Social Theories Anthropology and Sociology. Anthropological Theories Unilineal Evolution (1850s –1900s)

Social TheoriesAnthropology and Sociology

Anthropological Theories

Unilineal Evolution (1850s –1900s)

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Context for Unilineal Evolution

• 19th Century:• Colonialism – economic & political domination• Transfer of wealth to Europe• Increasing Racism

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Religion

• 3 Orientations

1. Polygenists: Separate creations• Races are distinct species

2. Monogenists: One creation• Biblical interpretation• All races with ability to progress• “White Man’s Burden”

3. Degeneration: Single creation• Regression after creation

Separate Creations

Polygenists

Can’t Achieve Civilization

Monogenists

Capable of Advancement

Punishment for Falling from Perfection

Degenerationists

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Unilineal Evolution

• Process by which new cultural forms emerge out of older ones

• Each Society believed to PROGRESS through the same stages of development, from

• SAVAGERY to BARBARISM to CIVILIZATION

• Only Europeans had reached civilization

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Civilization

Barbarism

Savagery

P R

O G

R E

S

S

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Basis for Unilineal Evolution

• Application of biological evolution to culture

• Interest in general laws, not history

• Ranking societies on a scale of progress

• Armchair anthropologists

Armchair Anthropologists

•19th century Evolutionists collected data from missionaries and traders

•Rarely traveled to societies they were studying

•Organized second hand data and applied general theory to all societies

•Since Western societies had most advanced technology, they put those societies at the highest rank of civilization

• 19th century Evolutionists contributed to anthropology:

• By providing first systematic methods for explaining human societies

• Insightful about technological aspect of societies

• Logical progression from simple tools to complex technology

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Historical Particularism

• Early 20th C. paradigm change

• Professionalization of anthropology

• Represents a reaction against unilineal evolution

• Division between British & American anthropology

• Omnibus approach

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Assumptions of Historical Particularism

• Rejects:• General laws• Rankings (on a scale)• “Progress”

• No simple or complex societies, only different societies

• Not Culture, but cultures

• Culture, not race, determines behavior

• Methodological rigor

Franz Boas

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Culture & Personality (Psychological Anthropology)

• 1930-50s – Students of Boas

• Borrowed from psychology

• Focus on the individual as the bearer of culture

• Idealist approach: Interest in personality & how individuals thought, felt

• Studied process of enculturation, especially child development

Mead Benedict

European Ethnocentrism

Timeline of European Religions

Diffusionism• During late 19th and early 20th centuries

• Diffusionists addressed cultural differences suggesting that humans were essentially uninventive

• Cultural features developed in one or several parts of the world and

• Spread, through the process of diffusion, to other cultures

Diffusionists• All societies change as a result of

cultural borrowing

• Use deductive approach: General theory of diffusion applied to explain specific cases of cultural diversity

• Diffusionism overemphasized the essentially valid idea of diffusion

Examples of Cultural Diffusion

• The

The Silk Road

Functionalism• No matter how bizarre a cultural item

might at first appear, it had a meaning

• Performed some useful function

• Well-being of individual or society

• Researcher to become immersed in culture and language to identify functions

FunctionalismThe functionalist approach is based on two

fundamental principles:

1.Universal Functions• Every part of a culture has a function

2.Functional Unity• A culture is an integrated whole composed of a

number of interrelated parts;• A change in one part of the culture is likely to

produce change in other parts

British Functionalism

• Society consists of institutions (or structures, systems) that serve vital purposes for people

• Functionalists not interested in evolution of societies

• But relationship among different systems, or structures, and

• How these structures serve society or individual

Structural functionalism – A.R. Radcliffe-Brown

• Focused on how societal structures function to maintain harmony in society.

•  Economic, social, political, and religious institutions (or systems) integrate society as a whole • Perpetuate survival of society

• Anthropology should not focus on individual actions, but focus on governing structures.

• Societal norms (which guide behavior) are window into those structures;

• Function to reduce tension & conflict, promote stability, and thus uphold the social structure.

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown

• Because of emphasis on social functions rather than individual functions

• Radcliffe-Brown’s theory has taken the name STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Psychological FunctionalismBronislaw Malinowski

• How elements of society function to meet needs of individual

• Identified three basic types of needs:• 1) Biological (food, sex); • 2) Instrumental (protection, education, social control) and• 3) Integrative (a common worldview).

• People developed institutions (or patterned ways of behaving) • Examples: Religion, kinship systems• Use of magic in situations where humans have no control over

circumstances weather, illness, death

French Structuralism

• Theoretical orientation holding that cultures are the product of unconscious processes of the human mind

• Claude Levi-Strauss

French Structuralism

• Rather than examining attitudes, values and beliefs,

• Structuralists concentrate on what happens at the unconscious level

• The human mind categorizes phenomena in terms of binary oppositions.

French Structuralism

• Binary opposites examples:• hot-cold • male-female • old-young • night-day • right-left • us-them

• These dichotomies give shape to culture.

Cultural Materialism

• Cultural systems are most influenced by such material things as natural resources and technology

Marvin Harris

Cultural Materialism

• Key determinants in sociocultural evolution:• Technology Environment Energy Food Economy

• Harris believes that material needs (food, technology, clothing, shelter)

• Are more important than abstract (values, ideas, religion) in determining cultural behavior

• Example: (Much criticism of this model.)

• Aztec human sacrifice and cannibalism• To Aztecs: A religious ritual • To Harris: Protein deficiency craving for meat Insufficient protein in the Aztec environment need for

protein human sacrifice & cannibalism

Sociological Theories

• Structural-Functionalism

• Conflict theory

• Symbolic Interactionism

Structural–Functional Paradigm

• Macro-level: Broad patterns that shape society as a whole

• Society as complex system: Parts work together to promote solidarity and stability

• Social structure = Relatively stable patterns of social behavior

• Social function=Consequences for operation of society as a whole

Structural-Functionalism

• Society is like human body or other living organism

• Each part of society contributes to the whole• To maintain social stability

Founders of Functionalism

• August Comte (1798-1857)

• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

• Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Social-Conflict• Macro theory

• Inequality generates conflict and social change

• Power

•Society structured to benefit a few at expense of majority

•Race, sex, class, and age

•Dominant group vs. minority group

Founders: Social-Conflict Theory

• Karl Marx• Social class inequality and social conflict

• W.E.B. DuBois• Race major problem for United States in 20th c.

• Harriet Martineau• Position of women and their education

• Jane Addams• Hull House for immigrants

Symbolic Interactionism

• Micro-level

• Focus on social interactions

• Use symbols with shared meanings

Symbolic Interactionism • Society

• Shared reality that people construct as they interact

• Meaning people attach to behavior

• Self• Social creation of the self• Interaction

Founders:Symbolic-Interactionism

• Max Weber• Intersubjective understanding

• George Herbert Mead• Mind, self, and society

• Erving Goffman• Dramaturgical analysis