Anthropological TheoryAnthropology 330
Kimberly Porter Martin
What is Theory?
DEFINITION Definition: a set of
related hypotheses that provide a better explanation than any single hypothesis.
KEY COMPONENTS Definitions for the central
concepts used for explanation or prediction
Logical connections between concepts to create a system of explanation and/or prediction
Explanation and/or prediction The development of
assumptions that affect the way a problem or issue is viewed.
The World of Theories Theories can be based on logic, ideas or belief without the use of empirical evidence Grounded theories are derived from empirical evidence, and are continuously tested
against new empirical evidence Many different and sometimes conflicting theories can coexist and be used for
different purposes Theories are the basis from which world views are developed and changed
General Types of Theories Materialist Theories Focus on practical, concrete economic factors
such as technology and distribution systems as the shapers of culture.
Ideological Theories Focus on ideas, beliefs and symbols such as
religion and values as the shapers of culture.
Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
Theory Major Assumption Advocates
EvolutionismAll societies pass through a series of
stages.Tylor, Morgan
DiffusionismAll societies change
as a result of cultural borrowing,
Graebner, Smith
Evolutionism The nineteenth-century school of cultural
anthropology, represented by Tylor and Morgan, that attempted to explain variations in world cultures by the single deductive theory that they all pass through a series of evolutionary stages.
Lewis Henry Morgan Edward Tylor
19th Century Evolutionists
Evolutionism in Brief
All cultures pass through the same developmental stages in the same order.
Evolution is unidirectional and leads to higher levels of culture.
Ethnocentric because evolutionists put their own societies at the top.
Evolutionary StagesLower savagery: From the earliest forms of humanity subsisting on
fruits and nuts.Middle savagery: Began with the discovery of fishing technology
and the use of fire.Upper savagery: Began with the invention of the bow and arrow. Lower barbarism: Began with the art of pottery making.Middle barbarism: Began with domestication of plants and
animals in the Old World and irrigation cultivation in the New World.
Upper barbarism: Began with the smelting of iron and use of iron tools.
Civilization: Began with the invention of the phonetic alphabet and writing.
Diffusionism in Brief
Societies change as a result of cultural borrowing from one another.
Overemphasized the essentially valid idea of diffusion.
Very popular in Europe – especially Germany
American Historicism in Brief
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 because of
the specific history of events that caused it to change over time.
Ethnographers should try to get the view of those being studied, not their own view.
Franz Boas Franz Boas, the teacher of
the first generation of cultural anthropologists in the United States, put the discipline on a firm empirical basis.
Developed the theory of American Historicism AKA Historical Particularism
Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
Theory Major Assumption Advocates
FunctionalismUnderstand how cultures
satisfy the needs of individuals.
Malinowski
Structural functionalism
Determine how cultural elements function for the
well-being of the society.
Radcliffe-Brown
Functionalism in Brief Through fieldwork, anthropologists can
understand how cultures work for the individual and the society.
Society is like a biological organism with many interconnected parts.
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.
Empirical fieldwork is essential. The cultural traditions of a society persist because
serve a purpose in society.
Bronislav Malinowski
During one of the longest uninterrupted fieldwork experiences on record, Bronislav Malinowski not only set the standard for conducting fieldwork but also developed an important new way of looking at cultures known as functionalism.
Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
Theory Major Assumption Advocates
Psychological anthropology
Show the relationship among psychological and cultural variables.
Benedict, Mead
Neoevolutionism
Cultures evolve in proportion to their capacity to harness
energy.
White, Steward
Psychological Anthropology in Brief
Anthropologists need to explore the relationships between psychological and cultural variables.
Concluded that nurture was more important than nature with regard to personality and gender traits.
Focused on socialization and enculturation of children.
Margaret Mead and
Ruth Benedict
Margaret Mead devoted much of her long and distinguished career in anthropology to the study of how culture affects the process of growing up.
Ruth Benedict Benedict described whole cultures in terms of individual personality characteristics.
Psychological Anthropologists
Interested in exploring relationship between culture and the individual.
Benedict studied Native Americans and wrote about the Japanese during World War II to make them intelligible to Americans
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
Cultures evolve in proportion to their capacity to harness energy.
Culture is shaped by environmental conditions.
Human populations continuously adapt to techno-environmental conditions.
Leslie White
Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
School Major Assumption Advocates
French structuralism
Human cultures are shaped by the
preprogrammed way the human mind is
organized.
Lévi-Strauss
EthnoscienceCultures must be
described in terms of native categories.
Frake, Goodenough
French StructuralismCulture as Mental StructuresStructures of knowledge about kinship. All kinship systems classify relationships by gender, generation and collaterality.
Structures of meaning within myths. Myths consist of (1) elements that oppose or contradict each other and (2) other elements that "mediate", or resolve, those oppositions.
Ethnoscience An attempt at cultural
description from a totally emic standpoint, using only the concepts and categories of the people being studied.
Ethnographic Interviews to elicit native categories.
Charles Frake
Anthropological Theories and Their Proponents
School Major Assumption Advocates
Cultural materialism
Material conditions determine human
consciousnessand behavior.
Harris
Postmodernism
Human behavior comes from how people
perceive and classify their world.
Rosaldo
Cultural Materialism All aspects of culture
can be explained by economic factors.
Sacred cows in India. Aggression and
protein in the Amazon Basin
Postmodernism Rejects the existence of
objective facts in favor of emic perspectives.
Studies culture as a phenomenon that creates different realities for each person and each society.
Writes descriptions rather than research reports
Renato Rosaldo
Powerpoint Study Guide
TheoryGrounded TheoryMaterialist TheoryIdeological TheoryEvolutionismDiffusionismAmerican HistoricismFunctionalism
Structural Functionalism Psychological Anthropology Neoevolutionism French Structuralism Ethnoscience Cultural Materialism Postmodernism