The Development Of Anthropological Thought Flashcards
Historical particular ism (historicism)
Theoretical orientation emphasizing that each culture is the unique product of all the influences to which it was subjected in its past, making cross-cultural generalizations questionable.
Unilineal evolution
Nineteenth-century theoretical orientation that held that all human ways of life pass through a similar sequence of stages in their development
Configurationalism
Theoretical idea that each culture historically develops it’s own unique thematic patterns around which belief, values, and behaviors are oriented
Functionalism
Theoretical orientation that analyzes cultural elements in terms of their useful effects to individuals or to the persistence of the whole society.
Neoevolutionism
“Be evolutionism” or the mid-twentieth-century rebirth of evolutionary approaches to studying and explaining culture.
Scientific approaches
General approaches suggesting that human cultural differences and similarities can be explained in the same sence as biologists explain life and it’s evolution
Evolutionary psychology (sociobiology)
Scientific approach emphasizing that humans are subject to similar evolutionary forces as other animals; associated with the hypothesis that human behavior patterns enhance genetic fitness
Materialism (cultural materialism)
Scientific theoretical orientation claiming that the main influences on cultural differences and similarities are technology, environment, and how people produce and distribute resources
Humanistic approach
Orientation that mistrusts attempts to explain cultural differences and similarities and cultural changes in favor of achieving an empathetic understanding of particular cultures.
Interpretive anthropologists
Contemporary theorists who analyze cultural elements by explicating their meanings to people and understanding them in their local context; generally emphasize cultural diversity and the unique qualities of particular cultures.
Postmodernists
Followers of the philosophical viewpoint emphasizing the relativity of all knowledge of a particular time and place is constructed, especially on how power relations affect the creation and spread of ideas and beliefs