Introducing Anthropology: A Graphic Guide

By Merryl Wyn-Davis and Piero Pierini

Anthropology originated as the study of 'primitive' cultures. But the notion of 'primitive' exposes presumptions of 'civilized' superiority and the right of the West to speak for 'less evolved' others. With the fall of Empire, anthropology became suspect and was torn by dissension from within. Did anthropology serve as a 'handmaiden to colonialism'? Is it a 'science' created by racism to prove racism? Can it aid communication between cultures, or does it reinforce our differences? "Introducing Anthropology" is a fascinating account of an uncertain human science seeking to transcend its unsavoury history. It traces the evolution of anthropology from its genesis in Ancient Greece to its varied forms in contemporary times. Anthropology's key concepts and methods are explained, and we are presented with such big-name anthropologists as Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Margaret Mead and Claude Levi-Strauss. The new varieties of self-critical and postmodern anthropologies are examined, and the leading question - of the impact of anthropology on non-Western cultures - is given centre-stage. "Introducing Anthropology" is lucid in its arguments, its good humour supported by apt and witty illustrations. This book offers a highly accessible invitation into anthropology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Release date: Dec 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781848318762

Book preview

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

What is Anthropology?

What is Primitive?

Studying People

Anthropology’s Big Problem

The Other

The Changing Problem

The Origins of Anthropology

The Founding Fathers

The Hidden Agenda

The Age of Reconnaissance

Fidelity to the Old

The Question of Human Rights

The Jesuit Relations

Major Trends in Western Thought

The Continuity of Tradition

The Derived Minor Trends

Imperialism

The Complicity of Anthropology

Violations of Ethics

Back to the Roots

The Indispensable Primitive

Speculating on the Invention

What Came First?

Living Relics

Seen from the Armchair

Theories of Evolutionism

Integrating the Biological and Social

The Theory of Diffusionism

The Race Swindle

Field Studies

The Anthropological Tree

Physical Anthropology

Polygenesis vs. Monogenesis

Human Ecology and Genetics

The Rise of Sociobiology

A Refocus of Race in Gene Theory

Other Links with Early Anthropology

Archaeology and Material Culture

Anthropological Linguistics

Social or Cultural Anthropology

What is Culture?

Increasing Specializations

The Bedrock of Ethnography

Writing the Exotic

Franz Boas

Bronislaw Malinowski

Fieldwork

Human Ecology in Fieldwork

Ecological Anthropology

The Question of Economy

The Potlatch Ceremony

The Big Men of New Guinea

The Kula Exchange

Economic Anthropology

Exchange and Trading Networks

The Formalist-Substantivist Debate

Marxist Anthropology

Marxism’s Evolutionary View

The Household Unit

The Forms of Family

The Marriage Links

Marriage Contract Payments

The Study of Kinship

Kinship Codes

Classificatory Kinship

Fictive Kinship

Descent Theory

Marriage and Residence Rules

The Idiom of Kinship

What’s the Use of Kinship?

Alliance Theory and Incest Taboo

Structures in Mind

Forms of Elementary Structures

Does Alliance Theory Work?

Politics and Law

Further Examples …

The Terminological Approach

Political Anthropology

Age Grade Societies

Synchronic vs. Diachronic Views

Other Social Stratifications

Transacting Identity

Problems of Ethnicity

Colonialism

Anti-capitalist Anthropology

Anthropology of Law

Mechanisms for Resolving Disputes

Religion

Shamanism and Cargo Cults

Sacred and Profane

The Anthropology of Magic

The Debate on Belief

Examining Ritual

Rites of Passage

The Study of Myth

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Binary Oppositions and Structure

Symbols and Communication

Symbols and the Social Process

Actor, Message and Code

Symbolism and New Perspectives

Anthropology of Art

Visual Anthropology

Disappearing World

A New Branch or an Old Root?

Writing Up the Field

Writing in the Present

Auto-Anthropology

The Dual/Duel of Tepoztlan

Tepoztlan Revisited

Is Anthropology a Science?

A Pretended Science

The Indians are Off the Reservation

Who Speaks for the Indian?

White Man as God

The Myth of Authority

Event Horizon

Self-critical Anthropology

A Hero of Anthropology

The Fall of the Mead Myth

Observers Observed

Feet of Clay

The Issue of Self-projection

Writing Culture and Postmodernism

Postmodern Paralysis

Women in Anthropology

Kinship Ties of Anthropologists

The Field Helpmate

Feminist Anthropology

Situating Feminist Anthropology

The Virgin People

The Yanomamo Scandal

Creating Civil War

Whither Anthropology?

Further Reading

About the Author and Artist

Acknowledgements

Other Introducing Books …

Index

Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39-41 North Road, London N7 9DP

Email: [e-mail]

www.introducingbooks.com

ISBN: 978-184831-168-8

Text copyright © 2013 Icon Books Ltd Merryl Wyn-Davis

Illustrations copyright © 2013 Icon Books Ltd

The author and illustrator has asserted their moral rights

Originating editor: Richard Appignanesi

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

What is Anthropology?

The word anthropology derives from the Greek and literally means the study of man or the science of man. But the man of anthropology was a special kind of man.

HISTORICALLY, ANTHROPOLOGY WAS THE STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MAN. I AM ANAZASI. THEY CALLED ME A PRIMITIVE MAN.

What is Primitive?

In The Mind of Primitive Man (1938), Franz Boas (1858–1942), founder of American Cultural Anthropology, told us just who are the primitives.

PRIMITIVE ARE THOSE PEOPLE WHOSE FORMS OF LIFE ARE SIMPLE AND UNIFORM, AND THE CONTENTS AND FORM OF WHOSE CULTURE ARE MEAGRE AND INTELLECTUALLY INCONSISTENT. A BETTER DEFINITION OF THE SUBJECT IS THE STANDARD ANTHROPOLOGICAL JOKE – THE STUDY OF MAN EMBRACING WOMAN.

Studying People

Anthropologists study people. They study how people live, human society past and present. Anthropology is also about how we think about people thinking about people, now and in history. And sometimes it is about power relations between people, peoples, cultures and societies, colonialism and globalization.

ANTHROPOLOGY IS …

The study of man from biological, cultural and social viewpoints.

The study of human cultural difference.

The search for generalizations about human culture and human nature.

The comparative analysis of similarities and differences between cultures.

Anthropology’s Big Problem

The biggest problem in anthropology is how to talk about its object of study. Primitive, savage and simple are prejudicial, discriminating and supremacist terms. Yet they defined the people anthropologists were particularly interested to study and why they wanted to study them.

THE FUNDAMENTAL SPIRIT OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH CONSISTS IN THE APPRECIATION OF THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING ALL FORMS OF HUMAN CULTURE, BECAUSE THE VARIETY OF ITS FORMS CAN ALONE THROW LIGHT UPON THE HISTORY OF ITS DEVELOPMENT, PAST AND FUTURE. WHAT ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE LEARNT AND ANTHROPOLOGY TRIES TO TEACH IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THINKING ABOUT REAL PEOPLE AS PRIMITIVE, SAVAGE AND SIMPLE.

The Other

Today, anthropology is defined as the systematic study of the Other, while all other social sciences are in some sense the study of the Self. But, who is the Other and who the Self?

THE OTHER IS ANYONE PERCEIVED AS DIFFERENT AND USED TO INTERDEFINE ONE’S OWN IDENTITY. THE OTHER ARE PEOPLES OF NON-WESTERN CULTURES.

In Reinventing Anthropology (1969), Dell Hymes wrote: the very existence of an autonomous discipline that specializes in the study of Others has always been somewhat problematic.

The Changing Problem

How anthropology deals with its problem is now a topic of heated debate internal to anthropology. And two other things have changed. First: the Other has changed. Non-Western societies have undergone rapid social change.

I REFUSE TO BE THE VANISHING NOBLE SAVAGE. I DEMAND MY RIGHTS AND THE RIGHT TO BE TREATED JUST LIKE YOU.

Second: anthropology has come home. It no longer exclusively studies non-Western cultures. Now anthropologists also study marginal cultures in Western