Evolutionism and Historical Particularism

Question 1

Development of anthropology

Answer 1

• “Proto-Anthropology”: Missionaries who described the people they encountered in their journals
  -Austro-German: historical diffusion of cultural traits, primarly objects (till WW II); seperated from Volkskunde/Europäische Ethnologie which concerns the inventorastion of the various European cultures
  -French (from early 20th C onwards): Durkheim, Mauss, van Gennep, Lévy-Bruhl, Lévi-Strauss, Foucault, Bourdieu - sociology and philosophy

Question 2

Development of anthropology UK vs. US

Answer 2

UK: imperialism, foreign colinization, indirect rule: political organization, social structures
US: occupation of ‘Wild West’, internal colonialzation, separation in reservations, difference in culture: language, material culture

Question 3

The three main approaches in anthropology

Answer 3

-social anthropology
-cultural anthropology
-physical anthropology

Question 4

two important orientations in early history of anthropology (1880s)

Answer 4

evolutionism
historical particularism

Question 5

Charles Darwin

Answer 5

All species have descended from common ancestors. best adjusted spiece - survives and reproduces which explains how traits can change over time.

Question 6

evolutionism

Answer 6

cultures and societies evolve from simple to complex that is: from ‘primitive’ to ‘highly developed’; ‘low’ to ‘high’; ‘uncivilized’ to ‘civilized’

Question 7

difference between evolution and evolutionism

Answer 7

evolution is the process by which organisms change and develop new traits over succeeding generations, while evoultionsm refers to the theories that try to explain the process of evolution

Question 8

People that believed in evolutionism

Answer 8

Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward B. Tylor

Question 9

consequenses of evolutionism

Answer 9

1) Scientific thinking into races - skin color, cranial sizes, etc leading to
2) the idea of racial phenotypes, and eugenetics claiming that race is a biological thing
3) (legacy of) Racism

Question 10

positive and negative factors of evolutionism

Answer 10

+every society has the possibility to develop/evolve
+focus on change, transformation, development
-history is not one-way, not teleological
-(almost always) ethnocentric

Question 11

criticasters of evolutionism in history

Answer 11

Franz Boas, critized scientific racism: races as sharply delineated entites do not exist - decoupling ‘race’, culture, language

Question 12

historical particularism

Answer 12

Franz Boas (founding figure of American anthropology). Each culture needs to be understood as the (temporary) result of its own, specific historical context and development. first theory with cultural relativism as core.

Question 13

three traits to explain cultural customs (historical particularism)

Answer 13

• environmental conditions
• psychological factors
• historical connections, history being most important, hence the name

Question 14

positive factors historical particularism

Answer 14

+strong emphasis on systematic collecting of empirical material and detailed description
+holistic
+anti-ethnocenrism, both morally and methodologically

Question 15

negative factors historical particularism

Answer 15

• despite attention to transformation, focus on cultures as autonomous, isolated entities
• (too) much emphasis/focus on uniqueness at the expense of the general: comparison to no avail. increase of ‘facts’/data, and too little synthesis (archival tendency)

Question 16

Ruth Benedict

Answer 16

historical particularism, “a culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought and action”. her comparative analysis of japanese vs. american, shame vs. guilt.

Question 17

Why do we need theories?

Answer 17

-systematic thinking
-framework of concepts, perhaps not theory
-principles and procedures to analyse, interpret, and understand phenomena

Question 18

physical anthropology

Answer 18

Concerned with origin, evolution and diversity of people. Inspired by evolutionary biology

Question 19

Social anthropology

Answer 19

Study of systems of social relations via economics, law, politics, social and domestic life. Organizational aspects

Question 20

Cultural anthropology

Answer 20

Sees cultural phenomena as holistic. How culture affects individuals (for instance rituals). Rounded view of knowledge, customs and institutions of a people

Question 21

Lewis Henry Morgan and evolutionism

Answer 21

Believed that matriarchy was the basis of social life by looking at native americans’ social org. Claimed that social structure combined with material culture (access to which resources) affected culture amongst Native Americans.Claimed that people can be placed on an evolutionary ladder and, if (use of) material environment changes their conditions, they can rise on the ladder.

Question 22

Evolutionary ladder

Answer 22

Articulated by Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan - suggests that humans can be ranked according to three stages. 1) Savagery 2) Barbarism 3) Civilization.

Question 23

Edward B Tylor and evolutionism

Answer 23

Focused on comparative ethnography. Did also use the evolutionary ladder framework, yet compared socieites to see their differences. Linked society to religion, and did not rank religions differently, just evolving from different environments. Coined the term animism.

Question 24

Overview of evolutionism

Answer 24

1) Grounded on a shared consensus that all people derive from a common ancestor
2) yet all cultures show developmental differences
3) Caucasian have been reaching a higher cognitive and moral level than other “races” - their culture is thus the apex of civilization
4) Thus legitimizing colonialism as a European mission to civilize other “races” (white man’s burden)

Question 25

Marx’s inspiration from evolutionism

Answer 25

1) Drew from Morgan’s focus on how material culture affected social structure, but looked at how the relations to material conditions (means of production) created inequalities (class differences).
2) Looked at society as progressing through modes of production.
Slavery — Feudalism — Capitalism — Communism

Question 26

Evolutionism on ideas, behaviour and material context

Answer 26

Ideas + Material context = Behaviour