AnthropologyLesson 4 of 5 in the course Culture Concept Theory: Theories of Cultural Change

Cultural Analysis: Evolutionism, Functionalism, Structuralism, and Ontology

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Anthropologists have developed different ways to explain how cultures change. This lesson examines early evolutionary models, critiques of ranking cultures, and approaches that emphasize environmental adaptation and unique historical pathways.

In the nineteenth century, some anthropologists applied the idea of evolution to culture. Cultural evolutionism proposed that cultures develop from simpler to more complex forms. Like biological evolution, cultural change was imagined as a progression over time, but early theorists often treated the cultures they studied as evidence of different stages in one universal process.

All flashcards

Unilineal evolution
The assumption that every culture passes through the same sequence of developmental stages.
Diffusion
The movement of objects, practices, or ideas between societies through interaction.
Cultural ecology
An approach that studies how people adapt to particular environments.
Cultural materialism
An approach emphasizing how technology and economic conditions shape other aspects of culture.
Historical particularism
An approach explaining cultural change through the unique forces shaping a society over time.

Quiz questions

  1. What does functionalism seek to understand about cultural practices?Answer: The purposes they serve in the present.
  2. In Malinowski's framework, organizing work and distributing food resources are examples of which kind of need?Answer: Derived needs.
  3. What is the main focus of Radcliffe-Brown's structural functionalism?Answer: How social structures relate to and sustain the larger social system.
  4. In French structuralism, what is a binary opposition?Answer: A pair of concepts treated as contrasting, such as light and dark.
  5. Why is ranking cultures mainly by technological development problematic?Answer: It can impose researchers' values and overlook other forms of knowledge and complexity.

Based on Introduction to Anthropology by Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, Marjorie M. Snipes (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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