Cultural Anthropology: Christian Theorists, Diffusionism, and Theoretical Critiques

Vocabulary flashcards covering key Christian theorists, mechanisms of diffusionism, and critiques of prominent anthropological theories.

Critical Contextualization

An approach developed by Christian theorist Paul Hiebert to evaluate and engage culture within missiology and anthropology.

Mechanisms of Diffusion

The processes by which cultural traits spread across societies, including hyperdiffusion, migration (forced or voluntary), visits (diplomacy, merchants, artisans), kinship (trans-cultural marriages), and trade/media.

Symbolic Anthropology and Postmodern Theory

Anthropological frameworks that provide a new way to understand culture change and power dynamics, but are acknowledged to have limitations.

Functionalist, Structural Functionalist, and Structuralist Explanations

Comprehensive and scientific explanations of culture that are often critiqued for being less able to make sense of innovation, cultural change, and human agency.

Ecological and Materialist Approaches

Positivist approaches in anthropology that frequently produce predictive measures, but are critiqued for ignoring agency, inequality, and power.

Historical Particularism

The approach pioneered by Franz Boas arguing that each society has its own distinct past and that universal evolutionary stages cannot explain cultural development. A unique representation of its history and context.

Functionalism

A theoretical perspective pioneered by Bronislaw Malinowski positing that cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions exist primarily to satisfy the physical and psychological needs of individuals. Culture is developed in response to human needs

Structural Functionalism

A framework associated with A.R. Radcliffe-Brown asserting that social customs, institutions, and relationships operate collectively to maintain order, stability, and societal equilibrium. Culture to not only meet individual needs but support social needs for order and cohesion

Cultural Determinism

The premise that human emotional traits, behavioral patterns, and shared beliefs are shaped almost entirely by learned customs rather than biological or genetic factors.

Cultural Ecology

An anthropological approach developed by Julian Steward that investigates how human populations physically and socially adapt to specific natural environments and local ecosystems.

Structuralism

A theoretical perspective associated with Claude Lévi-Strauss proposing that human culture, mythology, and customs reflect universal, underlying cognitive patterns and binary oppositions. Human biology (brain structures) drive culture

Symbolic Anthropology

An approach championed by Clifford Geertz and Victor Turner that interprets culture as a shared web of systems and symbols and public meanings through which people make alter and share to make sense of their world.

Cultural Marxism

A critical framework derived from Marxist theory that examines how class struggles, economic systems, and hegemonic power structures shape ideology and cultural practices.

Feminist Theory

A critical framework in anthropology that centers women's experiences, investigates gender inequality and patriarchal power dynamics, and critiques male-centric scholarly biases.