Theory Exam 1

What are survivals?

Processes, customs, opinions, etc., which have been carried on by force of habit into a new state of society, remaining as proofs of an older condition of culture out of which a newer has evolved

What is culture?

Complex whole, including knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and nay other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

How did the first group of anthropologists see culture?

They saw it as an end game that starts in a primitive cultural state, and the goal is civilization (white European culture). This was used to justify colonialism and often involved missionaries. They try to define culture very broadly

What did both Tyler and Morgan argue about how culture was moving?

They both argued that they are moving from simplistic society to more complex

What does Tyler say that free human will involves?

That it involves not only freedom to act in accordance with motive, but also a power of breaking loose from continuity and acting without cause

Tyler believes all humans are on a single path of what?

Social evolution

What would Tyler believe about intelligence and race?

He would believe that intelligence varies across races

According to Tyler, what is human action determined by?

Cause and effect, whether we realize it or not

Tyler had the idea that _____ and _____ would “save” human civilization

that science and rationality would save human civilization

How does Tyler view/describe culture? What does he believe the ethnographer’s primary job is?

As an evolutionary phenomenon, which requires tracing the history of its development.

The primary job is the classification of cultural traits

What does Tyler believe is the first step in the study of civilization?

To dissect it into details, and to classify these into their proper group. (kind of life comparing species of plants and animals)

What is monogenesis?

The belief that all human races belonged to the same species and shared the same evolutionary origins

What is polygenesis?

The belief that human races represented different and unequal species (scientific justification for slavery")

What three stages did Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) place the human family in?

1. Savagery

2. Barbarism

3. State of Civilization

What does savagery relate to according to Morgan?

It relates to what in the environment humans can acquire (fishing, making fire, etc.)

When does the emergence of the state occur according to Morgan?

Once people can produce their own food, because it leads to social stratification

Can the human trajectory be changed according to Morgan?

Yes, there are historical and environmental factors that change human trajectory within savagery and barbarism.

Who are Morgan’s ideas similar to?

Jean-Baptiste Lamarch

Morgan saw progress as a ______ force

as a moral force

According to Morgan, what were the two different types of evolution?

1. Growth of Intelligence; inventions and discoveries

2. Evolution of institutions; government, family, property

How does Morgan view societies?

He puts them more in boxes rather than viewing it as a gradual growth.

-He defines savagery and barbarism as what a society doesn’t have

What are the types of institutions that Morgan lists?

1. Subsistence

2. Government

3. Language

4. The Family

5. Religion

6. House of Life and Architecture

7. Property

According to Morgan, what is social evolution driven by?

By the physical conditions of society

With respect to the family, stages of its growth are embodied in systems of ______ and ________ according to Morgan

Consanguinity and affinity

What is consanguinity?

being related to another person by blood

What is Affinity?

Natural liking or attraction towards someone or something

Why is the growth of religious ideas enclosed with intrinsic diffcultues that it may never receive perfectly satisfactory exposition (Morgan)

1. it deals so largely with imaginative and emotional nature

2. It has uncertain elements of knowledge

3. Considers all primitive religions as grotesque and to some extent unintelligible

In the 19th century, including Morgan’s writing, it was common to not consider religion fit for scientific study. Who directly rejected this?

E.B. Tylor

What kind of Worldview were Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (180-1895) developing?

A thoroughly materialist worldview

What is materialism?

Matter and energy are the only fundamental realities

-thoughts and consciousness can be explained in terms of physical processes and laws

What is the goal of philosophy?

Social Change

According to Marx and Engels, how are humans distinguished from other creatures?

Distinguished by awareness and conscious control of the processes of production.

In other words, human consciousness derives from the fact that labor is necessary to human existence and society

According to Marx and Engels, the nature of individuals depends on what?

The nature of individuals depends on the material conditions determining their production

-this production only makes its appearance with an increase in population

In other words, human nature is determined by the social conditions under which they live. Thus, humans, through labor, create their own nature

What did Marx believe history is characterized by?

Evolutionary progress through a series of stages

-believed that different nations are at different stages of this process

What do Tyler, Morgan, and Marx & Engels have in common? What ties their theories together?

-lots of inspiration from evolutionary theory (from simplicity to complexity)

-culture is a thing inherited and not biological and is defined more by technological advancement

-obvious biases towards Western Development

What is diffusion?

As cultures interact, cultural aspects are shared with one another. This was another justification for colonialism

How does Marx view technology?

it isn’t always a good thing and can bring harm

What is Marx interested in?

The modes of production

-he sees it as evil

In an industrial society, how is labor measured (Marx)?

Labor is measured with time and money

How does Marx see the family unit in an industrial society?

The family unit is seen as economical because when people begin to earn their own wages, they tend to start living on their own

According to Marx, what is inequity an effect of?

Inequity is an effect of private companies

What is Emile Durkheim’s (1858-1917) main topic?

That there are no human events that may not be called social

-every individual drinks, sleeps, eats, reasons

What was Durkheim’s main goal?

To bring individual into cultural analysis

How are duties or acts performed/known according to Durkheim?

They are external in law and custom. The individual did not create them, but rather inherited them through their education. These are external and endowed with coercive power, the virtue of which they impose themselves on an individual.

When do these customs assert themselves? (durkheim)

When one attempts to resist it or rebel against it

How does public conscience exercise a check on every act which offended the customs (Durkheim)?

By means of the surveillance it exercises over the conduct of citizens, and appropriate penalties at its disposal (ridicule, violence, social isolation, etc.)

How does Durkheim view the relationship between individuals and society?

individuals do not create their society, but are rather born into pre-existing duties, obligations, rights, ways of speaking, and believing

Why does Durkheim argue that social facts are real?

because they can be felt

What is the Systems Theory?

The theory that society is made up of different systems; all of which bring order and structure to society

How does Durkheim view social order?

Society follows “laws,” similar to laws of nature

-Everyone in the collective agrees and abides by the laws, rituals, and customs, even if not fully aware of them

How did Durkheim view not achieving civilization?

Not achieving civilization was not seen as a bad thing. It simply means a society reached an equilibrium in their environment

According to Durkheim, what is the relationship between society and the individual?

-society shapes the individual more than the individual shapes society

-social expectations exist outside the individual that are coercive

-the individual exists to carry out and adhere to the collective conscious

How does Durkheim view education?

As a continuous effort to impose on the child ways of seeing, feeling, and acting which they could not have arrived at spontaneously

What is the group mind (Durkheim)?

Statistically identifiable behavior of a group

What is the collective conscious? (durkheim)

What today we would call culture

How does Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) view gift giving, Material, and moral life?

Material and moral life, as exemplified in gift exchange, functions there in a manner at once interested and obligatory

-in these societies, gift giving goes beyond pure economics

-exchanges carry meaning and can determine status (e.g. not reciprocating an exchange could deem you untrustworthy)

How is obligation expressed when it comes to gift giving (Mauss)?

Expressed in myth and imagery, symbolically and collectively. IT takes the form of interest in the objects exchanged

-there are lasting influences that make subgroups within segmentary societies feel in debt to each other

-there is an obligation to receive

Are the objects every completely separated from the men who exchange them (Mauss)?

No, the communion and alliance they establish are well-nigh indissoluble

How does gift exchange affect social status?

-one can gain influence and higher status by giving more obligations than expected (essence of potlatch)

-Obligation to receive, or else you show fear of having to repay or that you cannot reciprocate

-

According to Mauss, how does material culture relate to social interaction (What are the three obligations?)

The three obligations:

1. Giving

2. Receiving

3. Repaying

What does Max Weber (1864-1920) argue about class and power?

-Individual identity is not subsumed by class identity

-power implies the possibility of coercion to a far greater extent than influence and authority

What is Weber interested in?

Interested in what happens when social order starts to break down

How does Weber define class?

Defines class as a number of people who have a common component of their life chances

How does Weber’s view of class relate to collective action?

Collective action comes in by recognizing the people in your class.

-it is typically actualized by the class being oppressed

Who was Weber influenced by?

He incorporated much Marxist thought, but he was not a Marxist

What does Weber link social order to?

Links social order to both the distribution of wealth and the distribution of honor

What does Weber say about social change and the individual?

It doesn’t really matter who the specific is but the specific characteristics he possesses.

-charisma

-unites people in the same class

How did Weber view Social evolution?

as a generalized process toward increased rationalization and bureaucratization that necessarily entitled restriction of individual liberties

-charisma acted in opposition to this force

-breaks the bonds of routine and radically redirect society

What does Weber really hone in on?

Weber hones in on how the collective conscious makes people unhappy (oppressed)

-when people are unhappy, the individual will work to change the structure

How do Mauss, Durkheim, and Weber relate?

-Gift exchange (Mauss) would be a social fact (Durkheim) because it has rules attached to it that the collective must adhere to. Gifts maintain the social order

-Durkheim and Mauss both find it okay for social structure to continue

• Individual is there but moves

• social fact will be tweaked by not too much

• Individual statuses will replace each other when not met

-All of the authors analyze social order and what defines it and breaks it.

Where does collecting personal data and being out in the field come from?

These methods come from boas

Who does Franz Boas call out and why?

He calls out Morgan, Tyler, and Lubbock for having an idea of a general, uniform evolution of culture

How is Boas advocating for Anthro?

He emphasizes anthropology as a scientific field and uses the scientific method in his research

Define orthogenetic

The evolution along definite, predetermined lines

What is diffusion

The sharing of ideas

What does Boas believe about cultures being predetermined?

that it is nonsense!

How did Boas view the Darwinian Model?

Supported the Darwinian model of biological evolution but was hostile to its application to social evolution

How did Boas argue that we must understand history?

To understand history, it is necessary to know not only how things are, but how they have come to be

What is philology?

Study of written records, their authenticity, and original form, and the determination of their meaning

How does Boas say we are compelled to view every phenomena in historical happenings?

Not only as an effect but also as a cause

-surplus of food supply is liable to bring increase in population and leisure. Increase in population and leisure gives rise to greater food supply and further increase in leisure (cumulative effect results)

What are the activities of an individual determined by according to Boas?

They are greatly determined by their social environment

0in turn, their own activities influence the society in which they live

What are two theories that Boas uses?

1. Historical Particularism

2. Cultural Relativism

What is Historical Particularism?

asserts that each culture has a unique history and must be understood in its own specific environmental and social context rather than judged by universal laws or stages of progress.

What is Cultural Relativism?

the practice of understanding a person's beliefs, values, and habits within their own culture instead of judging them by the standards of another.

-getting rid of biases allows for a better opportunity to learn from a culture

What does it mean when Boas says that cultures are sui generis?

That they create themselves

What did radical diffusionists believed about humans and what was Boas’ opinion?

Radical diffusionists believed that humans were not inherently inventive and that, as a result, societies remained static for long periods. Boas disagrees

What does Boas argue about the presence of similar traits in many socities?

He argues that it is not necessarily evidence either for psychic unity or large-scale diffusion. Rather, it may be a result of convergent evolution and independent invention. Logically, certain things can only be done in a limited number of ways (e.g. marriage)

What is Boas’ main arguments?

-social environment is just as important as the natural environment

-Cultures may shift back because the environment has changed, not because they are de-evolving

What does Kroeber use to represent social phenomena? What was his subject of choice to illustrate this?

Geometric curves. He chose fashion as his topic to illustrate that cyclical patterns of change have occurred beyond the influence of understanding of any given individual

Prolix definition (Kroeber)

wordy, tedious

quinquennium (Kroeber)

Period of five years

What does Kroeber believe about the individual and culture?

Kroeber believes that individual humans had little if any effect on culture. He further argued that culture had an existence outside of humans that compelled them to conform to patterns that could be statistically demonstrated.

According to Kroeber, what does value culture include?

value culture included artistic production in all fields.

How did Kroeber use the term crystallization?

to refer to complex patterns of cultural traits underlying social, political, and economic organization and systems of religion that persisted for long periods of time

Is the individual important to Kroeber?

No, he is more interested in how culture shifts overtime

How did Kroeber believe that the history of culture should be understood as?

He believed the history of a culture could be understood using cooperative linguistics, and by mapping the distribution and change of important cultural traits. Simultaneous instances of independent invention provded that culture operated according to its own rules

What was Kroeber’s overall argument?

That through statistical analysis of historical data, one could discover laws that governed culture change

What did Benjamin L. Whorf (1897-1941) believe about human beings and language?

He believed that human beings are at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.

What was Wharf studying/what is linguistic determinism

How grammatical categories in language unconsciously influence the ways in which people interpret the world around them, thus directing their behavior.

-language influences culture as culture influences language

What is linguistic relativity according to Wharf?

he argues that speakers of different languages think and act differently because their languages create different conceptual worlds

-e.g. firest started becuase the langugae people used did not adequately describe physical reality