ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Lewis H. Morgan, Franz Boas, Historical Particularism
Document Summary
19th century anthropologists worked on the topic of evolution. All groups evolve overtime; constantly being pressured by the conditions that they live in. Franz boas founded us anthropology on different concepts: Historical particularism - anthropologists should study particular groups of people; recognize that those people are existing at particular moments of time. Don"t take groups and cultures from widely separated places; don"t treat them as if they"re all the same. Cultural relativism - don"t make this huge story (story based on your own ideas); trying to understand the diversity; right vs wrong. Little field research ->did not go out and meet people, but just told a story about the people in their armchairs. Grand explanatory theories -> trying to link everyone in one big theory. Mixed pre-historical, historical, and present-day evidence -> flattened out the differences in the data; disregard the vast historical differences; did not respect the historical particularity.
