Chapter 4

Question 1

What is a theory?

Answer 1

A general statement that explains observations/phenomena

Question 2

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 2

An unproven proposition that can provide a basis for further investigation.

Question 3

What is degenerationism?

Answer 3

Theory that so-called savage or primitive cultures had degenerated from more civilized cultures because they had fallen from God’s Grace.

Question 4

What is evolutionism?

Answer 4

Belief that all of society passes through distinct evolutionary stages: savagery, barbarism, civilization. Differences in contemporary cultures arise due to them being at different evolutionary stages.

Question 5

What are savages?

Answer 5

The most primitive, exist in small bands, hunting and gathering for a living.

Question 6

What are barbarians?

Answer 6

They have developed pottery, domesticated animals, and live in larger, polygamous horticultural communities.

Question 7

What are civilized people?

Answer 7

Have developed writing, live in state societies, and are monogamous.

Question 8

Who developed the evolutionism theory?

Answer 8

Sir Edward Tylor, and Lewis Henry Morgan.

Question 9

What is the unilinear model?

Answer 9

All aspects of cultures and cultures as a whole will pass through the same set of preordained evolutionary stages.

Question 10

What kind of approach is evolutionism?

Answer 10

Deductive and comparative-they sort things according to complexity.

Question 11

What is psychic unity?

Answer 11

19th century belief that assumes that all people, when operating under similar circumstances, will think and behave in similar ways.

Question 12

What are the types of religion that Tylor attributed each evolutionary phase to?

Answer 12

Savage-animism
Barbarian-polytheism
Civilized-Monotheism

Question 13

What is diffusionism?

Answer 13

19th and early 20th century belief that cultural differences can be explained by the diffusion of cultural traits from one society to another.

Question 14

What is a culture complex and how does it relate to Kulturkreis?

Answer 14

A group of closely related aspects of culture, Kulturkreis is a German and Austrian form of diffusionism of culture complexes. This term was coined by Wilhelm Schmidt

Question 15

What is culture-historical archaeology?

Answer 15

Coined by V. Gordon Childe. Theory is based on the idea that each society produces its own distinct material culture, and this can be used to trace diffusion.

Question 16

What is mechanical and organic solidarity? (Durkheim)

Answer 16

Mechanical-similarity provides people with a sense of identity and solidarity
Organic-people became differentiated in larger societies, so their identity was shaped by relying on each other and fulfilling societal duties.

Question 17

What are social facts?

Answer 17

The institutions of a society that transcend the individual and have a coercive influence such that people follow the appropriate cultural norms. (institutions=marriage, family, kinship, religion etc). They are learned, endowed with coercive power, relative, and societally sourced instead of individually.

Question 18

What is the functionalist view? (Malinowski)

Answer 18

Idea that all culture, at one point or another, had a function to bettering the individual.

Question 19

What is structural functionalism? (Radcliffe-Brown)

Answer 19

Parts of a culture not only help the well-being of the individual, but also the well being of society.

Question 20

What are the 2 fundamental principles of the functionalist view?

Answer 20

1. Universal functions-every part of a culture has a function
2. Functional Unity-culture is an integrated whole composed of a number of interrelated parts.

Question 21

What are some critiques of functionalism?

Answer 21

Doesn’t account for change (disruption), and has individuals being seen as “puppets,” where there is no conflict or rebelling against roles.

Question 22

What is historical particularism? (Boas)

Answer 22

Idea that, to understand any one specific culture, it is also important to know about that culture’s history.

Question 23

Who is considered the “Father of American Anthropology?”

Answer 23

Franz Boas.

Question 24

What kind of approach is historical particularism?

Answer 24

Inductive.

Question 25

What are some assumptions of 19th century evolutionism?

Answer 25

1. Cultural world is governed by laws 2. Laws operate same in present as past (uniformitarianism) 3) Present grows out of past by continuous process (developmentalism). 4) Growth is simple-complex 5) All humans share single, psychic nature (are rational). 6) Cultural development is moved by environmental interaction 7) Different development=different environments 8) Differences can be measured 9) Cultures can be ordered hierarchically 10) Certain contemporary cultures are like earlier stages 11) Absence of data means these stages can be reconstructed by comparative analysis 12) Results of comparative method can be confirmed by the study of survivals.

Question 26

What is the central tenet?

Answer 26

Condition of savage/barbarous tribes represent a stage that we passed through a long time ago. Anthropologists can use indirect evidence provided by contemporary savagery as a means of reconstructing our barbarous past.

Question 27

How did fieldwork begin to grow?

Answer 27

1) Increasing knowledge of other cultures. 2) Dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of much of the data contained in ethnological writings. 3) Belief that savage tribes in their natural states were disappearing because of contact with more civilized nations.

Question 28

What kinds of things were absent from early fieldwork?

Answer 28

1) Participation 2) Sociological theory

Question 29

What are some rules of the sociological method?

Answer 29

Society is part of nature and a science of society must be based on the same principles as those of natural sciences. Social facts must be treated objectively. Totality cannot be deduced from individuals who form it. Social facts must be explained in terms of their function.

Question 30

What is the root idea of functionalism? (Bronislaw Malinowski and Durkheim).

Answer 30

Integration, function, and determinism (fit together, serve society, shape human nature).

Question 31

What are some institutional functions?

Answer 31

Language, myths, magic, scientific knowledge, religion, law.

Question 32

What are the five basic principles of structural functionalism? (A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Structure and function in primitive society)

Answer 32

1. Society is seen as an organically structured whole (biological organism) 2. Society has a social structure 3. Structure is ideally integrated, unified and exists in equilibrium 4. Structure is the object of analysis; most valued data is the structure you can abstract. 5. Function of social activities and institutions is ultimately intepreted in maintaining the whole social structure of a society

Question 33

What is Malinowski's hierarchy of needs?

Answer 33

Basic Needs- food, shelter sex. Universal. Commonality to all human cultures. Makes ethnology scientific. Each culture responds to these needs through institutions. Every institution centres around a fundamental need. Variation is culturally determined.

Question 34

What is the Boasian concept of culture?

Answer 34

Superorganic- the product of collective or group life; but the individual has influence Unconscious- A filter through which reality was perceived, but which is not itself the object of attention Adaptive- Culture ultimately helps individuals adapt to their environments.

Question 35

What is the superorganic according to A. Kroeber?

Answer 35

Belief that individuals have very little impact on a culture's development and change. Culture plays a determining role in an individuals behaviour. Culture has an existence outside of us and compels us to conform to patterns that can be statistically determined.

Question 36

What is the study on culture and personality and which anthropologists did these studies?

Answer 36

Seeks to understand the growth and development of personal or social identity as it relates to the surrounding social environment. Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict conducted these studies.

Question 37

What was some of Margaret Mead's research?

Answer 37

Coming of Age in Samoa. Studied whether or not adolescence is universally traumatizing, or if the trauma is culturally based. Found that in Samoan society, coming of age for women is not stressful, sex happened without consequence.

Question 38

Was Mead's research accurate?

Answer 38

No. She did not live with a Samoan family, did not spend enough time in Samoa, ignored violence in their lives, was lied to by female informants, went in with a preconceived notion.

Question 39

What were some of Ruth Benedict's findings in her research?

Answer 39

Found major differences in the ways of life of the Zuni vs Kwakituil people. Zuni people seen as a lot more passive and collectivist, whereas the other was seen as aggressive and selfish.