmed by the study of survivals. Assumptions of Nineteenth
Century Evolutionism Continued Slide 18 CRITIQUE OF EVOLUTIONISM
1.Is the Central Tenet Valid? 2.Is it Ethnocentric? 3.Did the Data
support the theory? 4.Is the Doctrine of survivals valid? Slide 19
The Growth of Fieldwork N. Chagnon in Brazil with the Yanomamo
Slide 20 3 Impetuses 1.Increasing knowledge of other cultures
2.dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of much of the data
contained in the ethnological writings 3.the belief that the savage
tribes in their natural state were rapidly disappearing in the face
of contact with the more civilized nations Slide 21 Increasing
knowledge of other cultures Explorers and travellers were replaced
by government officials and missionaries who formed a closer
association with the people they were in contact with. Appearance
of Literary journals such as The Fortnightly Review (1865-1934),
The Nineteenth Century (1877), The Academy (1871) The Contemporary
Review (1866- ) First Monographs e.g. The Native Tribes of Central
Australia (1899), B. Spencer and F. Gillen Questionnaires Slide 22
Notes and Queries on Anthropology 1874 Purpose: `to promote
accurate anthropological observation on the part of travellers, and
to enable those who are not anthropologists to supply the
information, which is needed for the scientific study of
anthropology at home' (BAAS 1874: vii). Slide 23 `In view of the
fast vanishing "primitive" cultures, and the rapid extinction of
some of the more primitive and ethnologically interesting races the
importance of such efforts to secure information ere it is too late
cannot be over-estimated' (Balfour 1905: 15). Fear that primitive
tribes were rapidly disappearing Onas hunting in Tierra Del Fuego
c. 1900 Tierra del Fuego has probably been inhabited for at least
9000 years. Around 1880 there were between 3500 and 4000 Ona In
1919 there were < 300 By 1930 < 100 Ona remained. the last
full-blooded Ona died in 1977. Slide 24 Alfred Court Hadddon
(1855-1940) 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Straits W H R
Rivers 1864-1922 Slide 25 Slide 26 A typical piece of intensive
work is one in which the worker lives for a year or more among a
community of perhaps four or five hundred people and studies every
detail of their life and culture; in which he comes to know every
member of the community personally; in which he is not content with
generalized information, but studies every feature of life and
custom in concrete detail and by means of the vernacular language.
It is only by such work that one can fully realise the immense
extent of the knowledge which is now awaiting the inquirer, even in
places where the culture has already suffered much change. It is
only by such work that it is possible to discover the incomplete
and even misleading character of much of the vast mass of survey
work which forms the existing basis of anthropology Rivers 1913
Survey Versus Intensive Fieldwork Slide 27 Rivers: the goal of
anthropology is the reconstruction of the history of `primitive'
peoples Balfour: the ethnographer's purpose is to determine their
place in time (1905: 18) Haddon's aim: to elucidate the nature,
origin and distribution of the races and peoples of a limited
ethnological area and to define their place in the evolutionary
tree Still Evolutionary Theory Slide 28 Two things were absent from
fieldwork at this time 1.participation `at Bendiyagalge we were
particularly well situated to observe their behaviour, our camp
being out of sight of the Vedda camp but within two hundred yards
of it, here we could listen to their unrestrained chatter and
laughter' (Seligman and Seligman The Vedda 1911: 85). Most
ethnographers at this time also relied heavily on translators
Fieldwork conducted under an evolutionary paradigm did not
necessitate participation. Since ethnographers were interested in
establishing historical links with other cultures, the meanings
which the myths and ceremonies they were describing had for the
people concerned was of little interest 2. sociological theory
Slide 29 Emile Durkheim 1858 - 1917 The Division of Labour in
Society 1893 Rules of the Sociological Method 1895 Suicide 1897
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 1912 Slide 30 What is a
Social Fact? A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not,
capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or
again, every way of acting which is general throughout a given
society, while at the same time existing in its own right
independent of its individual manifestations When I perform my
duties as a father or a husband for example, I fulfill obligations
which are defined in law and custom and which are external to
myself and my actions. Even when they conform to my own sentiments
and when I feel their reality within me, that reality does not
cease to be objective, for it is not I who have prescribed these
duties; I have received them through education. Slide 31 External
to the Individual found ready-made at birth Objective Learned
Relative Endowed with coercive power A new variety of phenomena
source is not the individual but in society a collective phenomenon
Social Facts Characteristics Slide 32 Rules of the Sociological
Method Society is part of nature and a science of society must be
based on the same principles as those of the natural sciences
Social facts must be treated as things I.e. objectively The
properties of the totality cannot be deduced from those of the
individuals who combine to form it. E.g. Suicide rates Social facts
have to be explained in terms of their function Slide 33 Functional
Explanation function of a social item refers to its correspondence
with the general needs of the social organism not the individual
Function must be clearly distinguished from intention or purpose
Slide 34 Human societies consist of a number of institutions which
over time achieve a harmonious fit to one another Integration serve
adaptive ends i.e. contribute to the survival of the overall
society function do not just reflect universal human nature, but
shape it in distinctive ways determinism The root idea in
functionalism Slide 35 Functionalist view of a society (1) SOCIETY
INSTI- TUTIONS PERSON A society consists of a distinct set of
institutions which introject distinctive motivations into its
members from earliest childhood Slide 36 Functionalist view of a
society Different institutions produce different persons with
different motivations Slide 37 Functionalism in a Nutshell how does
a social phenomenon contribute to the survival of the society as a
whole Slide 38 BRONISAW MALINOWSKI 1884 - 1942 1884 born in Krakw,
Poland, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1910: emigrates to
England to begin postgraduate work in anthropology at the LSE 1912
receives a Ph.D from the LSE for a library dissertation on the
Australian aborigines 1914 travels to the British Association for
the Advancement of Sciences meeting in Melbourne Sept 1914 War is
declared while en route and Malinowski is classified as an enemy
alien. spends 2 years in the Trobriands Slide 39 Trobriand Is.
Slide 40 Imagine yourself suddenly set down surrounded by all your
gear on a tropical beach close to a native village while the launch
or dinghy which has brought you sails away out of sight. Slide 41
Imagine yourself then, making your first entry into the village
Slide 42 Some natives flock around you, especially if they smell
tobacco Slide 43 He ought to put himself in good conditions of
work, that is, in the main, to live without other white men, right
among the natives Slide 44 One step further in this line can be
made by the Ethnographer who acquires a knowledge of the native
language and can use it as an instrument of inquiry. (p. 23) Slide
45 The goal [of the Ethnographer] is, briefly; to grasp the
native's point of view, his relation to life, to realise his vision
of his world P. 25 Perhaps through realising human nature in a
shape very distant and foreign to us, we shall have some light shed
on our own. P. 25 The Goal of Ethnography Slide 46 Participant It
is good for the Ethnographer sometimes to put aside camera, note
book and pencil, and to join in himself in what is going on p. 21
Observation An ethnographic diary, carried on systematically
throughout the course of ones work in a district would be the ideal
instrument for this sort of study inside view outside (analy-
tical) view Slide 47 A functional account is an analysts account
which asks what is the `sociological function of these customs what
part do they play in the maintenance and development of
civilization? Functional accounts dont worry about how an
institution arose most institutional origins lost in the mists of
time can at most speculate about them (conjectural history ) For
functionalists, what is important is not how things originated but
how they work (function) how they contribute to peoples lives Slide
48 language binds the community together Magic warrants a myth's
truth, Myth expresses, enhances, and codifies belief; it safeguards
and enforces morality' Scientific knowledge ensures Man's survival
Religion establishes, fixes, and enhances all valuable mental
attitudes, such as reverence for tradition, harmony with
environment, courage and confidence in the struggle with different
cultures and at the prospect of death law curbs certain natural
propensities, to hem in and control human instincts and to impose a
non-spontaneous, compulsory behaviour' Various Institutional
Functions Slide 49 Basic needs Food, shelter, sex, etc. universal
this supplies a certain commonality to all human cultures and is
ultimately what makes them comparable. Also makes ethnology
scientific each culture responds to the particular needs of its
members through institutions every institution centres around a
fundamental need For example, tools function to provide food, and
shelter The variation in the form of the institution is culturally
determined Malinowskis Hierarchy of needs Slide 50 instrumental
needs but tools require skilled artisans and trade groups etc. In a
sense, the tools themselves have needs. These are instrumental
needs the three primary ones being economic organization, law, and
education integrative needs these institutions must in turn be
functionally adjusted to each other in order to form a more or less
consistent pattern this produces requirements not of individuals
but of the cultural system itself Slide 51 The dominant theoretical
paradigm of the British school of social anthropology, 19301955.
Associated with the theoretical writings of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown
in Structure and function in primitive society A. R.
Radcliffe-Brown 1881-1955 2STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM Slide 52 1.
Society is seen as an organically structured whole akin to a
biological organism. 2. Society has a social structure - an ordered
arrangement of parts. 3. Structure is ideally integrated, unified,
and exists in equilibrium. 4. This structure is the object of
analysis; the most valued data is the structure you can abstract.
5. The function of Social activities and institutions is ultimately
interpreted in terms of maintaining the whole social structure of
the society FIVE BASIC PRINCIPLES Slide 53 INSTITUTIONS:
Distinguishable sets of roles, norms, and statuses within a social
system e.g. kinship system it is to institutions that the concept
of function is applicable the function of an institution is its
contribution to the overall perpetuation and adaptation of the
society For social life to persist or continue the various
institutions must exhibit some kind of measure of coherence or
consistence THE STRUCTURE IS INTEGRATED Slide 54 THE FUNCTION OF
INSTITUTIONS IS TO MAINTAIN THE STRUCTURE The problem for society
is to survive to maintain its structure But basic human nature is
inherently selfish and is therefore inimical to that survival.
Therefore the behaviour of individuals must be molded to the
requirements society needs to survive Conflict must be restrained
and the conduct of persons in their interrelations with each other
must be controlled by norms or rules of behaviour Failure of the
individual to follow these norms results in sanctions. Slide 55 In
the Trobriand Islands, a shaved head and a body blackened with
charcoal are signs of mourning. This is followed by ritual wailing
by the deceased maternal kin How does this ritual mourning
contribute to the survival of the society as a whole? Slide 56
CRITIQUE OF FUNCTIONALISM What is the Functionalist view of Human
Nature? What is the Relationship between the individual and the
society? How do Functionalists account for change? How do
functionalists deal with conflict? How is the function of a given
institution determined? How does one decide, or know what is good
for the society as a whole? Must all institutions have a function?
What is its methodology? Slide 57 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920
1930 1940 Boas Radcliffe Brown Malinowski AMERICAN CULTURAL ANTHRO-
POLOGY BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHRO- POLOGY REACTION AGAINST EVOLUTIONARY
THEORY FRENCH ETHNO- LOGIE EVOLUTIONISM DIFFUSIONISM FUNCTIONALISM
DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL SCHOOLS DURKHEIMIAN SOCIOLOGY MODERN PERIOD
PERIOD OF GRAND THEORY Slide 58 FRANZ BOAS 1858-1942 Boas en route
to Baffin Island 1883 and Central Inuit; to study the reflectivity
of sea-water Slide 59 Inuit can perceive and name hundreds of
colors and qualities of sea-water and surfaces unknown in European
languages distinctions which can be described scientifically in
physics and optics and which are of adaptive value to a sea-mammal
hunting culture Boas study: earliest anthropological attempt to
describe a non-European ethno-science in phenomenological terms
CENTRAL ESKIMO (IGULIK) STUDY Slide 60 Analyst seeks to understand
phenomena by grasping how they make sense within the framework of
the subjects thought-world i.e relatively posing as a Kwakiutl
dancer for a National Museum diorama, 1895 Slide 61 1885: First
expedition to Northwest Coast (Bella Coola) 1886: First collecting
trip for American Museum of Natural History (New York City) to
Nootka and Kwakiutl ( Kwakwaka'wakw) massive documentation of
Northwest Coast culture Slide 62 Anti-Evolutionist Evolutionism
assumes what it is trying to prove Order of cultural traits is
arbitrary, eg representative and geometric art forms positioning
individual cultures on the savagery-barbarism- civilization ladder
discounts their particularity and integrity sidesteps the important
task of reconstructing unwritten histories for non-Western peoples
Rational psychological explanation is misleading i.e. people did
not reason themselves out of their primitive state because one of
the fundamental characteristics of people is that they act
automatically and unconsciously Slide 63 Three pillars explain
cultural customs 1.Cultures can only be understood with reference
to their particular historical development. Therefore each culture
is unique 2.Environmental conditions 3.Individual psychological
factors CULTURAL/HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM Slide 64 idea was not to
make a preconceived hypothesis, but to collect as much data about a
particular culture without any theory general theories of human
Behaviour would arise once enough data had been collected We
refrain from the attempt to solve the fundamental problem of the
general development of civilization until we have been able to
unravel the processes that are going on under our eyes Hallmark of
historical particularism became the intensive study of specific
cultures through long periods of fieldwork CULTURAL/HISTORICAL
PARTICULARISM Slide 65 BOASIAN CONCEPT OF CULTURE superorganic the
product of collective or group life; but the individual has an
influence unconscious a filter through which reality is perceived,
but which is not itself the object of attention adaptive culture
ultimately helps individuals adapt to their environment. Slide 66
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LINGUISTICS ARCHAEOLOGY PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Four Field Approach Slide 67 Cultural/historical particularism
race, language, and culture as independent variables Relativism
superorganic Cultural Determinism Data Collection without theory
Emphasis on Fieldwork 4-field approach FRANZ BOAS Slide 68 Alfred
Louis Kroeber (1876-1960) 1897 enrolled in a course in American
Indian languages at Columbia University offered by Franz Boas 1901
completed his dissertation on symbolism in Arapaho art in Montana
and received the first doctorate in anthropology to be awarded by
Columbia 1901-1946 first instructor of newly created anthropology
dept. at U of California, Berkeley Slide 69
