ANTH 1003 Chapter : Chapter 3
Document Summary
Armchair anthropologists of the late 19th century: edward burnett tylor, lewis henry morgan, compiled accounts from travelers, explorers, missionaries, colonial officials, they believed in cultural evolution , culture evolved from lower to higher forms, savagery barbarianism civilization. Franz boas: critiques cultural evolution, advocated fieldwork/ participant observation, cultural relativism, against racism/ethnocentrism. Looked at culture in terms of its history and context: historical particularism focuses on providing objective descriptions of cultures within their historical and environmental context. Ethnography the actual activity and the actual product: a research tool, based in fieldwork, consultants, written results, culture shock when entering a new culture, one suddenly feels incompetent. Other approaches: ethnology the attempt to find universals across cultures, human relations area files a compendium of ethnographic information. Interviews: open-ended, life history, geneology, mapping, statistical data. Collaborative anthropology: consultants as co-researchers, agenda not exclusively that of the anthropologist, challenges: ideal and actual (anthropologists are interested in both), many voices.
