SC2218: Anthropology and the SC2218: Anthropology and the Human ConditionHuman Condition

Lecture 2: “Strangers Abroad”Lecture 2: “Strangers Abroad”Origins of the Anthropological PerspectiveOrigins of the Anthropological Perspective

Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson

Audrey Verma, Seuty SaburAudrey Verma, Seuty Sabur

Semester 1, 2008/2009Semester 1, 2008/2009

Questions about Ibn Battuta and Questions about Ibn Battuta and Ma HuanMa Huan

• Why were these reading assigned?

• Do they have anything to do with anthropology or social science?

• Is there any relationship between the passages from Ibn Battuta, Ma Huan, and the chapters (1-3) of Lee’s book The Dobe Ju/’hoansi?

Strangers, Others, & the Strangers, Others, & the Anthropological PerspectiveAnthropological Perspective

• Ibn Battúta– Travels in Asia and

Africa, 1325-1354

• Ma Huan– Survey of the Ocean’s

Shores, 1433

• Franz Boas– Expedition to Baffin

Island, 1883-1884Ibn Battúta’s Route

Admiral Zheng He

Ibn Battúta*Follow the hyperlinks for additional information.

Context of Modern AnthropologyContext of Modern Anthropology1919thth – 21 – 21stst centuries centuries

• European & American Colonialism

• Scientific approaches to studying people, society and culture.

• Decline of colonialism, national liberation movements, “native anthropologists”

Cultural EvolutionCultural Evolution

• 19th C. European Idea• All societies progress

through stages• Europeans = most

advanced• Justification of

European Colonial Rule (The “white man’s burden”)

Lower Savagery

Middle Savagery

Upper Savagery

Lower Barbarism

Middle Barbarism

Upper Barbarism

Civilization

Lewis Henry Morgan’sScheme of Social Evolution

L.H. Morgan

The White Man’s BurdenThe White Man’s Burden(Kipling 1899)(Kipling 1899)

Take up the White man’s burden,

Send forth the best ye breed.

Go bind your sons to exile,

To serve your captives’ need.

To wait in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild.

Your new caught, sullen peoples,

Half-devil and half-child.

• Kipling’s poem echoes three European ideas about “natives”:

• “Wild” – Non-human, animals (e.g. debate over whether native Americans had ‘souls’)

• “Half-devil” – Heathens• “Half-child” – Lower stage

of development

““The Shackles of Tradition”The Shackles of Tradition”

• Who was Franz Boas? What was his role in shaping modern anthropology?

• What did Boas think about “Savages”?

• How did the idea of CULTURE influence his views?

• How does Boas compare with other Strangers Abroad?

Boas’ LegacyBoas’ Legacy

How Boas shaped Anthropology:• Long-term Fieldwork

– Baffin Island, Inuit (“Eskimo”)– Pacific Northwest, Kwakiutl (with George Hunt)

• Professionalization & Institutionalization• Focus on Language and Culture• “Holistic Approach”• Cultural Relativism (History vs. Evolutionary Stages)• Anti-Racist, Humanistic tradition

Culture as Culture as CultivationCultivation

“If this trip has…a valuable experience, it lies in the strengthening of the viewpoint of the relativity of all cultivation. And that the evil as well as the value of a person lies in the cultivation of the heart, which I find or do not find here just as much as amongst us.” – Franz Boas 1883-1884

Cultural Relativism, Anti-Racism, Cultural Relativism, Anti-Racism, HumanismHumanism

• Prior to Boas, the dominant paradigm of anthropology was unilinear evolution.

Savagery Barbarism CivilizationLewis Henry Morgan

• Boas rejected evolutionary approaches in favor of cultural relativism.

• Cultures are not “better” or “worse”; more or less advanced, etc.

• Cultures must be understood on their own terms, not in relationship to other cultures.

• “Each culture has its own theoreticians whose contributions deserve the same attention as that which the anthropologist gives to colleagues.” Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, 1963 [1958], pg. 282

Anthropology’s Ethical Dilemma:Anthropology’s Ethical Dilemma:Cultural & Moral RelativismCultural & Moral Relativism

• Does “cultural relativism” imply “moral relativism”?

• Are there limits to cultural or moral relativism?

• Is cultural relativism necessary for anthropological research?

Colonial AnthropologyColonial Anthropology(mid-19(mid-19thth C. to mid-20 C. to mid-20thth C.) C.)

• American “Cultural” Anthropology– Focus on Native American cultures

• British “Social” Anthropology– Focus on Natives of the British Empire

• The “Savage Slot”

• Methodological Alterity

Post-Colonial AnthropologyPost-Colonial Anthropology

• American “Area Studies” (Cold War)• Soviet Anthropology (USSR, China, Vietnam)• Japanese Anthropology• Rejection of Anthropology (We’re not “Primitive”)• National Anthropologies (e.g. Thailand, Korea)• Methodological Nationalism• “World Anthropologies”• Globalization (e.g. Anthropology of YouTube)

““Bodily Ritual among the Bodily Ritual among the Nacirema”Nacirema”

• Most widely read and reproduced article in anthropology of the 20th century.

• A critique of anthropology’s tendency to “exoticize” other cultures.

• Reflecting back on one’s own culture.

• Making “the strange familiar and the familiar strange.”

• Published in 1956 – point of transition from colonial to post-colonial anthropology?

Questions for the coming week…Questions for the coming week…

• What is the relationship between Franz Boas’ “anti-evolutionary” approach and the findings/arguments of Wells & Handwerker?

• Are evolutionary theories of culture and “cultural relativism” compatible?

• Hint: Today, evolution is not considered to be “unilinear”; in fact, it is non-linear.