Cultural Anthropology: Chapt. 4
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Created by:
beauxchevel on February 14, 2012
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Development of Anthropological thought
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21 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Early ideas of newly discovered people in 1500s century. | western fantasy that others were inferior, looked through a Christian lens, some thought they were a test of faith, thought they were decedents of Ham (noah's son) |
| 19th century Anthropology | science arises, anthropology becomes an independent field, focuses on people were drastically different |
| 21st century-today anthropology | focuses on all people |
| Humanistic anthropology | a focus on issues of representation and what to portray specific cultures with sensitivity, ask question: should anthropologist define what information is gathered or should they be more of a translator. Believe culture to be a unique product of specific past and not a science. |
| armchair anthropologists | first anthropologists of the 1500s that would make assessments on cultures based on what explorers, missionaries documented and brought back with them. |
| Darwin's affect on Anthropology | 1859 wrote On the Origin of Species and proposed evolution. Greatly affected paleoanthropology |
| Darwin's ideas to form Cultural evolution theories: | thought humans complexity was evolved over time; concept of developed, under-developed, and developing peoples; ethnocentric attitude |
| unilineal evolution | idea that simple cultures gave rise to more complexity; used to justify actions during colonialism; considered the first true cultural anthropologists |
| E.B. Tyler [1871] | 1871 published Primitive Culture that investigate religious beliefs; said most primitive was animism, then polytheism, then monotheism. |
| animism | concept in religion that the universe is interconnected and everything is infused with life |
| Franz Boas [20th century] | Father of modern anthropology; question unilinear ideas of anthropology; disagreed with ethnocentric attitude |
| Historical particularism (1900-1940) | each culture is unique product of all influences to which it was subjected to in past; impossible to make broad generalizations; each culture has its own rationale; field work; cultural relativism |
| functionalism (1920-1960) | theoretical orientation that analyzes cultural elements in terms of their useful effects to individuals or to the persistence of the whole society |
| Malinowski | developed functionalism and emphasized field work |
| Neoevolutionism (1960-today) | "new evolutionism" or the mid twentieth-centur rebirth of evolutionary approaches to the theoretical study of culture |
| Leslie White | developed ideas within neoevolutionism: that cultures progress as they harness energy from the Earth; technology allows humans to be more efficient which allows for excess human energy that can be used to complexify humanity; |
| scientific approaches to anthropology | theoretical notion that human cultural differences and similarities can be explained in same sense as biologists explain life and its evolution. Most anthropologists do not think this is a good approach. |
| evolutionary psychology | scientific approach emphasizing that humans are animals and so are subject to similar evolutionary forces as other animals; assoc. with the hypothesis that behavior patterns enhance inclusive fitness. |
| materialism | claims that satisfaction of human material needs and desires is most important influence on how societies are organized and what ppl think and believe. |
| Interpretive anthropologists | contemporary theorists who analyze cultural elements (symbols) by explicating their meanings to people and understanding them in their local context; generally emphasize cultural diversity and the unique qualities of particular cultures |
| postmodernists | believe that methods and assumptions of all science are themselves culturally situated and culture bound (biased). |
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