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Social Anthropology Theories and Approaches PDF doc with further…
Social Anthropology Theories and Approaches
PDF doc with further explanations xx
Emergence of Anthropology
Evolutionism
developed: late 19th century, gained popularity amidst Enlightenment, think Darwin
Edward Burnett Tylor
(English anthropologist)
'Primitive Culture' (1871)
- stated there was a single Culture that was possessed by humans and different societies possessed culture in different stages of development
explained variations in human culture, saw society as co-existence of different institutions existing parallel to each other
Animism:
earliest form of religion, a belief in the soul or the belief in a dual body of spirit and material body (was followed by naturisim, totemism, and polytheism till monotheism and belief in a Supreme God emerged, thus Christianity/Europeans viewed as most developed compared to other societies)
psychic unity of (hu)mankind
= explains that all humans have same capacity to think alike and that there is a "general likeness in human nature"
survivals
= remnants of traits that have now lost their function, but remain by force of habit or inertia of customs for change, of symbolic and decorative value only
armchair anthropologist
-
involves creating theories without any fieldwork or travelling
link to the
evolutionist's comparative method
- white Europeans (also known as the 'arm chair anthropologists') used their own societies to set the comparison table, where they placed their own society at the helm of 'civilisation' and compared all other societies based on this scale
Lewis Henry (L.H.) Morgan
(American anthropologist)
studied the Iroquois extensively
known for his study of kinship terminologies and kinship systems
Iroquois =
classificatory kinship system
(clubs together 2 different persons with the same kinship term)
a child addresses mother and mother's sister by same term; and father and father's brother by the same term
his study of the
Ojibway tribe
confirmed the classificatory system
father's sister's children, and mother's brother's children = cousins
English =
descriptive kinship system
(kin terms used for primary kin are not used for anyone else)
involved in first hand collection of data
Unilinear evolutionism: there is only
one line
for cultural progress
Universal evolutionism: all societies would go through the same process as the human brains develop from simple to complex
Single culture: The propagators of the evolutionary theory believed that there is only one Culture (with a capital C)
Sequential progress: each society goes through the same stages but at their own pace
Diffusionism
Culture Area Theories
Emergence of Fieldwork Tradition
Historical Particularism and Critique of Comparative Method
American Cultural Tradition
Cultural Materialism
Theories of Social Structure and Function
Social Integration
Functionalism and Structural-Functionalism
Structuralism
Conflict Theories
Contemporary Theories
Symbolism and Interpretive Approach
Feminism
New Ethnography and Contemporary Changes