SA 101 Lecture 2: Week 2_ Historical Beginnings
21 Dec 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Textbook: Chapter 2: History in Context
● Structural Functionalism = the concept of “system”, defining social life of
community as “unit entities” as part of a working whole
○ Radcliffe-Brown
○ Brownislaw Malinowski
● Franz Boas
○ Inductive approach = (Boas) explanation and theory can only come from
large of amounts of data that can only be collected through an extended
period in the field
○ As opposed to using data to prove a preconceived hypothesis or theory
○ Historical particularism = Boas’ approach that considers the unique history
of each culture to be influential and central to understanding the present
○ each culture or society consisted of elements diffused from other cultures
■ Argued changes in culture did not occur in single, unilinear process,
but instead in “a multiplicity of converging and diverging trends”
(Freeman 1983:30) (41)
● Margaret Mead
○ Studied under Franz Boas
○ Purposeful sampling = a detailed investigation will be more valuable than
diffused and general study based on less accurate knowledge of a greater
number of indivs
○ Qualitative research
Module 2
● British Anth
Ahistorical - did not consider history, saw only the present, and tried to ignore
social changes happening
○ “Scientific” approach
○ Cross-cultural generalizations (Radcliffe-Brown) essential to create “scientific
truths” about people
○ Structural functionalism = see society composed as major structures
■ Eg. family, religion, education, media, law, politics, economy, etc)
function to maintain the structural whole
■ Just like functioning of bodies w heart, lungs, brain
■ Healthy society = well-functioning social structures
○ Focused on social solidarity of societies
● American Anth
○ Salvage anthropology = a kind of ethnographic data collection, common in
NA in the early 20th century, that was concerned with documenting the
cultures that were presumed to be disappearing
■ Assumes one “genuine, authentic, pure” culture that can be “lost”
■
○ Historical particularism = described present in terms of past; particular:
history of each culture is unique
■ Does not ignore history, history is central to understanding present
culture
○ Rigorous approach
○ Emphasis on individual
Document Summary
Structural functionalism = the concept of system , defining social life of community as unit entities as part of a working whole. Inductive approach = (boas) explanation and theory can only come from large of amounts of data that can only be collected through an extended period in the field. As opposed to using data to prove a preconceived hypothesis or theory. Historical particularism = boas" approach that considers the unique history of each culture to be influential and central to understanding the present. Each culture or society consisted of elements diffused from other cultures. Argued changes in culture did not occur in single, unilinear process, but instead in a multiplicity of converging and diverging trends (freeman 1983:30) (41) Purposeful sampling = a detailed investigation will be more valuable than diffused and general study based on less accurate knowledge of a greater number of indivs.
