Chapter 11: Theory in Cultural
Anthropology
Objectives:
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Explain the role of theory in anthropological
research
Identify key theoretical perspectives in
anthropology
Discuss how Christians can engage
anthropological theory in thinking about faith
and society
Theory in Anthropology
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A theory is a formal description of some
phenomenon in the world, explaining how that thing
works.
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As new data are discovered, a strong theory explains
the old data as well as the new.
Strong theories are able to explain data in a
comprehensive and persuasive way.
A theory can never be proved once and for all.
Theory in Anthropology
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Numerous theories may be employed at any given
time.
Different theories can be used depending on what
the anthropologist is trying to explain.
nomothetic explanation
A generalization, a
natural law that predicts
and explains culture
change and human
behavior
idiographic explanation
Provides a rich description
of a particular case
Foundations of Anthropological Theory
Karl Marx (1818-83)
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Societies move through stages of development
driven by economic relations between classes.
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Every society and every form of social and cultural life
in history could be understood in terms of the
economic system and the conflict it produced.
Social conflict caused by inequality is a key organizing
principle in culture.
Human beings are, at root, socially created and are
inherently neither good nor bad.
Foundations of Anthropological Theory
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
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Like Marx,
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he believed that there are laws of social life and regular patterns
researchers can discover to make predictions about social change.
he believed in the evolution of society from simple to complex.
he believed that religion and the arts are products of underlying
social or material causes.
Unlike Marx,
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he did not place any value judgment on capitalist industrialism.
he argued that social organization is not caused by some
proximate cause, but is sui generis, a thing in itself.
he believed that society is like an organism, with various parts that
all work together for the health of the whole.
Foundations of Anthropological Theory
Max Weber (1864-1920)
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Believed a multivariate approach is the best way to
explain complex social phenomena
Is particularly known for his analysis of European
capitalism, in which he connected the ethos of
investment, frugality, and discipline necessary for
the growth of capitalism to the doctrine of
predestination as articulated by John Calvin
Foundations of Anthropological Theory
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A key concern for all social theorists is the
relationship between society (individuals
working together) and culture (the ideas,
symbols, and interpretations people have
about the world).
All these theories have been critiqued as
overly reductionistic, yet the underlying
emphases have remained important in the
development of subsequent schools of
anthropological theory.
Early Anthropological Theories
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Early anthropologists developed theories of culture.
They tried to understand and explain cultural
diversity and cultural change.
Five important early anthropological theories:
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Unilinear cultural evolution
Diffusion
Historical particularism
Functionalism
Structural-functionalism
Early Anthropological Theories
Unilinear cultural evolution
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All cultures evolve from simple to complex, along a
single trajectory of progress
Sought to make the comparison of societies
objective or scientific by constructing scales of
development
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Edward B. Tylor (1832–1917) used levels of religious
development to classify particular stages of cultural
progress.
Henry Lewis Morgan placed cultural development on a
scale from “savagery” to “barbarism” to “civilization.”
Early Anthropological Theories
Diffusionism
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Cultural artifacts or activities (known as cultural
traits) spread from more advanced to less advanced
societies.
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Cultural traits cannot be created and are only
borrowed.
Strict diffusionists afforded virtually no role for
creativity, innovation, or adaptation in culture.
Both unilinear cultural evolution and diffusion are
critiqued for their ethnocentrism and racism and are
largely discredited.
Early Anthropological Theories
Historical Particularism
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Franz Boas (1858-1942) original founder
Each culture represents a unique representation of
its history and context
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Amasses large amounts of ethnographic data through
long-term fieldwork
Ethnographic data helped disprove diffusionist and
unilinear culture evolutionary theories
Early Anthropological Theories
Functionalism
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Bronislaw Malinowski original founder
Culture develops in response to individual human
needs
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Band and tribe societies should not be seen as
irrational, underdeveloped, or primitive, but should be
understood as adaptations to meet human need
Early Anthropological Theories
Structural-Functionalism
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Alfred Radcliffe-Brown was the original founder.
The functions of particular beliefs or behaviors
should not be understood as meeting individual
needs, but as supporting a social need for order and
cohesion.
Boasians in the United States and the functionalists
and structural-functionalists of Britain all
emphasized ethnographic field work.
But anthropologists in the United States emphasized
“culture” while anthropologists in Britain emphasized
“society.”
Positivist Anthropology: Materialism
and Structuralism
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A positivist approach seeks universal, nomothetic
explanations based on empirical evidence.
The two branches of positivist anthropology:
materialism and structuralism
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Materialism includes cultural ecology, cultural materialism,
and sociobiology.
All positivist theories work out of naturalism, a belief
that all that exists are the natural phenomena that
can be touched, seen, or otherwise physically
experienced.
Positivist Anthropology: Materialism
and Structuralism
Materialist Theory: Cultural Ecology
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Developed by Leslie White (1900-1975) who drew
on the work of Karl Marx
Culture can be understood in terms of how people
adapt to and interact with the natural environment
Emphasizes how the material and economic aspects
of life drive cultural change
Positivist Anthropology: Materialism
and Structuralism
Materialist Theory: Cultural Materialism
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Culture is driven by the material, ecological and
economic adaptations humans make
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Marvin Harris (1927-2001) argued that humans use an
unconscious cost-benefit analysis to adapt cultural
beliefs toward economically rational ends.
Understanding how and why any particular society
developed the way it did should be drawn out of an
understanding of how behaviors, beliefs, and
institutions serve (or served) to benefit people in basic
material ways.
Positivist Anthropology: Materialism
and Structuralism
Materialist Theory: Sociobiology
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Culture is rooted in the human drive for evolutionary
advantage and genetic survival
A contemporary anthropological theory, but it is not
widely accepted as a dominant explanation of
cultural change
Positivist Anthropology: Materialism
and Structuralism
Structuralism
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Human biology, specifically brain structure, drives
culture.
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Developed by Claude Levi-Strauss, who believed that
the human brain is structured by rules of opposition.
Structuralists in every field argued that researchers
could study myths, works of art, literature, and more
by uncovering and mapping the structure that can
found within them.
Symbolic Anthropology
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Beginning in the mid-1960s, focuses on
understanding the symbolic worlds of others and
describing them in depth, and minimizes the
importance of constructing generalized theories of
culture and culture change.
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views culture as a system of symbols that people
create, alter, and share with each other
Clifford Geertz most notable scholar to push
anthropology toward more ideographic and descriptive
work
Postmodern Anthropological Theory
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An umbrella term for theories built on the premise
that positivist, or so-called objective, views of
human phenomena are inherently limited and
therefore not unbiased in the ways proponents
believe them to be
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Brings questions of power, history, and the culture
concept itself into the center of anthropological
analysis
Three important strands of postmodern theory in
cultural anthropology are cultural marxism,
feminism, and perspectivalism
Postmodern Anthropological Theory
Cultural Marxism
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Draws on Karl Marx’s concepts of power, inequality,
and class struggle to understand cultural change and
analyze all forms of social inequality
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The lowercase “m” indicates that these anthropologists
are not Marxist in their political agenda or overall view
of history
Postmodern Anthropological Theory
Feminist Theory
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Highlights the importance of gender as an analytic
concept and the importance of including women’s
presence in cultural analysis
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Feminism as a political stance or a social identity is
different from feminist theory as a scientific paradigm.
Feminist theory was the first theory that emphasized
the importance of recognizing power and privilege not
only within the society being studied, but also between
the anthropologist, the subject, and the reader.
Postmodern Anthropological Theory
Perspectivalism
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Also known as standpoint theory
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Knowledge is generated by a knower who is positioned
in a particular place and time, reflecting a
specific/limited perspective.
Objective/unpositioned knowledge is not possible.
Perspectivalism increased the use of reflexivity, the
inclusion of the anthropologist’s perspective and
experience in ethnographic writing.
Christians Engaging Anthropological
Theory
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Christians have diverse opinions on how to engage
with anthropology.
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Eloise Hiebert Meneses (Eastern University)
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Robert Priest (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)
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Christianity and anthropology are two distinct viewpoints,
each of which calls for ultimate commitment
Argues for the inclusion of Christian perspectives in the
secular academy because Christian views continue to be
marginalized and maligned
The various theoretical approaches can aid us in
understanding the data without contradicting or
erasing our Christian commitments.