A history of Anthropological Theory

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy.2003. A history of Anthropological Theory. Peterborough, Ont.; Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, c1998.

Main points:

Part II – the early 20^th century - 20^th anthropological theories represented a sharp break from that of the 19^th century. Anthropologist sought to distance themselves from the uni-lineal evolutionary and hereditation doctrines of their predecessors. (73) Under the influence of Franz Boas, anthropology in the US involved the cultivation of a distinctively holistic, ‘four-field’ approach to the study of human life. They helped to set the burgeoning field apart from its British and French counterparts as a distinctive expression of anthropological knowledge. (73)

- Ruth Benedict was interested in the relationship between culture and personality. According to her, each culture had its own personality configuration or gestalt. By studying three different cultures, she explained how the three cases illustrated the power of culture to shape divergent normative personalities. In typical Boasian fashion, she concluded that because what was deviant in one culture could be normative in another. Deviance was not determined by nature. (82)

- Sigmund Freud was a clinical psychologist who tried to help his patients overcome psychological disorders. He began to speculate on the origin of these disorders. (83) His central insight was that people in the present experience conflicts because humanity in the past experienced conflict. (84)

- for Freud, civilization was opposed to human biological nature because it tried to tame the animal instincts of people.(85) The story began with the primeval family, which, for Freud, was patriarchal and characterized by unrestricted sex. In the primeval family, sons desired their mother sexually, but their authoritarian father had priority of sexual access. (85)

- the theoretical foundation of 20^th century French anthropology could be found in Emile Durkheim. He influenced A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and his theory of structuralism. Durkheim was considered as the forerunner of French structural anthropology. (90) His theory developed in progression with the publication of four books. In his book ‘Division of Labor in Society’, Durkheim explored the diversification and integration of culture. (90)

- Durkheim’s central insight was that social solidarity could be achieved in two different, organizationally opposite ways. (90) His vision of society was very different from that of Karl Marx. For Marx, the state would wither away. For Durkheim, the government was necessary to regulate socially interdependent parts. (91)

- for Durkheim social facts were collective representation of the collective consciousness. Using suicide as a case study, he explained a particular social fact: suicide was an act that seemed to individualist yet, explained sociologically, could be shown to have a strong social dimension. (91)

- Durkheim in his fourth book, “The Elementary forms of the religious Life”,  exposed the societal origins of religion. For him the origin of something had its source in the group mind. (91)

- the intellectual transition from Durkheim to Claude Levi-Strauss was accomplished by Marcel Mauss. The most well-known elaboration of idea of the total social fact was expressed in his essay “The Gift”. One of the most important contribution was to shift focus from Durkheim’s’ ‘mind’ of group to the minds of individuals. (93)

(to be continued)