Paradigm Shift!!
Leach’s Critique of Functionalism
Kuhn And Paradigms:
•Research needs paradigms
A paradigm is a world view that functions as an underlying assumption in all research.
•Science progresses not just through accumulating knowledge, but through creating
worldviews through which research questions and objects of research are then
formulated.
•Crises lead to paradigm shifts
New paradigms are invented when the traditional paradigms are in a state of crises, e.g.
the change from Newtonian physics to the theory of relativity created by Einstein.
•Research just "puzzling"
Kuhn sees research that does not lead to paradigm shifts as mere "puzzling."
•Wants to abandon the concept of progress
There is no way to measure "progress" in science. Does this mean that there is no
progress?
•Education preserves paradigms
Normal science does not teach critical thinking.
Leach and Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954)
•Paradigm shifting work, although not recognized as such until much later.
•4 Major Criticisms: Colonial Knowledge and its Effects, Epistemology, Social Change
and Individual/Society Relations.
•Today, I will deal with just two of these new lines of thought relating to:
–Colonial Knowledge and its Effects
–Epistemological Critique: (critique of positivism).
A Criticism of the Concept of ‘Tribe’ as a Colonial Construct
•Tribe identified by:
•I. Language: but the Kachin Hills area does not fit this model. There are multiple
languages, and they express and reflect social, ethnic and status distinctions.
•2. Territory: Kachin and Shan are often mixed up together, there are fluid ethnic
boundaries. Individuals strategize their ethnicity on the basis of advantage and
circumstance.
•3. Political/Social Organization: Within the Kachin Hill Area, there are three distinct
‘models’ of society:
•I. The egalitarian gumlao
•II. The Shan feudal Autocracy
•III. Intermediate: the gumsa
•These ‘models’ are related to ecological niches, and also to the role of colonialism.
•The term ‘Kachin’ was derived from:
–Existing elites.
Colonial administration which saw it as a distinct area comprising a specific ethnic type,
defined in terms of its racial history.
–
Epistemological Critique
•How do we Know what we Know?
•Epistemology: Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It
attempts to answer the basic question: what distinguishes true (adequate) knowledge from
false (inadequate) knowledge? Practically, this questions translates into issues of
scientific methodology: how can one develop theories or models that are better than
competing theories?
•Enlightenment to Leach: 2 main theories of adequate scientific knowledge:
•I. : empiricism, which sees knowledge as the product of sensory perception, and II.
rationalism which sees it as the product of
• rational reflection: theory provides the idea of causality between external phenomenon
(Descartes).
•Radcliffe-Brown: Strong empiricist argument: “social structures are as observable as a
shell picked up on a beach”.
Positivist Epistemology
Methods of the natural sciences could be applied to the social sciences.
•Observation would provide ‘objective’ evidence of social relations, social structures and
cultural values.
•The anthropologist, as a pure scientist, could ‘observe’ free of any external/internal
influences: the mind was a template that faithfully recorded events.
•Goal was increasingly EXACT information.
Myths and Rituals: Reflections of ‘Real’ Social Structures or Languages of
Controversy?
•Malinowski: myths are sanctions for ritual action, which reflects social structure.
•Functionalist anthropologists therefore sought for ONE TRUE version of a myth.
•Leach: myths and oral histories do not reflect social structure, but rather support the
interests of individuals and groups.
•There is no ONE TRUE version of a myth.
•Pragmatic view of mythology: myth is defined by what it does, and Kachins recount
their traditions to justify a quarrel, to validate particular customs and to accompany
religious performances.
The Kachin Origin Myth(s)
•Origins from the sky, moon and sun nats: first part of the story, leading to the birth of
Shapawng Yawng: the first Kachin.
•Second part of the story: The 6 major clans claiming aristocratic status have competing
and different versions.
•Principles of difference between the versions:
Whether the younger son lineages have died out and been absorbed into elder son
lineages.
Whether some lineages were more directly related to sky nats than others.
Language, Mythology and the Rashoman Effect
•Elder and younger brother lineages often have competing versions, as do lineages
descended from first and second wives. In the latter case, the different versions
supported a gumlao rebellion, described in Chapter 6.
•Rashoman Effect: All versions MAY be true. It is simply that one version highlights
those aspects which may be left out of other versions; hence the resulting stories or
narratives are very different.
•Each individual or group will strive to better their social position. In so doing, they ‘put
their best foot forward’ and construct histories that support their claims. And in so doing,
they often come into conflict with existing structures, pushing the entire system towards
some sort of structural change.
•Each myth can be viewed as a model; BUT ALSO anthropologists theories can also be
viewed as models.
•Major Influence of Leach’s Critique:
–Increasing
concern with ‘meaning’ and ‘interpretation’ as the primary goal of
anthropology: especially Geertz. Focus shifted, therefore, to language and linguistic
philosophy.
–Abandonment of ‘naïve empiricism’: the view that social structures were ‘real things’
that could be observed. Social structures were, at best, ‘models’: both anthros and people
studied carried models of society in their heads, but did not always conform to them.