copyright © 2011 pearson education, inc. all rights reserved. chapter 3 history of anthropological...
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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 3History of Anthropological Theory
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Evolution of Evolution
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution suggested that
different species developed, one from another, over long periods
of time.
Darwin later rejected his original notion, focusing instead on a
process of natural selection.
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Early Anthropological Theory
Early Evolutionism Darwinism influenced cultural
theory. In the early years the prevailing view was that
culture generally develops (evolves) in a uniform and
progressive manner.
“Race” TheoryEvolutionism influenced
anthropology in the 19th century to posit that the reason human
cultures differed was because they represented separate subspecies
of humans or “races.”
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Early Anthropological Theory
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Early Anthropological Theory
Diffusionism Popular in the late 19th and
early 20th centuriesSuggested that most aspects
of high civilization had emerged in culture centers from which they then diffused out
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Later Anthropological Theory
Historical Particularism
Frank Boas opposed evolutionism
Stressed the importance of collecting as much
anthropological data as possible, from which the laws governing cultural variation
would emerge
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Later Anthropological Theory
Psychological Approach
How do psychological factors and processes help to explain
cultural practices?
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Later Anthropological Theory
Functionalism
An analysis of what function or part some aspect of culture or
social life plays in the maintenance of society.
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Later Anthropological Theory
Structuralism
Lévi-Strauss’ approach views culture as a surface
representation of the underlying patterns of the
human mind.
Later Anthropological Theory
Ethnoscience and Cognitive Anthropology
Attempts to derive the rules of thought that may underlie a given culture from a logical analysis of ethnographic data.
Cultural EcologyThe study of the relationships between
cultures and their physical and social environments.
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Later Anthropological Theory
Political EconomyAssumes that external forces explain
the way a society changes and adapts. Central to this approach is the social and political impact of
those state societies that transformed the world by colonialism and imperialism after the mid-1400s.
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Recent Developments in Anthropological TheoryEvolutionary Ecology
Approaches
The idea that natural selection can operate on the behavioral
or social characteristic of a population.
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Recent Developments in Anthropological TheoryFeminist Approaches
With the advent of the “women’s movement” of the 1960s, a focused effort on
studying the roles of women was found necessary.
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Recent Developments in Anthropological TheoryInterpretive Approaches
Clifford Geertz- A culture is like a literary text that can be
analyzed for meaning. The goal is to understand what
it means to be a person living in a particular culture, rather than to explain why cultures
vary.
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Recent Developments in Anthropological Theory
Postmodernists
All knowledge is subjective and actively shaped by the political powers-that-be.