History of Cultural Anthropology:

The Development of Ethnological Theory

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Source: "A Geneology of Ethnological Theory," Melville J. Herskovits,
in Context and Meaning in Cultural Anthropology by Melford E. Spiro (Ed.), p. 407.
New York: The Free Press, 1965.

EXAMPLES OF MAJOR FIGURES AND AREAS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

1. THE "PRESCIENTIFIC PERIOD"

(a) Herodotus (484-425 B.C.)
(b) Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
(c) Lucretius (ca. 96-55 B.C.)
(d) Tacitus (ca. 55-120 A.D.)
(e) Fray Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590)
(f) Joseph-Francois Lafitau (1681-1746)
(g) William Robertson (1721-1793)

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2. NINETEENTH-CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS (1860-ca. 1900)

(a) Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1831-1917)

(b) Henry Sumner Maine (1822-1888)

(c) Sir James Frazer (1854-1941)

(d) Louis Henry Morgan (1818-1881)

(e) Karl Marx (1818-1883)

3. POSITIVISM

(a) Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

4. DIFFUSIONISM

A. American

(a) Clark Wissler (1870-1947)

(b) Alexander Goldenweiser (1880-1940)

B. English ("Heliolithic")

(a) Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937)

(b) William James Perry (1887-1949)

(c) W.H.R. Rivers (1864-1922)

C. German ("Kulturkreise")

(a) Robert Fritz Graebner (1837-1934)

(b) Wilhelm Schmidt (1868-1954)

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5. ANNEE SOCIOLOGIQUE

(a) Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

(b) Marcel Mauss (1872-1950)

6. HISTORICAL EMPIRICISM (HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM)

(a) Franz Boas (185-1942)

7. PRIMITIVE MENTALITY

(a) Lucien Levy-Bruhl (1857-1939)

8. and 11. FUNCTIONALISM AND STUCTURALISM

(a) Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942)

(b) Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)

(E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1902-1973, Meyer Fortes, Max Gluckman, 1911-1975, Raymond Firth)

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9. CULTURAL DYNAMICS

(a) James Mooney (1861-1921)

10. ACCULTURATION (CULTURE CONTACT)

-- Although this term was used as early as 1800 most studies date from 1935

11. See #8

12. PSYCHOENTHNOGRAPHY

These studies focused on the following areas:

(a) Culture and Personality

e.g., Margaret Mead

Ruth Benedict, 1887-1948

(b) Enculturation

e.g., Melville J. Herskovitz, 1895-1963

(c) Language and Culture

e.g., Edward Sapir, 1884-1939

Benjamin Lee Whorf, 1897-1941

(d) National Character Studies

e.g., Margaret Mead

Rhoda Metraux

(e) World View

e.g., Clifford Geertz

(f) French Structuralism

e.g., Claude Levi-Strauss

(g) Ethnoscience

e.g., Harold C. Conklin

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13. ETHNOPHILOSOPHY

These studies include studies of:

(a) Cultural Relativism

e.g., Melville J. Herskovitz, 1895-1963

(b) Values

e.g., Florence R. Kluckhohn

Fred L. Strodtbeck

14. NEO-EVOLUTIONSIM

(a) Leslie White (1900-1975)

(b) Julian Steward (1902-1972)

(c) Marshall D. Sahlins

(d) Elman R. Service

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© 1998 - 2008 Timothy G. Roufs
Page URL: http://www.d.umn.edu /cla/faculty/troufs/anth1604/major_figures.html
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