W1C2: history of anthropology

Question 1

Decolonization of anthropology:

Answer 1

Groups that used to dominate the discipline take a step aside to create space for other voices

• There used to be a very hierarchical relationship between the anthropologists and the subjects
• Anthropology has also ‘come home’: Northern scholars do more and more research in their own societies, and studies of Southern studies are more and more conducted by Southern scholars.
• The last, yet incomplete, step in this respect would be that Southern scholars study Northern societies: reversed anthropology.

Question 2

Crisis in anthropology

Answer 2

• Doubt about classical studies when later restudies of the same topic were made (how could these seminal works have got it wrong?)
• Doubts about what happened during fieldwork (the black box of fieldwork)
• Doubts about the male bias in anthropology
• Doubts about the right to represent others
• Doubts about the role of anthropologists supporting the state
• Doubts about the possibility of objective knowledge (no, is the answer)

Question 3

Effects of crisis of anthropology

Answer 3

Anthropologists sought a way out of the crisis by methodological reflection, the rise of gender studies, the homecoming of anthropology (doing research in one’s own society), and postmodernism (the focus on discourses, including the power relations that help create a particular discourse, including anthropological discourses).

Also resulted in the call to decolonize anthropology

Question 4

Ethnocentrism:

Answer 4

evaluating other people from one’s own vantage-point and describing them in one’s own terms.

One’s own ‘ethnos’ including cultural values is placed in the centre so others are always inferior.

Question 5

Cultural relativism:

Answer 5

The doctrine that societies or cultures are different and have their own unique inner logic, and that it is therefore scientifically absurd to rank them on a scale.

• Not the opposite of ethnocentrism, because of the lack of a moral principle
• It is a methodological principle: needed for the investigation and comparison of societies without relating them to usually irrelevant development scales, but this does not imply that there is no difference between right and wrong.
• But: ‘Taken to its extreme, [cultural relativism] would ultimately lead to nihilism’

Question 6

Ontology:

Answer 6

‘the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being’

Question 7

Epistemology:

Answer 7

‘the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity and scope’

Question 8

Methodology:

Answer 8

‘a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity’

Question 9

2 main functions of theory:

Answer 9

• to communicate with other scholars: general concepts enable conversation, comparison
• to better understand and explain the empirical phenomena we are studying (and to pose better questions and know where to look for something relevant)
  It brings focus as well: includes and excludes

Question 10

Definition of theory:

Answer 10

a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained

Or: statement which explains the relationship between (at least two) different factors, at a more abstract/general level. Needs to be applicable to more cases

Question 11

Different levels of theories:

Answer 11

• Concepts (about concepts, smaller theory)
• Processes (higher level, more explanatory power)
• Grand theories (apply to the whole world, very general: marxism)

Up to you to use theories at the right level

Question 12

Theoretical (research) paradigms:

Answer 12

more or less coherent approach to anthropology, consisting of assumptions about the nature of society, a theoretical core, examples of key texts, a name for the paradigm, and a sense of membership among the followers.

Or, more simple: a set of coherent ideas working in a certain theoretical logic, starting from a certain theoretical core idea.

Each research paradigm reacts against an earlier research paradigm that has outlived its time, and also reflects the Zeitgeist (predominant societal beliefs in a particular era)

Question 13

Some of the most influential paradigms are:

Answer 13

• Evolutionism
• Historical particularism
• Culture and personality school
• Structural-functionalism
• Transactionalism
• Symbolic or interpretative anthropology
• Gender studies
• Postmodernism

Question 13

Evolutionism

Answer 13

• Emerged in 19th century, obsession with (technological) progress, steam engines, cars. The idea that we as humans are progressing, things are getting better.
• Also the time of colonialism/imperialism
• Comes together in the idea that all societies go through a set of certain phases, ending in ‘ours’ (the thinkers of these times)
• Very ethnocentric, but did come up with some very good ideas we still use (but in a different way). For example, the effort to look at societies as a whole, in a coherent way

Question 14

Diffusionism:

Answer 14

• Austro-German specialty, alternative and a complement to evolutionnist thinking.
• Posed a historical diffusion of cultural traits.

Question 14

Historical particularism

Answer 14

• Reaction to evolutionism. Emphasized that we need to look at every society as an individual society. One of the core/first ideas of cultural relativism.
• All societies or cultures have their own unique history
• Boas didn’t like the ranking of societies, was fascinated by the people he saw

Question 14

History of anthropology (Eriksen)

Answer 14

• Probably started somewhere in ancient Greece. In the 14th century Khaldun, 14th century wrote an important work
• During European exploration in the 16th century, scholarly interest emerged for cultural variation and human nature. Renaissance also played a role
• The idea of ‘status’ and ‘contract’ societies, or ‘gemeinschaft’ and ‘gesellschaft’ came around 1861. Status/gemeinschaft: ascribed statuses, more about kinship and myth. Contract/gesellschaft: achieved statuses, individual merit and achievement

Question 14

Boas (1858-1942)

Answer 14

• Promoted historical particularism, the view that all societies or cultures had their own unique history that could not be reduced to a category in some universalist scheme of development
• Cultural relativist, never systemized his ideas

Question 14

Malinowski (1884-1942)

Answer 14

• Laid the groundworks for British social anthropology, also in a methodological sense
• Known for his work on the Trobriand islands and the Kula trade. Emphasized the need to engage in everyday life to learn its categories from within.
• Also wrote about subtle interconnections between various social institutions and cultural notions. Structures form a framework for action

Question 14

Emergence of modern anthropology is associated with four scholars:

Answer 14

• Boas
• Malinowski
• Radcliffe-Brown
• Mauss

Question 15

Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)

Answer 15

• Aim was to develop a natural science of society, hoped to develop general laws of society
• Structural-functionalist: emphasized social institutions (kinship, norms, politics etc.) and their interrelationships. People itself were analytically unimportant, since they could come and go. The institutions remain
• Functionalist in the sense that most social and cultural phenomena could be seen as functional because they contributed to the maintenance of the overall social structure

Question 16

Mauss

Answer 16

• Known from The Gift. Believed in systematical comparison and the existence of recurrent patterns in social life at all times and in all places, but often ended on a relativist note.
• Hoped to develop an understanding of the general dimensions of social life, by looking for structural similarities

Question 17

From WOII on, anthropology grew and diversified:

Answer 17

• First major theory after the war was Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism.
  Developed a theory of the human mind, inspired from structural linguistics, Mauss’ theory of exchange and theories of the primitive mind
  Introduced a formal way of thinking about kinship.
  Was a major source of inspiration in the study of kinship systems
• Evans-Pritchard reacted to structuralism: anthropology should be a humanities study, not a natural science. Shifted from function to meaning.
• Steward proposed a difference between the cultural core (basic institutions, like the division of labour) and the rest of culture. Strongly reminiscent of Marx, superstructure and base
• Geertz was one of the foremost proponents of cultural relativism. Importance of meaning and symbols. Advocated an interpretivist method of hermeneutics