Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Karl Marx (1818-1883) • Capitalist industrial society: • Not positive result of survival of the fittest • Unjust • Social evolution: • Consequence of class struggle • Drives social change in a particular direction • Societies evolve through modes of production (economic systems) • Primitive communism • Ancient • Asiatic • Feudal • Capitalist • Socialist/communist • All modes except communism exploitative of workers

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels • Materialism • Material conditions determine human consciousness • Economic base (infrastructure) • Means of production = land, tools, equipment, factories, etc. used for livelihood • Relations of production = class relations between • Owners of the means of production • Non-owners who labor • Determines superstructure • e.g., law, political & social structure, ideology • Relations to physical environment • Social evolution: • Contemporary societies fitted into categories of modes of production primitive  ancient  feudal  capitalist  communist Ideology Social organization Economic system

19th-century AnthropologistsUnilineal Cultural Evolutionists Universal evolutionary stages of cultural development from “primitive” to complex societies (“civilization”) Lewis Henry Morgan Sir Edward Tylor (U.S. 1818-1881) (U.K.1832-1917)

19th-century Cultural Evolutionists • All societies pass through stages from less to more complex (“lower” to “higher”) • Savagery  Barbarism  Civilization • Cultural differences explained in terms of these stages • Western culture highest, most evolved • Morgan – kinship (matrilineal  patrilineal) • Tylor – religion (magic  religion  science) • Psychic unity of humankind • All peoples have same capacity for change • Differences due to history & contact, not innate

Themes of Unilineal Evolution • All societies evolve through same developmental stages • Progress is unidirectional toward higher (more complex) levels of culture • Highest level is civilization • Victorian society = civilization in its currently highest form • ‘Primitive’ cultures = ‘living fossils,’ clues to past • Psychic unity: Human minds develop along the same lines

Boas: American Historicism • Cultural relativism • Rejected evolutionism • Inductive vs. deductive • Emic • Historical particularism/American Historicism: • Detailed descriptions of particular peoples within their own historical contexts • Anti-theory • Methodological rigor in ethnography • Famous Columbia students: • Lowie, Kroeber, Benedict, Mead • Anti-racist • Culture concept: • Culture, not biology, determines behavior

British Social AnthropologyFunctionalism A. R. Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955) Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) Organic analogy: ComteSpencerFunctionalists • Society: • Harmonious composition of structures functioning together • Maintain social solidarity • Satisfy needs • All parts interrelated

Functionalism • Bronislaw Malinowski • Elements of culture satisfy individual needs • Everything has a useful function for individuals • A. R. Radcliffe-Brown • Structural functionalism • Elements of culture contribute to well-being of society • Every part of a culture has a function • Interrelated parts in equilibrium • Change in one part produces changes in other parts • Robert Merton • Dysfunction • Critiqued functional unity • Critiques: It did not address • Social and historical change • Individuals as innovators

The Boasian School • Alfred Kroeber, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict • Culture and the individual • Enculturation and personality Child-rearing

Psychological AnthropologyCulture and Personality • Freud: Phases of human psychological development (oral, anal, genital, etc.) fixed by nature and universal • Boas: Psychology varies, influenced by culture

Margaret Mead • Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) • Adolescence experienced differently in different cultures • Enculturation vs. biological determinism • Developmental stages not biologically determined, not universal • Sex & Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) • Gender roles and temperaments vary in different cultures • ‘Masculine’ and ‘feminine’ not biologically determined, not universal • Gender is culturally constructed • Mead brought anthropology into popular culture • Cultural relativism

Neoevolutionism and Cultural EcologyLate 1940s-50s • Cross-cultural generalizations • HRAF (Human Relations Area Files)George Peter Murdock • Based on environmental factors • Reformulated 19th-century cultural evolutionism • Leslie White & Julian Steward • Materialist, influenced by Marx • Foundation for • Ecological anthropology • Cultural materialism

Leslie White Neoevolutionism • Culture evolves from simple to complex • Control of energy key • Driven by technology • Harnessing greater amounts of energy • Thermodynamic law: E x T = C • Energy captured with Technology = Culture • Culture evolves as energy extraction & efficiency increases • Human  animal  steam & internal combustion  nuclear • 4 stages of cultural evolution • Invention of tools • Domestication of plants & animals • Fossil fuels • Atomic energy

Leslie White’s Layer Cake Change/Cultural evolution driven by: Marx: relations of production, class conflict White: technology and extraction of energy Ideology Social and Political Organization Technology and Economy

Julian Steward Cultural Ecology • Specific cultures’ adaptations to particular environments • 3 Types of Evolutionary Theories • Unilineal evolution (Tylor and Morgan) • Places cultures into certain evolutionary stages • Savagery  barbarism  civilization • Universal evolution (White) • Develop general laws that apply to all cultures • E X T = C • Multilinear evolution (Steward) • Evolution of individual cultures • No single evolutionary trajectory

Cultural Ecology • Cultural adaptation to environment • Similar environments  similar technological solutions  social & political institutions • White: general, universal paradigm • Steward: specific, relativistic, multilinear • Materialist analyses influenced by Marx

Cultural Materialist Model of Society Infrastructure (means & mode of production + reproduction )  development of culture in certain directions

Cultural MaterialismMarvin Harris • Provide causal explanations • Infrastructural determinism • Causes for institutions and behavior are found in infrastructure (subsistence based upon resources in the environment & technology) • Material aspects  cultural variation • Emphasized etic, scientific, objective • Environment, material circumstances • Like cultural ecology but less concerned with evolution • Functionalist • Synchronic • Practical adaptations • Function in context of whole • The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle • Materialist: ideology result of economic rationale • Functionalist: practical function of cattle

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) French Structuralism • Universal structures of human mind • Linguistics – binary opposition • Words get their meanings by contrasts • Themes underlying myths & symbols • E.g., male/female, raw/cooked, sacred/profane • Human brain • Programmed to think in pairs of opposites • These dichotomies give shape to culture • Psychic unity of humankind

Ethnoscience1950s-60s • Influenced by linguistics • Emic • How language classifies things • Classificatory logic that creates meaning • Different cultures have different meaning systems, world view

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis • Influence of language on culture • English vs. Hopi concepts of time & space • English time • Objectified, quantified, linear, past, present, future • Separate from space • Hopi Time • Manifested – past and most of present • Manifesting – coming-to-be, future, hoped for, intended, expected, in the heart • Same as space • Model of the world is built into language

Symbolic Anthropology • Cultural meaning • Culture as mental phenomenon • Ways people interpret and give meaning to their world • How this world is expressed in cultural symbols • Analysis of meaning • Agency = potential to act creatively • Interpretation of symbols  cultural meaning • Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz

Victor Turner(1920-1983) • British social anthropology • Structural-functionalism • Maintenance of social order • Marx: normal state of society is conflict and contradiction • Social unity is problematic • Not primordial need • Must be continually maintained through effort • Centrality of ritual symbols • Symbols create social solidarity out of conflict • E.g. national flag, singing national anthem, statue of liberty • Function to reproduce of social order

Victor Turner – Anti-structure • ‘Anti-structure’ & ‘communitas’ • Van Gennep • Rituals of rebellion • E.g. Mardi Gras, Carnival, Holi • Expressions outside of structure • Communitas = emotional connection and equality • Safety valve that enables maintenance of social solidarity

Clifford Geertz(1926-2006) • American cultural anthropology • Emphasis on culture and meaning • Symbols • Carriers of cutural meanings • Communicate worldview, values, ethos • Shape and reflect how people see, feel, and think about the world • Culture embodied in public symbols • e.g. flag, 4th of July • Turner: function to reinforce social solidarity • Geertz: represent cultural values • “Actor-centered” • Emic

Interpretive Anthropology • How people themselves explain and interpret their own values and behaviors • Ideas, meanings • Emic, relativistic, reflexive • Combines self-knowledge with knowledge of the people studied • Interpretivism vs. Cultural Materialism • Meaning, beliefs, emic vs. infrastructural determinism, etic

Feminist Anthropology • ‘Radical’ movements of 1960s and 1970s • Internal critiques in anthropology • Androcentric bias • Most anthropologists were male • Limited access to women in cultures studied • Emphasis on men, war, politics, economics, religion • Women only described in passive terms & relationships with men • 1970s focus on women & subordination • Gender socialization, cultural construction • Differences (race, class, ethnicity, etc.) • Gender and power

Contributions of Feminist Anthropology • Importance of gender in all aspects of social life • Power relations • Critique of all inequalities • Overlap with postmodernism • Rejection of positivism (objective, scientific) • Subjective, reflexive ethnography • Mitigate power relations, • Collaborative, qualitative, emic • Promote interests of women, oppressed • Multivocality (variety of viewpoints) • E.g. Weiner’s vs. Malinowski’s Trobriand fieldwork

Postmodernism • Modernism • 1920s-70s • Detachment, objectivity • Scientific neutrality • Rationalism • Postmodernist critique/rejection of: • Grand theories (e.g., evolutionism, cultural materialism) • Positivism: Idea that human progress is based on scientific knowledge • Idea that objectivity is possible • Extreme relativism • We can never be value-free • Ethnography • Always subjective • Cannot discover ‘truth’ • Reflexive approach • Dialog, collaboration • Take account of power relations, class, gender, etc.

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Karl Marx (1818-1883)