2. History and the Anthropological narrative

Question 1

Explain the concept of ‘evolutionism’

Answer 1

One of the main implications of the evolutionist thought is its
underlying monocultural rationale, the denial of cultural diversity. other cultures are only important from an
“antiquarian” standpoint, as earlier stages of (our western) society. The world outside of the west becomes a museum.

Question 2

What is Tylor’s Unilineal Evolution theory?

Answer 2

Tylor defines the different stages of cultural evolution as follows:
1. Savagery
2. Barbarism (lower - middle - upper)
3. Civilization

Question 3

Define the concept of ‘diffusionism’

Answer 3

• Main character was Boas
• The main idea of diffusionism is that culture developed historically through the interactions of groups of people and the diffusion of ideas, and that consequently therewas no process towards continuously “higher” cultural forms
• introduced the ideology of cultural relativism which holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked as higher or lower, or better or more correct, but that all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture, and judge it according to their own culturally acquired norms
• **The diffusionist school of Boas (US) **from the beginning of this century set itself against (unilinear) evolutionism.
• With diffusionism came an emphasis on the plurality of cultures, on the complexity of specific historical and geographical influences on their development.
• The ‘history’ aspect was not excluded, but was approached from a ‘diffusionist’ attitude, from the suggestion that an element of a given culture came from elsewhere

Question 4

Explain the concept of ‘structural functionalism’

Answer 4

• Structural functionalism focuses on the a-temporal and immutable social structures and systems of societies. What are the non-changing, underlying structures that make a society work?
• Excludes historical causality
• First step toward designing anthropology as a positivist science
• Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown

Question 5

Who was Malinowski?

Answer 5

• Polish-born British anthropologist
• 20th century
• Travelled to New Guinea and was stuck there due to the war
• Stayed for several years on the Trobriand Islands
• Main work: Argonauts of the Western pacific
• Studied the Kula Ring and so laid the foundation for economic anthropology and theories of exchange and reciprocity

Question 6

Who was Radcliffe-Brown?

Answer 6

• Studied at Trinity college and travelled to the Andaman Islands
• Saw institutions as the key to maintaining the global social order of a society, analogous to the organs of a body
• His studies of social function examine how customs aid in maintaining the overall stability of a society
• Wrote ‘Structure and function in primitive society’

Question 7

Explain the difference between Ideographic and nomothetic enquiry

Answer 7

• Idiographic enquiry: establishes particular or factual propositions or statements (constructivism)
• Nomothetic enquiry: arrives at general propositions or theoretical statements (Positivsm)

Question 8

What is the denial of coevalness?

Answer 8

• The denial that the anthropologist and interlocutor exist in the same time
• We distance ourselves from other cultures in time and space. They are ‘behind’ in an implied chronological order of culture and don’t exist at the same time of our modern society

Question 9

What are the four different types of time Fabian defines in his book ‘time and the other?’

Answer 9

1. Physical time
2. Mundane time
3. Typological time (periodising, temporal containers)
4. Intersubjective time