Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is a theory?
A general statement that explains observations/phenomena
What is a hypothesis?
An unproven proposition that can provide a basis for further investigation.
What is degenerationism?
Theory that so-called savage or primitive cultures had degenerated from more civilized cultures because they had fallen from God’s Grace.
What is evolutionism?
Belief that all of society passes through distinct evolutionary stages: savagery, barbarism, civilization. Differences in contemporary cultures arise due to them being at different evolutionary stages.
What are savages?
The most primitive, exist in small bands, hunting and gathering for a living.
What are barbarians?
They have developed pottery, domesticated animals, and live in larger, polygamous horticultural communities.
What are civilized people?
Have developed writing, live in state societies, and are monogamous.
Who developed the evolutionism theory?
Sir Edward Tylor, and Lewis Henry Morgan.
What is the unilinear model?
All aspects of cultures and cultures as a whole will pass through the same set of preordained evolutionary stages.
What kind of approach is evolutionism?
Deductive and comparative-they sort things according to complexity.
What is psychic unity?
19th century belief that assumes that all people, when operating under similar circumstances, will think and behave in similar ways.
What are the types of religion that Tylor attributed each evolutionary phase to?
Savage-animism
Barbarian-polytheism
Civilized-Monotheism
What is diffusionism?
19th and early 20th century belief that cultural differences can be explained by the diffusion of cultural traits from one society to another.
What is a culture complex and how does it relate to Kulturkreis?
A group of closely related aspects of culture, Kulturkreis is a German and Austrian form of diffusionism of culture complexes. This term was coined by Wilhelm Schmidt
What is culture-historical archaeology?
Coined by V. Gordon Childe. Theory is based on the idea that each society produces its own distinct material culture, and this can be used to trace diffusion.
What is mechanical and organic solidarity? (Durkheim)
Mechanical-similarity provides people with a sense of identity and solidarity
Organic-people became differentiated in larger societies, so their identity was shaped by relying on each other and fulfilling societal duties.
What are social facts?
The institutions of a society that transcend the individual and have a coercive influence such that people follow the appropriate cultural norms. (institutions=marriage, family, kinship, religion etc). They are learned, endowed with coercive power, relative, and societally sourced instead of individually.
What is the functionalist view? (Malinowski)
Idea that all culture, at one point or another, had a function to bettering the individual.
What is structural functionalism? (Radcliffe-Brown)
Parts of a culture not only help the well-being of the individual, but also the well being of society.
What are the 2 fundamental principles of the functionalist view?
- Universal functions-every part of a culture has a function
- Functional Unity-culture is an integrated whole composed of a number of interrelated parts.
What are some critiques of functionalism?
Doesn’t account for change (disruption), and has individuals being seen as “puppets,” where there is no conflict or rebelling against roles.
What is historical particularism? (Boas)
Idea that, to understand any one specific culture, it is also important to know about that culture’s history.
Who is considered the “Father of American Anthropology?”
Franz Boas.
What kind of approach is historical particularism?
Inductive.
What are some assumptions of 19th century evolutionism?
- Cultural world is governed by laws 2. Laws operate same in present as past (uniformitarianism) 3) Present grows out of past by continuous process (developmentalism). 4) Growth is simple-complex 5) All humans share single, psychic nature (are rational). 6) Cultural development is moved by environmental interaction 7) Different development=different environments 8) Differences can be measured 9) Cultures can be ordered hierarchically 10) Certain contemporary cultures are like earlier stages 11) Absence of data means these stages can be reconstructed by comparative analysis 12) Results of comparative method can be confirmed by the study of survivals.
What is the central tenet?
Condition of savage/barbarous tribes represent a stage that we passed through a long time ago. Anthropologists can use indirect evidence provided by contemporary savagery as a means of reconstructing our barbarous past.
How did fieldwork begin to grow?
1) Increasing knowledge of other cultures. 2) Dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of much of the data contained in ethnological writings. 3) Belief that savage tribes in their natural states were disappearing because of contact with more civilized nations.
What kinds of things were absent from early fieldwork?
1) Participation 2) Sociological theory
What are some rules of the sociological method?
Society is part of nature and a science of society must be based on the same principles as those of natural sciences. Social facts must be treated objectively. Totality cannot be deduced from individuals who form it. Social facts must be explained in terms of their function.
What is the root idea of functionalism? (Bronislaw Malinowski and Durkheim).
Integration, function, and determinism (fit together, serve society, shape human nature).
What are some institutional functions?
Language, myths, magic, scientific knowledge, religion, law.
What are the five basic principles of structural functionalism? (A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Structure and function in primitive society)
- Society is seen as an organically structured whole (biological organism)
- Society has a social structure
- Structure is ideally integrated, unified and exists in equilibrium
- Structure is the object of analysis; most valued data is the structure you can abstract.
- Function of social activities and institutions is ultimately intepreted in maintaining the whole social structure of a society
What is Malinowski’s hierarchy of needs?
Basic Needs- food, shelter sex. Universal. Commonality to all human cultures. Makes ethnology scientific. Each culture responds to these needs through institutions. Every institution centres around a fundamental need. Variation is culturally determined.
What is the Boasian concept of culture?
Superorganic- the product of collective or group life; but the individual has influence
Unconscious- A filter through which reality was perceived, but which is not itself the object of attention
Adaptive- Culture ultimately helps individuals adapt to their environments.
What is the superorganic according to A. Kroeber?
Belief that individuals have very little impact on a culture’s development and change. Culture plays a determining role in an individuals behaviour. Culture has an existence outside of us and compels us to conform to patterns that can be statistically determined.
What is the study on culture and personality and which anthropologists did these studies?
Seeks to understand the growth and development of personal or social identity as it relates to the surrounding social environment. Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict conducted these studies.
What was some of Margaret Mead’s research?
Coming of Age in Samoa. Studied whether or not adolescence is universally traumatizing, or if the trauma is culturally based. Found that in Samoan society, coming of age for women is not stressful, sex happened without consequence.
Was Mead’s research accurate?
No. She did not live with a Samoan family, did not spend enough time in Samoa, ignored violence in their lives, was lied to by female informants, went in with a preconceived notion.
What were some of Ruth Benedict’s findings in her research?
Found major differences in the ways of life of the Zuni vs Kwakituil people. Zuni people seen as a lot more passive and collectivist, whereas the other was seen as aggressive and selfish.
