Theoretical Perspectives in Anthropology

Flashcards on theoretical perspectives in anthropology: agency-centered, cohesion-centered, conflict-centered, diachronic, idealist, materialist, particularistic, and structure-centered.

Agency (Theoretical Perspective)

The capacity of individuals to act independently and make choices that impact their lives and the lives of others.

Feminist Theories (Agency-Centered)

Explore how gender influences experiences, power relations, and opportunities, critiquing patriarchal structures that restrict women's agency.

Marxist Theories (Agency-Centered)

Analyze class struggles and economic systems, focusing on how economic factors and class relations shape human behavior and social structures.

Political Economy

Examines the interplay between economic and political power and how political institutions and economic systems influence each other.

Resistance Theories

Examine how individuals and groups oppose and challenge dominant power structures and ideologies.

Transactionalism

Emphasizes the role of interactions and exchanges between individuals and groups in shaping social relations.

World Systems Theory (Agency-Centered)

Examines the global economic system and its impact on local societies, focusing on how different regions are integrated into a global economy.

Cohesion-Centered Perspective

Emphasizes social cohesion and consensus as essential for the stability and proper functioning of society and culture.

Functionalism

Views society as a complex system with parts that work together to promote stability and harmony.

Structural Functionalism

Focuses on the interrelationships between the structures of a society and how they function together to maintain the equilibrium of the whole system.

Conflict-Centered Perspective

Views social relations as fundamentally based on competing interests among groups and individuals, emphasizing that social structures and interactions are often characterized by conflict and power struggles.

Global Theories (Conflict-Centered)

Look at global processes and structures, focusing on how global capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism create and perpetuate inequalities and conflicts on a worldwide scale.

Marxist Theories (Conflict-Centered)

Analyze class struggle and economic exploitation and focus on how the capitalist system creates inherent conflicts between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Resistance Theories (Conflict-Centered)

Explore how individuals and groups oppose and challenge dominant power structures and ideologies, often leading to conflict.

Diachronic Perspective

Seeks to understand society and culture as products of development through time, shaped by many different forces, both internal and external, emphasizing historical processes and changes over time.

Ethnohistory

Combines historical and anthropological methods to study cultures and indigenous peoples through their own historical records and narratives, as well as colonial documents and other sources.

Global Theories (Diachronic)

Applies to the diachronic perspective by examining how global historical processes, such as colonialism, imperialism, and globalization, have shaped societies over time.

Marxist Theories (Diachronic)

Focuses on historical materialism, analyzing how economic systems and class relations have developed over time.

Political Economy (Diachronic)

Examines the historical development of economic and political systems and their interrelations.

World Systems Theory (Diachronic)

Examines the historical development of the global economic system and its impact on local societies over time.

Idealist Perspective

Focuses on the activities and categories of the human mind, seeking to explain the human condition by examining beliefs, symbols, rationality, and other mental constructs.

Cognitive Theories

Explore how people perceive, think about, and understand the world, focusing on mental processes such as perception, memory, and reasoning.

Environmentalist Theories (Idealist)

Examine how beliefs and ideas about the environment influence human behavior and cultural practices.

Interpretivism

Focuses on understanding the meanings and interpretations that individuals and groups assign to their experiences, emphasizing the subjective nature of human reality.

Postmodernism

Challenges the idea of objective knowledge and emphasizes the fragmented, subjective, and constructed nature of reality, critiquing grand narratives and highlighting the diversity of perspectives.

Structuralism

Posits that human culture is understood through underlying structures, such as language, myths, and kinship systems, focusing on the relationships between elements within these structures.

Symbolic Theories

Explore how symbols and symbolic actions create and convey meaning within a culture, emphasizing the role of symbols in shaping human experience.

Materialist Perspective

Focuses on the tangible, material aspects of human existence, explaining human behavior and cultural practices in terms of technology, environmental adaptation, and resource management.

Cultural Ecology

Examines the relationship between human societies and their environments, exploring how cultures adapt to environmental challenges and opportunities.

Cultural Materialism

Posits that material conditions, including technology and economic practices, determine cultural development, emphasizing the primacy of material factors in shaping culture.

Environmentalist Theories (Materialist)

Focus on how environmental constraints and resources shape human societies and their material practices.

Particularistic Perspective

Stresses that aspects of society and culture must be understood in terms of their specific social and historical context, emphasizing the uniqueness of each culture and the importance of detailed, context-specific studies.

Functionalism (Particularistic)

Society is likened to a biological organism, where each part (institution) has a specific function to ensure the survival and stability of the whole.

Historical Particularism

Cultures should be understood within their own contexts without ethnocentric judgment.

Postmodernism (Particularistic)

Analyzing and questioning established narratives, ideologies, and power structures.

Structure-Centered Perspective

View social action as determined by social and material contexts, such as the physical environment, access to resources, community organization, social institutions, and the state.

Cultural Ecology (Structure-Centered)

Cultural practices evolve as adaptations to environmental conditions.

Cultural Materialism (Structure-Centered)

Material conditions (technology, environment, economy) form the base of cultural systems.

Functionalism (Structure-Centered)

Roles that societal structures play in maintaining stability.

Marxist Theories (Structure-Centered)

Social life is characterized by conflict between different economic classes.

Structural Functionalism (Structure-Centered)

Society is viewed as a system with various parts (structures) working together to maintain equilibrium.

World Systems Theory (Structure-Centered)

Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.

Synchronic analysis

Synchronic analysis focuses on the relationships between aspects of society and culture at a specific point in time. It seeks to understand the structure and function of societal elements as they coexist and interact in the present.

Social Functions synchronic

Social Functions: Institutions such as family, religion, and education serve essential roles in fulfilling individual and societal needs.

Equilibrium: synchronic

Equilibrium: Society tends to maintain a state of balance, with institutions working to resolve disruptions.

Universalistic anthropological perspectives

Universalistic anthropological perspectives seek to discover underlying laws and principles common to all societies and cultures.

Binary Oppositions

Binary Oppositions: Human cultures are structured around binary oppositions (e.g., raw/cooked, nature/culture).