Sean Hanretta
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300196511
- eISBN:
- 9780300235678
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300196511.003.0013
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
The concept of culture, in the Boasian sense of the learned, variable, and mutable “structures” underlying “the behavior of the individuals composing a social group collectively and individually,” ...
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The concept of culture, in the Boasian sense of the learned, variable, and mutable “structures” underlying “the behavior of the individuals composing a social group collectively and individually,” has played an important role in the production of knowledge about many human societies. This chapter examines two moments in the history of the culture concept as applied to West Africa. First, a moment during the process of the concept's formation in the mid-nineteenth century; second, a moment in the 1950s that revealed the political limits of appeals to culture. Juxtaposing the lives of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism, and the Ghanaian doctor and poet Raphael Armattoe, one of the first Africans nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the chapter illuminates the diverse networks and shifting political valences that shaped the rise, redemption, and circumscription of the culture concept in Africa from colonialism to neoliberalism.Less
The concept of culture, in the Boasian sense of the learned, variable, and mutable “structures” underlying “the behavior of the individuals composing a social group collectively and individually,” has played an important role in the production of knowledge about many human societies. This chapter examines two moments in the history of the culture concept as applied to West Africa. First, a moment during the process of the concept's formation in the mid-nineteenth century; second, a moment in the 1950s that revealed the political limits of appeals to culture. Juxtaposing the lives of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism, and the Ghanaian doctor and poet Raphael Armattoe, one of the first Africans nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the chapter illuminates the diverse networks and shifting political valences that shaped the rise, redemption, and circumscription of the culture concept in Africa from colonialism to neoliberalism.
Anna Wierzbicka
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195137330
- eISBN:
- 9780199867905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195137337.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Argues that the parable of the Servant's Reward, which may seem harsh and may offend modern Western sensibilities, is corrective, rather than expository: the image of a master and his “unprofitable ...
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Argues that the parable of the Servant's Reward, which may seem harsh and may offend modern Western sensibilities, is corrective, rather than expository: the image of a master and his “unprofitable servants” complements that of a father and his beloved children. While highlighting the value of human effort in God's eyes, the parable warns against thinking that one can earn one's reward from God, that is, against a way of thinking that can be represented as follows:I have done some good thingsGod has to do some good things for me because of thisBypassing complex and culture‐specific concepts like “reward,” “merit,” “claim,” and “good works,” the chapter articulates the parable's message about God as follows:God wants to do good things for menot because I have done some good thingsnot because I can do some good thingsLess
Argues that the parable of the Servant's Reward, which may seem harsh and may offend modern Western sensibilities, is corrective, rather than expository: the image of a master and his “unprofitable servants” complements that of a father and his beloved children. While highlighting the value of human effort in God's eyes, the parable warns against thinking that one can earn one's reward from God, that is, against a way of thinking that can be represented as follows:
I have done some good things
God has to do some good things for me because of this
Bypassing complex and culture‐specific concepts like “reward,” “merit,” “claim,” and “good works,” the chapter articulates the parable's message about God as follows:
God wants to do good things for me
not because I have done some good things
not because I can do some good things
Deborah Weinstein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451416
- eISBN:
- 9780801468155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451416.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter looks at how family therapists use the culture concept—elaborated by anthropologists such as Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn—to justify their own field and build a community of ...
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This chapter looks at how family therapists use the culture concept—elaborated by anthropologists such as Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn—to justify their own field and build a community of self-identified professionals. It discusses how therapists use culture to deal with conflicting ends in debates about universal versus relativistic characterizations of the family, the practicability of addressing problems through therapeutic means, and the advisability of promoting or challenging societal values and norms through family therapy. The vagueness of the concept of culture proved to be productive for the field because it enabled culture to serve as an explanatory framework for a wide variety of issues, such as the nature of prejudice and the relationship between family and poverty.Less
This chapter looks at how family therapists use the culture concept—elaborated by anthropologists such as Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn—to justify their own field and build a community of self-identified professionals. It discusses how therapists use culture to deal with conflicting ends in debates about universal versus relativistic characterizations of the family, the practicability of addressing problems through therapeutic means, and the advisability of promoting or challenging societal values and norms through family therapy. The vagueness of the concept of culture proved to be productive for the field because it enabled culture to serve as an explanatory framework for a wide variety of issues, such as the nature of prejudice and the relationship between family and poverty.
Eric R. Wolf
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223332
- eISBN:
- 9780520924871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223332.003.0023
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This chapter explicates ethnographic or historical case material and reconsiders anthropology's basic notions, central among which is the concept of culture. It discusses issues of how cultures were ...
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This chapter explicates ethnographic or historical case material and reconsiders anthropology's basic notions, central among which is the concept of culture. It discusses issues of how cultures were assumed to be integrated and to persist over time, seemingly immune to the turmoils of history and unaffected by the implications of power. The chapter also analyzes the split between materialists and mentalists, and suggests that the proliferation and severance of specializations within the discipline calls into question the old culture concept, both as the unique possession of humankind and as the distinctive, internally coherent, and transgenerational repertoire of artifacts and customs characteristic of any given society or culture-bearing population. Anthropologists, while unraveling symbolic systems, also show that each separable culture constitutes a symbolic universe unto itself. Cultural construction, reconstruction, and destruction are ongoing processes, but they always take place within larger historical fields or arenas.Less
This chapter explicates ethnographic or historical case material and reconsiders anthropology's basic notions, central among which is the concept of culture. It discusses issues of how cultures were assumed to be integrated and to persist over time, seemingly immune to the turmoils of history and unaffected by the implications of power. The chapter also analyzes the split between materialists and mentalists, and suggests that the proliferation and severance of specializations within the discipline calls into question the old culture concept, both as the unique possession of humankind and as the distinctive, internally coherent, and transgenerational repertoire of artifacts and customs characteristic of any given society or culture-bearing population. Anthropologists, while unraveling symbolic systems, also show that each separable culture constitutes a symbolic universe unto itself. Cultural construction, reconstruction, and destruction are ongoing processes, but they always take place within larger historical fields or arenas.
Alejandra Pallamar and Sanjee Dahal
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190888510
- eISBN:
- 9780190888527
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190888510.003.0002
- Subject:
- Social Work, Crime and Justice, Communities and Organizations
In this chapter, we investigate the concepts of culture and explore the role that culture plays in contemporary social work practice. This chapter highlights the historical construction of the ...
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In this chapter, we investigate the concepts of culture and explore the role that culture plays in contemporary social work practice. This chapter highlights the historical construction of the concept of culture from 1990 to 2000 and contemporary understanding of culture across disciplines. We explore the idea of culture in anthropological research, in sociological research and in the fields of psychology and communication. Considering the expansion of market in all spheres of life, the chapter will examine how social work intersects with other disciplines to look at culture and consider cross-cultural issues. We link the importance of the role of culture in the field of social work.Less
In this chapter, we investigate the concepts of culture and explore the role that culture plays in contemporary social work practice. This chapter highlights the historical construction of the concept of culture from 1990 to 2000 and contemporary understanding of culture across disciplines. We explore the idea of culture in anthropological research, in sociological research and in the fields of psychology and communication. Considering the expansion of market in all spheres of life, the chapter will examine how social work intersects with other disciplines to look at culture and consider cross-cultural issues. We link the importance of the role of culture in the field of social work.
Jan Kubik
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198829911
- eISBN:
- 9780191868368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829911.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The task of this chapter is to delineate the role of culture in transformations. First, two conceptualizations of culture are introduced: socio-psychological (syndrome of attitudes) and semiotic (web ...
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The task of this chapter is to delineate the role of culture in transformations. First, two conceptualizations of culture are introduced: socio-psychological (syndrome of attitudes) and semiotic (web of meanings). Second, the problem of prime movers of transformations is discussed: are they material-economic or cultural? Or perhaps both, in a complex interaction? Third, the significance of agency is highlighted. The point is not to study abstract cultural (ideational) ‘forces’ to determine their relative impact, but rather to reconstruct specific meaning-creating actions of concrete agents and try to gauge their influence on people’s attitudes. Fourth, the different role of culture in three stages of transformation (breakdown, power transfer, and consolidation of a new system) is examined. Both conceptualizations of culture are utilized. Finally, a theory of cultural trauma and a theory of delayed cultural countertransformation are briefly introduced.Less
The task of this chapter is to delineate the role of culture in transformations. First, two conceptualizations of culture are introduced: socio-psychological (syndrome of attitudes) and semiotic (web of meanings). Second, the problem of prime movers of transformations is discussed: are they material-economic or cultural? Or perhaps both, in a complex interaction? Third, the significance of agency is highlighted. The point is not to study abstract cultural (ideational) ‘forces’ to determine their relative impact, but rather to reconstruct specific meaning-creating actions of concrete agents and try to gauge their influence on people’s attitudes. Fourth, the different role of culture in three stages of transformation (breakdown, power transfer, and consolidation of a new system) is examined. Both conceptualizations of culture are utilized. Finally, a theory of cultural trauma and a theory of delayed cultural countertransformation are briefly introduced.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226533230
- eISBN:
- 9780226533254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226533254.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter examines the life of Lewis Henry Morgan in the context of secularism in antebellum America. It explains that Morgan's intersected with evangelical revivalism and séance spiritualism and ...
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This chapter examines the life of Lewis Henry Morgan in the context of secularism in antebellum America. It explains that Morgan's intersected with evangelical revivalism and séance spiritualism and that he distanced himself from the formalities of religion choosing to describes his own scientific pursuits in the language of spirit and spirituality. This chapter also highlights the contribution of Morgan to the culture concept, a key term of anthropological comprehension.Less
This chapter examines the life of Lewis Henry Morgan in the context of secularism in antebellum America. It explains that Morgan's intersected with evangelical revivalism and séance spiritualism and that he distanced himself from the formalities of religion choosing to describes his own scientific pursuits in the language of spirit and spirituality. This chapter also highlights the contribution of Morgan to the culture concept, a key term of anthropological comprehension.
Anna Ogarkova, Johnny J. R. Fontaine, and Irina Prihod’ko
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199592746
- eISBN:
- 9780191762765
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592746.003.0024
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter explores the applicability of the GRID method in research on culture-specific emotion concepts. Our case-study considers the Russian emotion concept ‘toska’ frequently reported to be ...
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This chapter explores the applicability of the GRID method in research on culture-specific emotion concepts. Our case-study considers the Russian emotion concept ‘toska’ frequently reported to be among ‘key’ concepts in the Russian culture characterized by both cultural saliency and ‘untranslatability’ into other languages. Deriving from the controversy in lexicographers and semanticists’ views about its meaning, the chapter empirically explores two hypotheses, namely, that toska is an emotional ‘blend’ of sadness and anxiety (Hypothesis 1) or that toska is primarily a sadness word in Russian (Hypothesis 2). Although the results provide more robust support to the latter contention, we also show that the GRID method aptly specifies the degree of gradual overlap of the meaning of toska with anxiety/fear terms in Russian (allegedly important for its meaning), and, more importantly, allows the pinning down of which emotion dimensions and features foreground this overlap.Less
This chapter explores the applicability of the GRID method in research on culture-specific emotion concepts. Our case-study considers the Russian emotion concept ‘toska’ frequently reported to be among ‘key’ concepts in the Russian culture characterized by both cultural saliency and ‘untranslatability’ into other languages. Deriving from the controversy in lexicographers and semanticists’ views about its meaning, the chapter empirically explores two hypotheses, namely, that toska is an emotional ‘blend’ of sadness and anxiety (Hypothesis 1) or that toska is primarily a sadness word in Russian (Hypothesis 2). Although the results provide more robust support to the latter contention, we also show that the GRID method aptly specifies the degree of gradual overlap of the meaning of toska with anxiety/fear terms in Russian (allegedly important for its meaning), and, more importantly, allows the pinning down of which emotion dimensions and features foreground this overlap.
Marcello Piperno
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198522638
- eISBN:
- 9780191688652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198522638.003.0014
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
The identification of the ‘concept of culture’, along with the most ancient signs of instrument use, has always been characterized by a diachronic process. This decides the course of its rapid change ...
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The identification of the ‘concept of culture’, along with the most ancient signs of instrument use, has always been characterized by a diachronic process. This decides the course of its rapid change because of the development of knowledge in the field and has always been linked to the historical progress of research. The aim has been to discover a philosophical distinction and a culture gap which might in some way serve as an element of ‘separation’ between man and the rest of the animal world. Benjamin Franklin's old definition of man as ‘a maker of tools’, which was adopted by Oakley and later modified by him (in 1954 and 1969) to ‘Man skilful maker of tools’, has been modified again more recently through the use of another attribute. Once more it is considered as distinctive of the human species: ‘Man the habitual tool maker’.Less
The identification of the ‘concept of culture’, along with the most ancient signs of instrument use, has always been characterized by a diachronic process. This decides the course of its rapid change because of the development of knowledge in the field and has always been linked to the historical progress of research. The aim has been to discover a philosophical distinction and a culture gap which might in some way serve as an element of ‘separation’ between man and the rest of the animal world. Benjamin Franklin's old definition of man as ‘a maker of tools’, which was adopted by Oakley and later modified by him (in 1954 and 1969) to ‘Man skilful maker of tools’, has been modified again more recently through the use of another attribute. Once more it is considered as distinctive of the human species: ‘Man the habitual tool maker’.
Heather Hindman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804786515
- eISBN:
- 9780804788557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804786515.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Global
The city of Kathmandu, Nepal, is saturated with foreign money and people through the industries of development, diplomacy and tourism. “Expatria in Nepal” explores a particular segment of that ...
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The city of Kathmandu, Nepal, is saturated with foreign money and people through the industries of development, diplomacy and tourism. “Expatria in Nepal” explores a particular segment of that foreign involvement, elite transnational workers, and how expatriates have been ambivalently discussed within anthropology. The chapter contextualizes the tensions that scholars and practitioners of overseas labor encounter in discussing issues of culture and difference, as well as the distinction-making practices that are a part of the process of producing “Expatria.” Yet Expatria is a moving target, changing over time and in different locations, although institutional similarities make a life of constant movement possible. The mediation of and by expatriates - their middlemen status - has been central to their jobs and identity abroad. The chapter concludes with a gesture to recent changes that may be undermining Expatria as an entity.Less
The city of Kathmandu, Nepal, is saturated with foreign money and people through the industries of development, diplomacy and tourism. “Expatria in Nepal” explores a particular segment of that foreign involvement, elite transnational workers, and how expatriates have been ambivalently discussed within anthropology. The chapter contextualizes the tensions that scholars and practitioners of overseas labor encounter in discussing issues of culture and difference, as well as the distinction-making practices that are a part of the process of producing “Expatria.” Yet Expatria is a moving target, changing over time and in different locations, although institutional similarities make a life of constant movement possible. The mediation of and by expatriates - their middlemen status - has been central to their jobs and identity abroad. The chapter concludes with a gesture to recent changes that may be undermining Expatria as an entity.
Nahum Dimitri Chandler
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823254064
- eISBN:
- 9780823261239
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823254064.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter provides both a critique and a way beyond the central theoretical approaches that dominated the social scientific study of the cultural provenance of the social and historical practices ...
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This chapter provides both a critique and a way beyond the central theoretical approaches that dominated the social scientific study of the cultural provenance of the social and historical practices of African American for most of the second half of the twentieth century and remains a powerful central discourse. Those approaches conceptualized African American matters as always derivative from a pre-formed American culture. This essay offers instead the idea that the problematic African American of historicity is exemplary of how one should understand American culture possibility in general -- as formed out of multiple sources and motifs, yet comprising a distinctive ensemblic whole. W. E. B. Du Bois’ s thought of the African American as configured as an historical subject of at least double reference - a kind of “double-consciousness” - is the central theoretical guide here. In addition, the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Eugene Genovese, Ranajit Guha, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Hortense Spillers are guiding, if at times critically engaged, references. The eighteenth century narrative of Olaudah Equiano is considered at length.Less
This chapter provides both a critique and a way beyond the central theoretical approaches that dominated the social scientific study of the cultural provenance of the social and historical practices of African American for most of the second half of the twentieth century and remains a powerful central discourse. Those approaches conceptualized African American matters as always derivative from a pre-formed American culture. This essay offers instead the idea that the problematic African American of historicity is exemplary of how one should understand American culture possibility in general -- as formed out of multiple sources and motifs, yet comprising a distinctive ensemblic whole. W. E. B. Du Bois’ s thought of the African American as configured as an historical subject of at least double reference - a kind of “double-consciousness” - is the central theoretical guide here. In addition, the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Eugene Genovese, Ranajit Guha, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Hortense Spillers are guiding, if at times critically engaged, references. The eighteenth century narrative of Olaudah Equiano is considered at length.
Maria Lúcia Pallares-Burke
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300196511
- eISBN:
- 9780300235678
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300196511.003.0014
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This chapter discusses how the creative use of Franz Boas's ideas to analyze Brazilian culture and society and to “discover” Brazil for the Brazilians was the work of two scholars, the Brazilian ...
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This chapter discusses how the creative use of Franz Boas's ideas to analyze Brazilian culture and society and to “discover” Brazil for the Brazilians was the work of two scholars, the Brazilian Gilberto Freyre and the German Rüdiger Bilden. Freyre has been credited with the invention of Brazilian identity with the publication of his Casa-Grande & Senzala (translated into English as The Masters and the Slaves) in 1933 and is described as Boas's most outstanding Latin American disciple. On the other hand, Bilden, a German scholar who was closer to Boas and once seemed to have a brilliant future, later dropped out of the academic world and disappeared into obscurity.Less
This chapter discusses how the creative use of Franz Boas's ideas to analyze Brazilian culture and society and to “discover” Brazil for the Brazilians was the work of two scholars, the Brazilian Gilberto Freyre and the German Rüdiger Bilden. Freyre has been credited with the invention of Brazilian identity with the publication of his Casa-Grande & Senzala (translated into English as The Masters and the Slaves) in 1933 and is described as Boas's most outstanding Latin American disciple. On the other hand, Bilden, a German scholar who was closer to Boas and once seemed to have a brilliant future, later dropped out of the academic world and disappeared into obscurity.
Khaled Furani
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198796435
- eISBN:
- 9780191837715
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198796435.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Heuristically evoking Hubal, an ancient Arabian god of the moon, the unknown, and divination, this chapter employs idolatry, a central category of critique from monotheistic theology, to explore ways ...
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Heuristically evoking Hubal, an ancient Arabian god of the moon, the unknown, and divination, this chapter employs idolatry, a central category of critique from monotheistic theology, to explore ways in which anthropology falls prey to disorientations, conflations, and unwarranted concessions in its study of multiplicity. Concerned with a particular form of idolatry whereby the finite is taken for the infinite, entailing confusion about ends worthy of a life’s devotion, this chapter examines how “culture” and its cognates function as idols in anthropodom. It argues that by conceding to secular state power, and ultimately to principles of sovereignty, anthropology becomes complicit in a wider idolatry that unnecessarily limits its very capacities of reason.Less
Heuristically evoking Hubal, an ancient Arabian god of the moon, the unknown, and divination, this chapter employs idolatry, a central category of critique from monotheistic theology, to explore ways in which anthropology falls prey to disorientations, conflations, and unwarranted concessions in its study of multiplicity. Concerned with a particular form of idolatry whereby the finite is taken for the infinite, entailing confusion about ends worthy of a life’s devotion, this chapter examines how “culture” and its cognates function as idols in anthropodom. It argues that by conceding to secular state power, and ultimately to principles of sovereignty, anthropology becomes complicit in a wider idolatry that unnecessarily limits its very capacities of reason.
Constance Clark
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198834588
- eISBN:
- 9780191872679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198834588.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The legacies of rejected nineteenth-century models of evolutionary anthropology remain influential. Nineteenth-century founders of the discipline such as E. B. Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan aspired to ...
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The legacies of rejected nineteenth-century models of evolutionary anthropology remain influential. Nineteenth-century founders of the discipline such as E. B. Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan aspired to study human societies, including morals and religion, as natural phenomena, reflecting a natural order. In the context of shared assumptions about race and empire they postulated a trajectory from primitive society to civilization, identifying ‘primitive’ societies as remnant populations arrested at early stages of evolutionary development—the ‘childhood of the race’. Rejecting the racial and teleological implications of this trajectory, Franz Boas argued that anthropology and other historical sciences differed fundamentally from the nomothetic, law-giving physical sciences. Naturalism has become problematic for some anthropologists—not in the sense that the ‘God hypothesis’ has returned as methodology, but manifested in an uneasiness about definitions of culture and of human nature in naturalistic, deterministic, reductionist, and biological terms.Less
The legacies of rejected nineteenth-century models of evolutionary anthropology remain influential. Nineteenth-century founders of the discipline such as E. B. Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan aspired to study human societies, including morals and religion, as natural phenomena, reflecting a natural order. In the context of shared assumptions about race and empire they postulated a trajectory from primitive society to civilization, identifying ‘primitive’ societies as remnant populations arrested at early stages of evolutionary development—the ‘childhood of the race’. Rejecting the racial and teleological implications of this trajectory, Franz Boas argued that anthropology and other historical sciences differed fundamentally from the nomothetic, law-giving physical sciences. Naturalism has become problematic for some anthropologists—not in the sense that the ‘God hypothesis’ has returned as methodology, but manifested in an uneasiness about definitions of culture and of human nature in naturalistic, deterministic, reductionist, and biological terms.