Peoples of the World Exam 3 Trobrianders The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea Theory in Anthropology Mis Applied Darwin s On the Origins of Species 1859 to culture Anthropological Theory o Evolutionists Darwin s idea descent with modification Works great for biology Misapplied as an analogy for culture Evolutionism o Misapplied as survival of the fittest to culture o Linked culture to biology Fittest must be those who are most powerful o Tried to explain diversity through who is most powerful Why do we have railroads and they use stone tools Promoted racist colonial worldview o Unilineal Evolution o Armchair anthropologists doesn t have experience or fieldwork in area just studies it Evolutionist L H Morgan o Studied progression of savage to civilization o Unilinear evolutionism human society has evolved through savagery barbarism and civilization o Stages based on technology and social institutions o Stages corresponded to mental ability Evolutionists Edward Burnett Tylor 1820 1917 o Humans improve over time o All humans are biologically equal distinct from other Evolutionists o Focused on survivals o Proposed a unilinear path animism polytheism monotheism and science Why Evolutionists were Wrong o 1 Culture Biology o 2 Humans are very biologically uniform o 3 Biological evolution can be used as an analogy for cultural change rather than as a direct explanation Evolutionism s Dark Side o Evolutionists set the stage for Social Darwinism o A major force in the 19th and 20th century o Led to forced sterilizations of the disabled and minorities in the U S o Genocide the Holocaust in Europe o Shows consequences of scientific ideas especially regarding people The Boasians o Franz Boas was the father of four field U S anthropology o Focus on fieldwork and data collection o Deemphasized grand unifying theories like those of the Evolutionists o Showed that human biology was plastic o Historical particularism Histories are not compatible diverse paths can lead to same o Fieldwork Intense study of specific cultures o Rejection of race concept universalist theories and Evolutionists o Diffusion as mechanism of cultural change Boasian Ideas cultural result Functionalism systems o British based school of thought focusing on the role of sociocultural practices in social o Based on intensive fieldwork o Made arguments about human diversity that went beyond historical particularism Bronislaw Malinowski 1884 1942 Culture works in different ways to satisfy universal biological needs o Functionalist o Cultural traits functioned as a system and were related o Worked with Trobriand Islanders Radcliffe Brown 1881 1955 Evans Pritchard 1902 1973 o Structural Functionalism o Looked at cultures as a system with an internal logic o Cultural practices functioned to maintain a system to preserve the social structure o Example Totems function to maintain social solidarity Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology o Turner recognized links between symbolic anthropology the study of symbols in their social and cultural context and social psychology psychology and psychoanalysis o Geertz Interpretive anthropology defines culture as ideas based on cultural learning and symbols Structuralism Anthropology Today o Claude L vi Strauss 1908 2009 Human minds have certain universal characteristics originating in common features of Homo sapiens s brain o Symbolic analysis of myth and ritual o Looked at symbolic patterns to find the underlying logic of a culture o Increasing specialization o Ethnography has expanded to include regional AND national systems and the movement of people o Witnessed crisis in representation questions about the role of the ethnographer and the nature of ethnographic authority o Must stay aware of our biases and our inability to totally escape them The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea Introduction Previous Ethnographic Research o Bronislaw Malinowski 1915 Male gender focused Exchange and politics Kinship Marriage Kula Ring Social Organization o Matrilineal o Chiefdom o Headmen Some more than others have to be a part of the matriline A House for Yams o Valuables different from our valuables o Wealth How can men be the leaders if kinship is determined by woman s line They the more items men have the wealthier they are Yams and Kula necklaces represent wealth wife owns the yam garden Husband claims wealth for garden What dictates mans wealth How many yams Kula rings pigs stone axes he If you are a man your wife s brother grows the garden Woman s wealth 1 Grass skirts 2 Banana leaf bundles higher value Who owns the yams women has o Cooperation o Control Men s wealth is based on power of wife s matriline Dependent on wife s brother Husband buys skirts and bundles for his wife Matriline controls everything Wife s matriline ultimately determines a man s wealth o Ownership Women own yams Changes o Used to be an Australian colony Research Designs o Economics and Tourism o Much has changed with Trobrianders like Yanomamo and Mescalero however they still incorporate Western items and beliefs within their own traditions Originally went to study tourism especially wood carving Greeted by men with wood carvings Women grabbed her and took her to a funeral practice Made her switch her ideas to death religion gender o Death Religion and Gender Thought it was run by men until she saw funeral and women exchanging skirts and bundles and changed her whole view of what was going on o Social Organization o Wealth not as it seems Only men did the wood carving Men stopped doing traditional activities and would go into city and sell wood carvings to tourists for real money Take money to general store and buy stuff Wealth Changes o Economic traditions Malinowski s men s valuables Would trade skirts and bundles o Economics in 1970s Tourism abounds Wealth and money from sales Only men did the wood carving Men stopped doing traditional activities and would go into city and sell wood carvings to tourists for real money Take money to general store and buy stuff o Art and Economics of Wood Carving Male specialty Cash and its influence in changing traditional economic roles From European stores Canned meat rice tobacco clothes cloth toiletries Fish betel nuts used for stimulant stick in gum each man had a beetle nut tree Cash Economy Then o Cash used to purchase o Cash also used For offerings Problems with Cash Economy o What potential problems do you see with change in economics Pushed to Australian values Tourism plummeted and