Overview
This lecture covers the historical foundations and major debates in anthropology, focusing on how European exploration, Enlightenment thought, colonialism, and critiques shaped the discipline’s development and its concepts of culture.
Epistemology and Early History of Anthropology
- Epistemology refers to frameworks for knowing and producing knowledge.
- Early anthropology grew from European exploration and the need to categorize diverse societies.
- Encounters with "other" peoples during exploration fostered ideas about difference and otherness.
Enlightenment Thought and Cultural Evolution
- Enlightenment ideals emphasized reason, progress, and perfectibility of humans and societies.
- Thinkers like Aquinas and Locke debated humanity, natural law, and cultural transmission.
- Cultural evolution theories posited that societies move from savagery to civilization in linear stages.
- Monogenesis (single human origin) and polygenesis (multiple origins) debates influenced racial thinking.
Rise of Disciplinary Sciences and Social Theory
- The Scientific Revolution introduced deduction (Descartes) and induction (Bacon) as methods.
- Newton’s mechanical philosophy inspired views of societies as closed, interlocking systems.
- Comte’s positivism argued social sciences should strive for scientific generalizations about society.
Key Figures and Theories in 19th Century Anthropology
- E.B. Tylor saw culture as evolving from simple to complex and believed in psychic unity (similar mental capabilities).
- Lewis Henry Morgan elaborated cultural evolution into stages (savagery, barbarism, civilization) linked to technology and family structures.
- Both emphasized social progress and intervention to move societies forward.
- Talal Asad critiqued the imposition of Western institutional concepts like "religion" onto diverse societies.
Colonialism, Imperialism, and Anthropology's Role
- Colonialism involved European domination to extract resources and reshape societies for the metropol.
- Anthropology’s early practitioners often worked for colonial powers and justified interventions using theories of cultural evolution.
- Critiques by Talal Asad and Edward Said highlighted anthropology's colonial entanglements.
- The ethnographic turn questioned objectivity in ethnography, viewing texts as products of the ethnographer’s perspective.
Shifts and Critiques in Modern Anthropology
- The discipline confronted its colonial legacy, fostering inward reflection and reduced applied work.
- Newer anthropologists sought ethical ways to engage with and represent other cultures, distancing from earlier colonial models.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Epistemology — The study of how knowledge is produced and understood.
- Enlightenment — 18th-century European intellectual movement emphasizing reason and scientific thinking.
- Monogenesis — The idea that all humans share a single origin.
- Polygenesis — The belief that different races have separate origins.
- Positivism — Philosophy advocating a scientific, empirical approach to knowledge.
- Cultural Evolution — Theory that societies progress through stages from simple to complex.
- Ethnographic Turn — Movement in anthropology focusing on subjective representation and critical reflexivity.
- Colonialism — Systematic political and economic domination of one territory by another.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Read Lila Abu-Lughod's work for perspectives on the ethnographic turn and gender.
- Prepare for the next lecture on American cultural anthropology and political ecology.