quantitative analysis of paradigm shifts in american
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Quantitative Analysis of Paradigm Shifts in American Anthropology:
The Hermeneutics of Language
Curtis Hummel 2012
HYPOTHESIS
• The time frames for the four major theoretical paradigms in American Anthropology (Salvage, Acculturation, Resistance, and Post-Modern) can be distinguished through quantification of word choice variation.
• This methodology refines and modifies the qualitative findings of Edward Bruner (1986) and Thomas Patterson (2001).
Essential Literature
• Dumont, Jean-Paul: Prologue to Ethnography or Prolegomena to Anthropography (1986)
• Blakey: Man and Nature, White and other (2010)
• Jordon, Glenn: On Ethnography in an Intertextual Situation: Reading Narratives or Deconstructing Discourse? (2010)
Sequential Models of Paradigms in Anthropology
• Bruner: Ethnography as Narrative (1986) • 1930s-1940s (acculturation):
“the dominate story constructed about Native American culture change saw the present as disorganization, the past as glorious, and the future as assimilation” (Bruner, 139).
• 1970s (resistance): “the golden age is in the future, as the indigenous people struggle against exploitation and oppression to preserve their ethnic identity” (Bruner, 140).
• Patterson: A Social History of Anthropology in the United States(2001) . Chapter Headings • 1. 1776-1879: Anthropology
in the New Republic • 2. 1879-1929: Anthropology
in the Liberal Age • 3. 1929-1945: Anthropology
and the Search for Social Order
• 4. 1945-1973: Anthropology in the Postwar Era
• 5. 1974-2000: Anthropology in the Neoliberal Era
PARADIGMS
• DEFINITION: Popular narrative structures used to conceptualize a position in a meaningful, theoretical way. A paradigm is used to promote (or demote) a concept. They are usually referred to as theoretical models. (Bruner 1986)
• Shifts generally take place over a ten year period.
• Many words experience lag in either acceptance or rejection.
PARADIGMS (Interpretation)
1895-1929: Salvage Anthropology
• 1930-1954: Acculturation
• 1955-1979: Resistance
• 1980-2004: Post-Modern
DATA SET
• American Anthropologist: academic journal
• 1895-2004
• 22 groupings
• 5 year intervals
• e.g. 1895-1899, 1900-1904, …, 2000-2004
• 29 words in the test set
• 4 words predictive of the 4 paradigms:
• Salvage: primitive
• Acculturation: extinct
• Resistance: education
• Post-modern: colonization
years 1895-1899 1900-1904 1905-1909 1910-1914 1915-1919 1920-1924 1925-1929 1930-1934 1935-1939 1940-1944 1945-1949 1950-1954 1955-1959 1960-1964 1965-1969 1970-1974 1975-1979 1980-1984 1985-1989 1990-1994 1995-1999 2000-2004 total
pages 283 363 254 429 203 372 745 338 598 357 191 209 322 125 158 205 97 142 263 159 80 173 6066
words 102213 93687 141402 133013 53498 130141 266734 129973 248098 159167 85398 91947 145610 130894 87322 111440 50331 72922 132687 78931 57105 126405 2628918
% of pages 4.7 6.0 4.2 7.1 3.3 6.1 12.3 5.6 9.9 5.9 3.1 3.4 5.3 2.1 2.6 3.4 1.6 2.3 4.3 2.6 1.3 2.9 100
% of words 3.9 3.6 5.4 5.1 2.0 5.0 10.1 4.9 9.4 6.1 3.2 3.5 5.5 5.0 3.3 4.2 1.9 2.8 5.0 3.0 2.2 4.8 100
Percent of total words in paradigm
Representative of Salvage
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
Pe
rce
nt
of
wo
rd in
fiv
e y
ear
pe
rio
ds
primitive
1895-1899
1900-1904
1905-1909
1910-1914
1915-1919
1920-1924
1925-1929
1930-1934
1935-1939
1940-1944
1945-1949
1950-1954
1955-1959
1960-1964
1965-1969
1970-1974
1975-1979
Representative of Acculturation
0.5
1.8
1.4
0.6
0.8 0.8
2.4
1.5
0.9
1.7
1.9
0.2
1.1
0.7
0.4
1.6
0.2
0.4 0.4
0.8
0.1
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Pe
rce
nta
ge o
f w
ord
in f
ive
ye
ar p
eri
od
Extinct Normalized 1900-1904
1905-1909
1910-1914
1915-1919
1920-1924
1925-1929
1930-1934
1935-1939
1940-1944
1945-1949
1950-1954
1955-1959
1960-1964
1965-1969
1970-1974
1975-1979
1980-1984
1985-1989
1990-1994
Representative of Resistance
1.9
0.0
0.3
0.0 0.0 0.0
0.7
0.3 0.4
1.0
0.3
3.3
2.1
1.6 1.4
1.9
4.1
0.0
0.7
0.4
2.4
2.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
pe
rce
nta
ge o
f w
ord
s in
fiv
e y
ear
pe
rio
d
education
1895-1899
1900-1904
1905-1909
1910-1914
1915-1919
1920-1924
1925-1929
1930-1934
1935-1939
1940-1944
1945-1949
1950-1954
1955-1959
1960-1964
1965-1969
1970-1974
1975-1979
1980-1984
Representative of Post-Modern
0.13 0.00 0.53
0.20 0.13 0.21 0.00 0.26 0.00 0.26
1.51
0.15 0.33 0.47 0.16 0.06
1.62
0.84
1.63 2.06
14.48
6.22
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Pe
rce
nt
of
Term
Occ
ure
nce
s P
er
5 Y
ear
Pe
rio
ds
colonial
1895-1899
1900-1904
1905-1909
1910-1914
1915-1919
1920-1924
1925-1929
1930-1934
1935-1939
1940-1944
1945-1949
1950-1954
1955-1959
1960-1964
1965-1969
1970-1974
1975-1979
Oddity “I”
0.21
0.11
0.16
0.19
0.20
0.24 0.25
0.29
0.16 0.17
0.11
0.04
0.13
0.16
0.06
0.20
0.12
0.16 0.16
0.09
0.16 0.15
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.35
1895-1899
1900-1904
1905-1909
1910-1914
1915-1919
1920-1924
1925-1929
1930-1934
1935-1939
1940-1944
1945-1949
1950-1954
1955-1959
1960-1964
1965-1969
1970-1974
1975-1979
1980-1984
CONCLUSION
• The different choice words can be used to conceptualize and isolate the major theoretical paradigms of American Anthropology.
• The paradigms defined by Bruner and Patterson are present, but may take on a different shape than previously distinguished.
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