Anthropological Theory and Fieldwork

1
Anthropological Theory and Fieldwork

• Robert Rhoades
• Dept. of Anthropology
• University of Georgia, Athens

2
Cultural Evolutionism (19th Century)

• Survivals
• Degeneration
• Stages

3
Lewis Henry Morgan (1818 1881)
4
Morgans Evolutionary Stages
Civilization
Alphabet
Upper Barbarism
Smelting of iron
Middle Barbarism
Domestication of animals
Lower Barbarism
Pottery and farming
Upper Savagery
Bow and arrow
Middle Savagery
Fishing/use of fire
Lower Savagery
Infancy of man
5
Evolutionary Stages
Hunters and Gatherers
horticulturalists
Civilization
Today
degeneration
Barbarism
Savagery
Past
6

• E. B. Tylor H. Spencer G. Klemm
• Monotheism Monogamy Freedom
• Polytheism Polygamy Tameness
• Animism Group Marriage Savagery

7
Criticism

• Arm chair philosophers
• Racist and ethnocentric
• Forced data to fit their schemes

8
Anti-Evolutionists

• Historical Particularism (Boas)

9

• Diffusionists (English/Germans)

10

• Functionalists (Radcliffe-Brown, B. Malinowski)

11

• Culture and Personality (Ruth Benedict, Margaret
  Mead)

Ruth Benedict
Margaret Mead
12
Ecological Anthropology

• Leslie White
• (1900 1975)
• Julian Steward
• (1902 1972)

13
Ethnoscience

• Claude Levi-Strauss (1908 - )

14
Interpretative or Post-Modern Anthropology
Clifford Geertz
Michel Foucault
15
Different Culture Theories Stress Different
Components
Space
Beliefs / Ideology
Social Organization
Technology Livelihood
Time
16
Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology

• Select a theoretical issue The Big Picture
• Frame your research question who, where, when
  and how
• Methods
• Secondary lit. review and archival research
• Fluency in local language
• Participant observation / Key informants
• Household surveys / mapping
• Comparisons
• Keeping field notes

17

• Analysis
• Publication and dissemination
• Issue of ethics

18
(No Transcript)