History and Theory In Anthropology Flashcards
Edward Burnet Tylor
Evolutionary Anthropology
Linear Development of societies.
Lewis Henry Morgan
Evolutionary Anthropology
7 stages of social development
Lower savagery, middle savagery, upper savagery, lower barbarism, middle barbarism, upper barbarism, civilization
Franz Boas
Diffusionism
Cultures change unpredictably
Based on interactions with other cultures
Challenges to Evolutionary Anthropology
Frank Boas
Fieldwork
Radcliffe-Brown
Functionalism
Studying culture as a framework of concepts and generalizations
Generalizing structures across culture
Claude Levi-Strauss
Analysis of cultural systems (e.g., kinship and mythical systems) in terms of the structural relations among their elements
The ability to learn culture is inherent in human minds
Levi-Strauss
Culture as grammar
Focus on mental structures that make up the culture of an individual
(Structuralism)
Durkheim and Mauss
Focus on social structures instead of mental structures
Structuralism
Clifford Geertz
Interpretive Anthropology
Culture as a symbol system that needs to be read like a text
Thick description
Cultural Anthropolgy
Descriptions of individual cultures
Franz Boas
Social Anthropology
Studying social structures and generalizations across cultures rather than particular cultures
Radcliffe-Brown
Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict
Personality and Culture
Relationship between shared culture and individual personality
Culture defines normal and abnormal personality traits
Emily Martin
Personality and Culture
Culture determines normal variations of mental health
Who is considered mentally ill and why?
Interactions of individual personality with cultural/structural norms
Anthropology and Gender
Getting female perspectives on cultural practices
Cultures cannot be described from only one point of view
Gender determines access to certain cultural practices
Reflexivity
Turning the anthropological gaze inwards
Studying yourself and your own positionality and privilege
Understanding bias
Anthropology is knowledge creation
Who gets to decide what knowledge is created?
Which perspectives are included?
