SC2218: Anthropology and the SC2218: Anthropology and the Human ConditionHuman Condition

Lecture 2: “Strangers Abroad”Lecture 2: “Strangers Abroad”Origins of the Anthropological PerspectiveOrigins of the Anthropological Perspective

Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson

Semester 1, 2010/2011Semester 1, 2010/2011

Origins of Modern AnthropologyOrigins of Modern Anthropology

• Why are anthropologists “Strangers Abroad”?

• Early Modern Anthropologists

• American Cultural Anthropology

• British Social Anthropology

• Understanding difference and diversity…… from RACE to CULTURE.

Strangers, Others, & the Strangers, Others, & the Anthropological PerspectiveAnthropological Perspective

• Ibn Battúta– Travels in Asia and

Africa, 1325-1354

• Ma Huan– Survey of the Ocean’s

Shores, 1433

• Franz Boas– Expedition to Baffin

Island, 1883-1884Ibn Battúta’s Route

Admiral Zheng He

Ibn Battúta*Follow the hyperlinks for additional information.

Survey of the Ocean’s Shores Survey of the Ocean’s Shores (1433)(1433)

• Zheng He’s voyages, Early Ming Dynasty

• Ma Huan was Zheng He’s chronicler; making a record of peoples and places

Early Modern Early Modern AnthropologistsAnthropologists

• Franz Boas– Founder of American Anthropology– Baffin Island (Inuit/Eskimo);

American Northwest (Kwakiutl)

• Bronislaw Malinowski– Trobriand Islands (Pacific)

• E.E. Evans-Pritchard– Africa; Azande and Nuer (Sudan)

E.E. Evans-Pritchard1902-1973

BronislawMalinowski1884-1942

Franz Boas1858-1942

Richard B. Lee:Richard B. Lee:Anthropology in Anthropology in

the mid-20the mid-20thth centurycentury

• PhD UC-Berkeley, 1965: “Subsistence Ecology of !Kung Bushmen”

• Man the Hunter (1968) – Evolutionary perspective.

• See Appendix for revised view.

Context of Modern AnthropologyContext of Modern Anthropology1919thth – 21 – 21stst centuries centuries

• European & American Colonialism

• Scientific approaches to studying people, society and culture.

• Decline of colonialism, national liberation movements, “native anthropologists”

Why are People Different?Why are People Different?

• Geography (“Environmental Determinism”)– 19th century idea; uncommon now

• Race (“Biological Determinism”)– 19th century idea; still common

• Culture (“Cultural Relativism”)– 19th to 20th century idea; popular now

Cultural EvolutionCultural Evolution

• 19th C. European Idea• All societies progress

through stages• Europeans = most

advanced• Justification of

European Colonial Rule (The “white man’s burden”)

Lower Savagery

Middle Savagery

Upper Savagery

Lower Barbarism

Middle Barbarism

Upper Barbarism

Civilization

Lewis Henry Morgan’sScheme of Social Evolution

L.H. Morgan

The White Man’s BurdenThe White Man’s Burden(Kipling 1899)(Kipling 1899)

Take up the White man’s burden,

Send forth the best ye breed.

Go bind your sons to exile,

To serve your captives’ need.

To wait in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild.

Your new caught, sullen peoples,

Half-devil and half-child.

• Kipling’s poem echoes three European ideas about “natives”:

• “Wild” – Non-human, animals (e.g. debate over whether native Americans had ‘souls’)

• “Half-devil” – Heathens• “Half-child” – Lower stage

of development

““The Shackles of Tradition”The Shackles of Tradition”

• Who was Franz Boas? What was his role in shaping modern anthropology?

• What did Boas think about “Savages”?

• How did the idea of CULTURE influence his views?

• How does Boas compare with other Strangers Abroad?

Boas’ CareerBoas’ Career• Born in 1856 to Jewish parents in Germany (Westphalia)• PhD in Physics (1881)• Post-graduate work in Geography• 1883-4 Baffin Island Research (Inuit/Eskimo)• Founding of Department of Anthropology, Columbia University (New

York) and American Anthropological Association, c.1896-1902• 1901 onward – trained dozens of PhD students, who went on to

found anthropology departments elsewhere.• Department of Anthropology, University of Washington founded in

1920s by Leslie Spier and Melville Jacobs, both students of Franz Boas

• 1942 – Collapsed at a faculty dinner and died in the arms of Claude Levi-Strauss (French Anthropologist)

Boas’ LegacyBoas’ Legacy

How Boas shaped Anthropology:• Long-term Fieldwork

– Baffin Island, Inuit (“Eskimo”)– Pacific Northwest, Kwakiutl (with George Hunt)

• Professionalization & Institutionalization• Focus on Language and Culture• “Holistic Approach”• Cultural Relativism (History vs. Evolutionary Stages)• Anti-Racist, Humanistic tradition

Culture as Culture as CultivationCultivation

“If this trip has…a valuable experience, it lies in the strengthening of the viewpoint of the relativity of all cultivation. And that the evil as well as the value of a person lies in the cultivation of the heart, which I find or do not find here just as much as amongst us.” – Franz Boas 1883-1884

Cultural Relativism, Anti-Racism, Cultural Relativism, Anti-Racism, HumanismHumanism

• Prior to Boas, the dominant paradigm of anthropology was unilinear evolution.

Savagery Barbarism CivilizationLewis Henry Morgan

• Boas rejected evolutionary approaches in favor of cultural relativism.

• Cultures are not “better” or “worse”; more or less advanced, etc.

• Cultures must be understood on their own terms, not in relationship to other cultures.

• “Each culture has its own theoreticians whose contributions deserve the same attention as that which the anthropologist gives to colleagues.” Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, 1963 [1958], pg. 282

Anthropology’s Ethical Dilemma:Anthropology’s Ethical Dilemma:Cultural & Moral RelativismCultural & Moral Relativism

• Does “cultural relativism” imply “moral relativism”?

• Are there limits to cultural or moral relativism?

• Is cultural relativism necessary for anthropological research?

Colonial AnthropologyColonial Anthropology(mid-19(mid-19thth C. to mid-20 C. to mid-20thth C.) C.)

• American “Cultural” Anthropology– Focus on Native American cultures

• British “Social” Anthropology– Focus on Natives of the British Empire

• The “Savage Slot”

• Methodological Alterity

Post-Colonial AnthropologyPost-Colonial Anthropology

• American “Area Studies” (Cold War)• Soviet Anthropology (USSR, China, Vietnam)• Japanese Anthropology• Rejection of Anthropology (We are not “Primitive”)• National Anthropologies (e.g. Thailand, Korea)• Methodological Nationalism• “World Anthropologies”• Globalization (e.g. Anthropology of YouTube)

Boas’ Basic Questions for Boas’ Basic Questions for Anthropology:Anthropology:

“Why are the tribes and the nations of the world different and how have the present

differences developed?”

Anthropology, 1907

We will be addressing this question over the coming weeks.