The evolution of anthropolgy
-
Upload
daryl-bambic -
Category
Documents
-
view
1.006 -
download
1
description
Transcript of The evolution of anthropolgy
The Evolution of AnthropolgyThe Evolution of Anthropolgy
Explaining Human BehaviourExplaining Human Behaviour
Psychology: unconscious motivations Psychology: unconscious motivations
Neuropsychology: brain chemicalsNeuropsychology: brain chemicals
Anthropology: culture is everything Anthropology: culture is everything
Understanding OurselvesUnderstanding Ourselves
History
ReligionScience
Literature
Anthro
Human Behaviour
Human Behaviour
How do we explain?
Evolution of AnthropologyEvolution of Anthropology
E mile Durkheim Culture is the productOf people interacting with institutions Functions like parts of a machine or body
E mile Durkheim Culture is the productOf people interacting with institutions Functions like parts of a machine or body
Franz Boas Collect data study people scientific approach Develop hypothesis and Gather data
Franz Boas Collect data study people scientific approach Develop hypothesis and Gather data
Charles DarwinEdward TylorHebert SpencerEvolutionary ideas about culture
Misuse of Darwin’s ideaSurvival of the fittest=justificationFor inequalities
Charles DarwinEdward TylorHebert SpencerEvolutionary ideas about culture
Misuse of Darwin’s ideaSurvival of the fittest=justificationFor inequalities
Social DarwinismSocial DarwinismScientific StudyScientific Study FunctionalismFunctionalism
More EvolutionMore Evolution
Biology is the common unifier
Biology is the common unifier
Marvin Harris Cultural relativism
Marvin Harris Cultural relativism
Cultures develop in adaptation to a specific geography and ecologyExample: Jared Diamond
Cultures develop in adaptation to a specific geography and ecologyExample: Jared Diamond
Neo-evolutionary Neo-evolutionary Cultural MaterialismCultural Materialism Cognitive approachCognitive approach
Evolutionary view:Social DarwinismEvolutionary view:Social Darwinism
• Before Darwin, religious ideas were the source of our understanding about ‘evolution’ and man’s behaviour
• Hebert Spencer + Edward Tylor misused • Darwin’s ideas to justify
Laissez-faire social policies
Eugenics and ‘scientific racism
come from this time
Might = RightMight = Right
• Justification for colonialism• Days of the slave trade
Eugenics + Scientific RacismEugenics + Scientific Racism
People who can dominateothers are inherently superior
Dangerous armchair anthropologist
Scientific ApproachScientific Approach
• Franz Boas • Geologist, scientist • Collected data + scientific method• Study of European immigrants• They’re not inferior, just bad diets• Primitive languages are not primitive,• Just different• Beginnings of cultural relativism
Structural FunctionalismStructural Functionalism
• Emile Durkheim• Sociology influences anthropology• Culture is like a machine/body • Interdependent parts• 5 institutions work together • Culture = homeostasis• Brings respect for cultural differences• Doesn’t explain war, chaos, revolutions
Rain DanceRain Dance
• What’s the point if it doesn’t work?
• Manifest vs latent function
• It works in hidden ways
Neo-Evolutionary ApproachNeo-Evolutionary Approach
• Different paths to evolution• Function of how we extract energy from
the planet• Culture = adaptation to its ecology• Jared Diamond• Lots of energy=larger social group
Beginnings of cultural relativismBeginnings of cultural relativism
• Hunter/gatherers produce less than farmers
• One is not necessarily better than the other
• Question of adaptation to context• Beans in the Arctic?• Strategy for survival = ecological context
Cultural MaterialismCultural Materialism
• From Marxist thinking• Culture is understood by the material
restraints on it• Pigs in Fertile Crescent• Sacred Cows in India
12 units of vegetable protein = 1 unit of meat protein
12 units of vegetable protein = 1 unit of meat protein
Meat is a luxury Pigs destroy roots
Feminist AnthropologyFeminist AnthropologyWhat about the gatherers?
Women interpret history differently• Tools or relationships?
Culture is ...you finish this sentenceCulture is ...you finish this sentence
Culture is...Culture is...
inherited
transmitted
Evolution
biologicalecological
?