Barnard Chapter 2: Origins of Social Contract Theory in Anthropology

Question 1

Timeline thinkers according to Barnard from the 17th century to 18th century on the origins of anthropology

Answer 1

Grotius, Pufendorf, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau

Question 2

Some examples of “nonhumans” in 18th century Europe

Answer 2

Feral Children, Orang Outang, The ‘Savage’

Question 3

What is Hugo Grotious’ suggestion in societies?

Answer 3

Laws of behavior governing humans individuals in societies should also govern them in peace and war

Question 4

What is the nature of humans according to Pufendorf?

Answer 4

All humans are naturally social

Question 5

Social Contract Thinker Hobbes on Legal Fiction

Answer 5

natural tendency of humans towards self-interest. Needing to control this tendency, submitting authority to achieve peace and security

Question 6

Social Contract Thinker Locke’s Ideas

Answer 6

state of nature has always been peace and tranquility, but social contract is sill necessary to settle dispute

Question 7

Rousseau (18th century) on the social contract

Answer 7

The government and the social contract differed; human nature was that humans were ‘tamed brutes’ – natural inequality and artificial inequality. Natural man was happy and free.

‘Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains’, stated instead that people could only experience true freedom if they lived in a civil society that ensured the rights and well-being of its citizens.

Question 8

Notions of ‘The Savage’ according to Barnard

Answer 8

not necessarily a term of abuse; connoted living wild and free; noble savage: images of alien peoples

Question 9

Montesqueieu’s Spirit of the Laws

Answer 9

(forms of government, temperament of peoples, influence of climate on society)

Question 10

Inequality, Civilization, and Settlement

Answer 10

Societies emerged when people began to settle and build huts; Civilization developed in a way that inequalities increased.

Question 11

Anthropology on Polygenesis and Monogenesis

Answer 11

Anthropology depends on the acceptance of ideas of monogenesis (the theory that humans are all descended from a single pair of ancestors) – inherently racist

Question 12

Elements of Theoretical Frameworks

Answer 12

(QAME) Questions, Assumptions, Methods, Evidence

Question 13

The act of writing about people

Answer 13

Ethnography

Question 14

how to make sense of what we have observed and written about; the art of explaining what we have found out

Answer 14

Theory

Question 15

Anthropos (greek)

Answer 15

Human

Question 16

Logos (greek)

Answer 16

Discourse, discussion, rhetorical technique

Question 17

the study of human variation

Answer 17

Anthropology (discipline)

Question 18

study of differences in human societies

Answer 18

Ethnology