Cultural  Anthropology,  Theories,  Perspectives  &  

Methodologies Different ways of examining and understanding different cultures

The  Term  “Culture”

•  Development of the actual term itself “culture” o  Latin: cultura or “cultivation” o  First used in classical antiquity by Cicero o  Appeared first in Europe in 18th-19th C – defined as a process of cultivation

or improvement (in agriculture or horticulture)

o  19th C – refer to betterment or refinement of individual esp. through education then to fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals

o  20th C – central concept in anthropology that “ encompasses the range of human phenomena cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance”

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/culture-and-adaptation/

A  Study  of  Anthropology •  Anthropology:

•  Wikipedia: study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies

•  The study of humankind and the dynamic interrelationships of all aspects of human existence

•  Concerned with biological and cultural aspect of humankind •  Cultural anthropology: a subgroup of anthropology focusing on cultural

variances •  “Culture cannot be divorced from biology and adaptation, nor

language from culture” •  Archaeological anthropologists •  Biological/physical anthropologists •  Linguistic anthropologists •  Sociocultural anthropologists https://anthro.ufl.edu/files/about_anthropology.pdf

Schools  of  thought/theories •  Cultural anthropologists develop theories to better

understand cultures they are studying and to help make sense of the data they are gathering

•  Different anthropologists have come up with different theories or ways of understanding and explaining culture

•  PERSPECTIVES & THEORIES: •  Social evolutionism •  Functionalism •  Historicism •  Culture and personality •  Cultural materialism •  Structuralism •  Feminist theory •  Game theory •  Social exchange theory & social learning theory •  Structural strain theory •  Sociobiology theory •  Conflict theory – Marxism •  Rational choice theory •  Post modernism

Social  Evolutionism

Definition  and  Origins •  Also called “cultural evolution”, “unilineal evolution” •  The idea that cultures evolved in a progressive manner,

from simple to complex •  By the mid 1850s, Europe had explored, conquered and

colonized many parts of the globe, encountering a variation of cultures with different lifestyles

•  Colonization led to the unveiling of an array of different lifestyles than Europeans

•  Early social theories are an attempt to explain those differences and in some cases, justify discrimination, colonization & slavery

•  Social evolutionism or cultural evolutionism is anthropology’s first systematic ethnological theory (“intended” to help explain diversity among peoples of the world)

•  http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Social%20Evolutionism

Leading  Figures •  Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917): English anthropologist;

formulated definition of culture •  Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881): father of American

anthropology; one of most influential evolutionary theorists of 19th C

•  Johann Jacob Bachofen (1815-1887): Swis lawyer and classicist; developed theory of evolution of kinship systems

•  Sir James George Frazer (1854-1873): Last of the British clasical evoluionists

•  Sir John Lubbock (1834-1914): Pupil of Darwin; coined ‘paleolithic’ and ‘Neolithic’

•  Sir Henry James Sumner Maine (1822-1888): English jurist and social theorist; focused on legal systems as key to social evolution

•  John F. McLellan (1827-1881): Scottish lawyer; built a theory of evolution of marriage

•  According to E.B. Tylor and Morgan, most societies or cultures pass through same series of stages to arrive at a common end – civilization

•  Edward B. Tylor proposed there were 3 stages: 1.  Savagery 2.  Barbarism 3.  Civilization

•  Disagreed with contention of some early 19th C French and English writers saying that indigenous people and First Nations were examples of cultural degeneration

•  Not degeneration, but lower on the “evolutionary” scale of culture

•  People were equally capable of developing and progressing through these 3 stages

•  “Progress is possible for all” •  http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Social%20Evolutionism

Edward  B.  Tylor

Edward  B.  Tylor

•  Tylor and other early evolutionists determined that different societies at different stages of evolution

•  “Simpler” people hadn’t reached “higher stage” of culture

•  Simpler societies resembled ancient societies •  In advanced societies, one could see proof of

cultural evolution through “Survivals” – traces of earlier customs that survive in present day cultures (e.g. making of pottery – back then, made out of clay; today, make out of metal because more durable but still prefer dishes made out of clay)

Edward  B.  Tylor

Lewis  Henry  Morgan

•  Called the Iroquois “noble savages” – a lawyer who defended their reserves in a land-grant case

•  Ancient Society •  Divided evolution of human culture into same three

stages but subdivided savagery and barbarism into further categories: upper, middle, and lower

•  Each stage distinguished by technological development and had a correlate in patterns of subsistence, marriage, family and political organization

Lewis  Henry  Morgan

•  Distinguished stages of development in terms of technological achievement, and each had its own symbol

•  Savagery o  Middle savagery: fish diet and discovery of fire

o  Upper savagery: bow and arrow

•  Barbarism o  Lower barbarism: pottery o  Middle barbarism: animal domestication and irrigated agriculture o  Upper barbarism: manufacture of iron

•  Civilization – alphabet

Lewis  Henry  Morgan

•  Speculated that each stage associated with sequence of different cultural patterns

•  Ex. Family evolved through six stages •  Established kinship and marriage as central areas of

anthropological inquiry •  Believed that family units became smaller and more self-

contained as society developed o  1: Began as a “horde living in promiscuity” with no sexual prohibitions and no

real family structure o  2: group of brothers married to group of sisters (was permitted) o  3: group marriage practiced but family not allowed to mate o  4: evolved during barbism; loosely paired male and female who lived with

other people o  5: husband dominant family arose which husband could practice polygamy o  6: Civilization: monogamous family

Lewis  Henry  Morgan

Herbert  Spencer •  Often referred to as Social Darwinism but calls it

synthetic philosophy •  Proposed that promoted evolution – societies that

conducted more warfare were most evolved •  Coined phrase “survival of the fittest” and

advocated for allowing societies to complete, allowing most fit in society to survive

•  Opposed social policy that would help the poor

•  https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/anthropological-theory/

Philosophy  behind  social  evolutionism

•  1. Psychic unity: suggests human minds share similar characteristics all over the world; all people and societies go through same process of development

•  2. Superiority of Western cultures: rooted in European colonialism and based on fact that Western societies were more technologically superior and sophisticated; belief that Christianity was the true religion

•  All early evolutionary schemes were unilineal (idea that there is set sequence of stages that all groups will pass through at some point, although progress varies)

•  Groups (past and present) that are at the same level or stage of development considered nearly identical

•  Doesn’t start in the 19th C •  Ancient Greece & Rome •  Polybius, Thucydides built histories of their own societies by describing the

early Roman and Greek cultures a barbaric versions of their own present •  Aristotle: society developed from a family-based organization into village-

based and finally into the Greek state •  Much of social evolution concepts in Greek and Roman literature – origins

of society, importance of discovering them, need to be able to determine what inner dynamic was at work, and stages of development

•  Also there is a note of teleology – that “our present” is the correct end and only possible end of the social evolution process

•  What they have in common: o  Progress is “natural, inevitable, gradual, and continuous” o  Also all seek the original, exclude consideration of specific events as

effective factors, derive from reflection of existing social or cultural forms arranged in a series

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-social-evolutionism-172801

A  note…

•  Has civilization evolved from a state of savagery or has it always coexisted with primitive groups?

•  The degeneration theory of savagery (primitives regressed from civilized state) had to be fought before any sort of theories could progress

•  Contemporary anthropologists believe that too simplistic to explain development of societies o  Relied on racist views of human development that were popular o  E.g. Morgan and Tylor believed that people had different level of intelligence

(of different races and nationalities) which led to societal differences

•  Alternative view to Christian/theological approach o  New view said that evolution was line of progression in which lower stages was

necessary to upper o  Contradicts traditional ideas about relationship between God and mankind

and nature of life and progress o  Evolutionists criticized Christian approach – required divine revelation to explain

civilization

Reaction  &  Criticism

•  Within school of evolution – debates about primitive stages of society

•  Karl Marx – surprised between parallels of Morgan’s evolutionism and own theory of history o  (Monogamy, private property and state were responsible for exploitation of

working class in industrialized societies) o  Extended Morgan’s scheme to include future stage of cultural evolution in

which monogamy, private property, and state cease to exist and “communism” of primitive society would once more come into being

•  20th C – end of evolutionism in cultural anthropology

o  Franz Boas – disagreed about assumption that universal laws governed all human culture

o  Argued that they lacked data o  Led to historicism à functionalism

Reaction  &  Criticism