ANTB19H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Indigenous Peoples Of The Americas, American Anthropologist
Document Summary
Kroeber wanted to study a native north american that was uncontaminated by the west. He had this idea of cultures as fixed, pure, and whole. The problematic ideas of societal evolution still very strong (not to be confused with biological. In this view, history belongs to europeans, who set history in motion through power and conquest evolution) Native north americans were considered to primitive who could teach us something about our prehistory. Salvage anthropology was an attempt to record and collect the languages and artifacts of cultures" that might disappear. American anthropologist in the early 20th century collected language, stories, tools, artifacts, to be store in museums. But sometimes this approach led to the reification of culture, meaning cultural processes were turned into objects, or things, that could be easily classified. Ref is a problem if the things become more valued than the people who owned or used the things.
