ANTH 207 Chapter Notes - Chapter Chapter12: Knowledge, Donna Haraway, Mary Douglas
16 Sep 2016
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Herbert spencer (1820-1903) and emile durkheim (1858-1917), taylor and other early anthropologists believed that the phenomena of culture- languages, customs, techniques, rituals, and so forth- were material phenomena. Material phenomena- phenomena that existed in the world and were tangible and measureable and could be registered by the senses. Theory- is a formal description of some part of the world that explains how, in terms of cause and effect, the part of the world works. Empirical- the evidence used to support a theory is the product of hands-on experience and can be inspected and evaluated by observers other than the original researcher. Unilineal cultural evolutionism- the first theoretical perspective to take root in the discipline of anthropology. Charles darwin (1802-82)- wrote on the origin of species . Herbert spencer- thought that human societies could usefully be compared to living organisms and stressed that, over time, like living organisms, societies increased in both size and internal complexity.
