Understanding Other Cultures (Fall 2019)

Introducing Anthropology/Unilineal Evolution

Wednesday September 4 and Wednesday September 11

I. Cultural Relativism as a Tool of Fieldwork

A. Cultural relativism: suspend our beliefs to learn about others. A

methodological tool underscoring that cultural practices have to be
understood in terms of the larger symbolic system of which it is a part

B. Cannot objectively rank as higher or lower, or better, because all humans

see the world from their own culture lens. Franz Boas: “civilization is not
something absolute, but…is relative, and…our ideas and conceptions are
true only as far as our civilization goes” (1887).

C. Ethnocentrism-belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is superior to

those of other groups.

D. Ethnocentrism affects the way we see the world. Map representations and
developing of ethnocentric awareness.

II. Philosophical Questions and First Contact

1. Were these people human the way Europeans were?
2. Did they have civilization or did they live in a state of nature?
3. How are social differences to be explained?

III. Appearance of Anthropology as a Social Science 1875

A. Merging of two existing studies
a. study of cultural difference
b. study of biological origins of humans and other species

IV. Principal Theoretical Developments Before 1875

A. Degeneration Theory—Biblical cause for variation (Tower of
Babel). Entire species “degenerated” becoming sterile, weaker, or
smaller

B. Progressivism—All societies started out primitive and were progressing

toward a more advanced state of being.
1. John Locke (1632-1704)—progress based on experience
since human mind is a “blank slate”

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 C. Evolutionary Explanations
1. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)—Wrote “On the Origin of
Species” (1859) where he outlined theory of natural selection.

2. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)—Developed the concept of

“survival of the fittest” (Social Darwinism)

V. Unilineal Evolution
A. Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) wrote “Ancient Society” (1877)
a. Savagery (NW Coast US, Apes, Australian Aborigines)-
promiscuous
b. Barbarism (Pueblo, Iroquois, Maya)-polygamous
c. Civilization (Greeks, Romans, Europeans)-monogamous

B. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)

a. animism
b. polytheism
c. monotheism

C. Unilineal Evolution
a. Primitive societies as Europe’s past
b. Comparative in nature
1. nomothetic—generalized understanding of a given
case (based on law).
c. Ethnocentric
d. “Armchair Anthropology”
e. Egalitarian/ “Psychic Unity of Mankind”

VI. Eugenics
A. Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909) concept of the criminal type
1. Anthropometrics

C. Adolf Hitler and Nazi Genocide of the Jews and other ‘undesirables’

D. Examples of Eugenic Policies and Programs

a. forced sterilization
b. marriage restrictions
c. segregation by race
d. genocide

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VII. Critique of Unilineal Evolution
A. Franz Boas (1858-1942)
a. Born in Germany and received doctorate in physics (“color of
seawater”)
b. Traveled to Central Arctic Archipelago where he became
interested in the Inuit
c. Focused on Pacific Northwest, specifically Kwakiutl
d. Anti-Semitism led Boas to leave Europe
e. Father of American Anthropology and one of the last to
cover all fields in the discipline
f. Salvage Anthropology-idea that as anthropologists we should
go out and catalogue all non-western cultures before they
disappear

B. Historical Particularism
a. Rejects cultural evolutionary model. Each society is a
collective representation of a particular historical past.
1. Diffusion, trade, historical accident explains
similarities between some cultures NOT EVOLUTION.
2. Potlatch-form of political, social, and economic
exchange
b. Chicago Fair Exposition-400 year anniversary of Christopher
Columbus’s discovery of the ‘New World’
c. Immigrants and anthropometrics

VIII. Definitions
1. Psychic Unity of Mankind-idea that all humans share a basic mental
framework.

2. Nomothetic explanation-generalized understanding of a given case.

3. Ideographic explanation-full description of a given case in its own

context.