ANTH RS 3, 4, 5 Flashcards
Social Darwinism
The philosophy that by NATURE there are individuals in cultures that are superior to others
The superior should dominate the inferior
By nature, the inferior should become extinct
2 reasons to understand social darwinism
1) Foundation of early anthropology
2) Ideas still believed despite lack of scientific views
Boundary Maintenance
Neutral
Positive
Negative
The recognition of difference and diversity
Neutral: can see differences by looking
Positive: the mindset that diversity increases survival and helps us adapt to change
Negative: difference is bad
The Other
Those who are other than fully civilized
Character, culture, and existence of other is a construction of the Western Culture
What do Social Darwinists ask?
Who is the other?
What are their origins?
What is their relationship to us?
2 developments in the West in the 19th century that changed how the others were defined
- Colonialism: “You have something I want and I am superior so I am going to take it.”
- Colonized the others by taming, training, and eliminating
Science
Justification for Colonialism
White Man’s Burden
“My God has given me a burden and what I have to do is civilize the rest of the world and rescue the slaves from their culture.”
Manifest Destiny
19th Century age of Science
Charles Darwin Evolution
Darwin was not a social darwinist
True
Phenotypes
External superficial characteristics
Unilineal Evolution
A theory that places particular cultures into specific evolutionary stages, all cultures evolved in three different stages: savagery, barbarism, civilization
Fossil Other
Cultures that can no longer change, dead cultures
Race of the 19th Century
Races are different species of beings (negative boundary maintenance)
What are the five elements of social darwinism used to construct the notion of race?
- Race=different species
- Multiple origins (polygenes)
- Races not equally human (Unilinear Evolution)
- Justifies social/economic and political policies benefitting some while exploiting others (slavery, colonialism)
- Proven by science
Survival of the Fittest (SD)
The strongest should dominate the weak and the weak will die out
What does race imply?
Implies that humans belong to distinct population groups that are fundamentally different by nature
Impossible for races to live together and understand each other
Some races by nature are superior
The laws of society should reflect that reality
What does race imply?
Implies that humans belong to distinct population groups that are fundamentally different by nature
Impossible for races to live together and understand each other
Some races by nature are superior
The laws of society should reflect that reality
How many races are there?
Zero
3 reasons for the rise of anthropology at the end of 19th
Anthropology becomes the science to understand and explain human origins and diversity
By the end of the 19th century, anthropology becomes the social and biological science used to explain the origins, human behavior, and nature of human beings
- seek solutions for problems in the west
- need to control the other
- create cultural exhibits in museums
First Critical Phase in American Anthropology
Science or Social Darwinism
Franz Boas and the Inuits
The Father of Anthropology
In 1883, Boas is traveling to the Arctic Circle where he meets the Inuits. He becomes facinated with the fact that these people are able to adapt to these harsh conditions. This causes him to quit Geology and become an anthropologist.
Three Contributions made by Franz Boas
1887: Creates first postgraduate program in anthropology at Columbia
Emphasis on Fieldwork: the only way to truly understand a culture is by living with them and doing what they do
Anti Social Darwinism
Two opposing views concerning human origins and diversity at the end of the 19th century?
Homo Erectus in Asia was the ancestor of the modern man
DNA however, suggested that humans evolved in Africa
Darwinian Evolution
Organisms develop
What is the foundation of Darwinian Biology?
All life evolves
Genetic Change
- Mutation: change in DNA
2. Selection and adaptation
Adaptive Radiation
As an organism moves or finds itself in a different environment, it has to change in order to survive
Characteristics that make Homo Erectus our closest relative
- Large brain
- Makes and uses tools
- Hunters
- Makes and uses fire
- Thinks abstractly
- Migrates, bipedal
- Bury their dead
- Socially Sophisticated
Where is the cradle of humanity?
East and South Africa has produced a large amount of hominid fossils
Out of Africa
The theory that Homo Sapiens first developed in Africa then traveled around the world
Conditions for Continued Human Evolution
- Adaptation to changing environment
- Mixing ethnic groups
- New diets and drugs
- New diseases
- Genetic manipulation
3 reasons why darwinian evolution is important (the belief in survival of the fittest, used to justify racism, eugenics)
- It is the scientific explanation of natural reality
- It disproves social darwinism
- It illustrates the conflict over cultural values
