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

• Till the early 20th century people wrote diachronic histories, focused on single nations.

across time

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 AnthropologyMC 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 remarksGeorge 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