Thought in Anthropology

Thought and Anthropology

Introduction

• Anthropology focuses on interactions between people, not inner feelings.

• Thought has a social aspect, varying across societies due to different learning experiences.

• Thought also has a private dimension, indirectly explored through social expressions.

• Methods include participant observation, interviews, and general curiosity.

The Rationality Debate

• Studies of reasoning have been central to anthropology since the 19th century.

• James Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890/1912) compared myths and religions, suggesting thought progressed from magic to religion to science.

• Lucien Lévy-Bruhl argued for a 'pre-logical mode of thought' in traditional societies, emphasizing its fundamental nature rather than evolutionary progress.

• He suggested logical rationality is superimposed on this pre-logical way of thinking in modern societies.

• Lévy-Bruhl faced criticism for weak empirical evidence.

• Evans-Pritchard's fieldwork-based critique was more persuasive.

Evans-Pritchard and the Azande

• Evans-Pritchard criticized Lévy-Bruhl based on empirical research.

• His 1937 book, Witchcraft, Magic and Oracles among the Azande, explored knowledge and belief systems.

• Kluckhohn's Navaho Witchcraft (1944) had similar ambitions.

• The Azande, unlike the Nuer, are sedentary crop growers with a centralized political system.

• Evans-Pritchard details the Zande belief in witchcraft and remedies against it.

Witchcraft Among the Azande

• Witchcraft is defined as an invisible force, unlike magic, which involves known rites and magicians.

• The Azande develop methods to identify witches when misfortunes occur.

• Azande attribute misfortunes, like stumbling or granary collapses, to witchcraft, questioning why it happened to them at that specific time.

• Deaths and diseases are often attributed to witchcraft.

Azande Oracles

• Azande use oracles, spiritual beings communicating through mediums, to identify witches.

• The poison oracle is the most famous, using poison and a chicken to determine guilt or innocence.

• In the past, witches were executed, but British rule reduced princely power.

• Evans-Pritchard neutrally portrays the Azande's rational thought within their cultural context.

• Azande might acknowledge bacteria but seek answers to 'Why me?' and 'Why now?' from witchcraft.

Significance of Evans-Pritchard's Work

• Evans-Pritchard's book is praised for its lasting impact on research and discussion.

• It provides insights into a traditional knowledge system that gives meaning and explains events.

• The witchcraft institution is socially integrative, channeling discontent away from the social order.

• Accused witches often belong to politically weak lineages, acting as scapegoats.

• Later literature on African witchcraft highlights the role of women as outsiders accused of witchcraft in virilocal societies.

Criticism and Debate

• Some view Evans-Pritchard's work as condescending due to philosopher Peter Winch's interpretation.

• Winch critiques Evans-Pritchard's ranking of mystical, commonsensical, and scientific knowledge.

• Winch argues that all knowledge is socially produced and that scientific knowledge is a culturally produced knowledge on a par with other forms of knowledge.

• Winch's criticism sparked a debate about rationality and relativism, influencing discussions on indigenous knowledge versus scientific knowledge.

Questions Raised by Evans-Pritchard's Work

• Is it possible to translate knowledge systems without distortion?

• Does a neutral language exist to describe systems of knowledge?

• Do all humans reason in the same way?

• Evans-Pritchard criticized Lévy-Bruhl, emphasizing that the Azande reasoned logically from erroneous premises about witchcraft.

• Winch questions the existence of unquestionable criteria to evaluate premises, arguing that axioms are socially created.

Science and Technology Studies (STS)

• STS studies western science and technology as cultural products.

• Bruno Latour's symmetry principle advocates using the same methods for successes and failures in science.

• Anthropologists aim to understand others, not judge them.

Classification and Pollution

• Questions from Evans-Pritchard's book persist in anthropology.

• Another approach involves studying classification systems.

• People categorize the world differently based on local definitions.

Durkheim, Mauss, and Classification

• Durkheim and Mauss (1903) connected natural phenomena classification with social order.

• European social anthropology links symbolic worlds to social organization.

• North American cultural anthropology explores symbolic systems autonomously.

• Geertz distinguished between society integrated causally and culture integrated logically.

• Power, politics, and technology interact with knowledge production.

• The boundary between traditions has blurred.

Mary Douglas and Purity and Danger

• Mary Douglas, a student of Evans-Pritchard, is known for Purity and Danger (1966).

• She combined British structural-functionalism and French structuralism.

• Inspired by Durkheim and Mauss, she argued that classification reflects society's ideology.

• She focused on pollution, classificatory impurities, and their effects.

• Food prohibitions in the Old Testament illustrate this.

• Animals that don't 'fit in' are deemed unfit (e.g., maritime animals w/o fins, pigs).

Douglas's Theory

• Douglas's theory contrasts with Marvin Harris's materialist interpretations.

• She emphasizes the connection between social order and classification systems.

• Holy men and women invert perceptions of pure and impure.

• Anomalies threaten society's order.

• The African pangolin, with mammal and fish-like traits, is regulated by rules and prohibitions.

• Matter out of place, like hair in soup, is repulsive due to wrong contextualization.

• Humor derives from wrong contextualization.

• Understanding a culture is like understanding a joke.

Criticisms and Validity of Douglas's Model

• Douglas is criticized for overemphasizing social integration.

• Classificatory systems change, but variation confirms the model's validity.

• Transgressions, like interracial marriage or self-proletarianization, confirm the dominant classification mode.

• Douglas's ideas on anomalies and pollution have been productive.

Lévi-Strauss and The Savage Mind

• Lévi-Strauss's La Pensée Sauvage (The Savage Mind, 1966) aims to disprove Lévy-Bruhl's 'pre-logical thought'.

• Lévi-Strauss examines totemism, a classification system linking groups to nature.

• Totemism involves relationships with animals, plants, or natural phenomena.

Totemism

• Groups have commitments to their totem (e.g., prohibitions, protection, names).

• Totemism is common in the Americas, Oceania, and Africa.

• MacLennan saw it as primitive religion, while Malinowski saw it as utilitarian.

• Lévi-Strauss views it as a classification encompassing natural and social dimensions.

• Totemic animals are 'good to think with,' relating social groups metaphorically.

• Totemism bridges nature and culture.

The Science of the Concrete

• 'Savage mind' helps classify and connect phenomena.

• Lévi-Strauss contrasts le bricoleur (associational thought) and l'ingénieur (logical thinking).

• There is no qualitative difference between 'primitive' and 'modern' thought.

• Difference lies in raw materials.

• The modern 'engineer' builds abstractions, while the traditional 'bricoleur' uses physical objects.

• The modern person depends on writing, while the traditional person uses available resources.

• Bricoleur is an imaginative improviser.

• Music and poetry show 'undomesticated' mind.

Similarities in Thought

• Despite cultural differences, Lévi-Strauss aims to show that humans think alike.

• Science distinguishes perception from abstract understanding.

• Lévy-Bruhl sees pre-logical thought as fundamental, with logical thought being an embellishment.

Thought and Technology

• Lewis Mumford sees the clock as an authoritarian invention.

• Technology shapes thought and action.

The Clock

• Clocks aided medieval monks.

• Clocks made punctuality a virtue and encouraged efficiency.

• They became essential for town-dwellers and long-distance navigation.

• Combined with the calendar, clocks dissect time into abstract entities.

• Abstract time contrasts with concrete time, which is based on personal experience.

• Clock time exists independently of events.

• Quantitative measurements are considered 'truer' in western societies.

• Traditional societies view time differently.

• Time is now a scarce resource.

• Movements promote 'slow cities' and 'slow time'.

Writing

• The introduction of writing is related to thought.

• Jack Goody argues that scientific analysis requires writing.

• Writing enables the cumulative growth of knowledge and separates utterance from context.

• Writing makes a considerable difference regarding thought styles.

Literacy

• The Greek miracle (transition to philosophical thinking) was linked to alphabetic writing.

• Writing externalizes thoughts and makes memory less necessary.

• Writing leads to different thinking patterns than oral communication.

• Archives and myths differ in falsifiability and dating.

Numeracy

• Literacy is linked to numeracy.

• Book-keeping is important for trade.

• Technology has social and cognitive implications.

• Computers enable complex calculations.

• Calculators may reduce abilities in simple calculations.

• Devices create abstract standards and externalize knowledge.

Memory

• There is no sharp distinction between those who externalize thought and those who rely on memory.

• Melanesians count using body parts.

• Mnemotechnical aids exist.

Music

• Complex symphonies require musical notation.

• Harmony is rarer without notes.

• One can play music never heard before by reading music.

• The statement is externalized and frozen, separated from the originator.

Nationalism

• Nationalism requires writing.

• Benedict Anderson sees printing as crucial for nationalist thought.

• Printing led to cheaper books in vernacular languages.

• This standardized national languages and culture.

• Writing has influenced thought about who we are.

• It makes it possible to imagine belonging to the same people as millions of strangers.

New Media

• New media have spread rapidly.

• Research explores implications of new media on thought and social identity.

• Daniel Miller leads research on social media use in different societies.

• The printing press and the smartphone both influence their beneficiaries in ways that are far from identical, but are still comparable.

This chapter is about how people think and how these thoughts shaped by culture. Though study what people say and do, anthropologist can study about people's inner feelings, but anthropologist more focus on social interactions while studying. This chapter including idea to discuss whether former societies think in logical way or based on other system. James Frazer and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl thought that people traditional people used a "pre-logical" way of thinking since they moved from magical to scientific thinking. However, Evans-Pritchard’s fieldwork with the Azande people showed that they logically thinking within their belief system. for example, using witchcraft to explain misfortunes and oracles to find answers. Moreover, in today modern society, technology like clocks, writing, and media changes how people think. Writing allow people to record and develop scientific thinking by analyze ideas over time. Social media also shape thought and identity, just as writing once did.

My question is that if today modern society consider as having logically thinking, can modern scientific thinking be considered culturally biased, just like traditional beliefs?