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Suguna Pathy
Department of Sociology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat-395007, India.
E-mail:sugunapathy@gmail.com.
Anthropology in general has colonial roots and these influences are still in existence. British colonial policy in Africa and Asia began to change in the 1930s thus, it was suddenly decided to “develop” the colonies. This paper is aimed at objectively studying the process of change without committing itself to any particular policy. The skepticism of colonialism and its arrogant assumption of omniscience and opposition to the existing social order were analyzed. The colonial regime was engaged in the expansion of cash economy and missionary approach. Accordingly anthropologists were cast into the mould of the colonial stereotypes and monolithic notions with functionalist overtones which were the keynote of the colonial anthropology of that time. The functionalist studies dealt with family life, customs, folklore, economic activities and religion. Subsequently, several monographs emerged on the gamut of culture and integration emphasizing diffusionism. The studies were largely based on relations between the individuals occupying specific roles in social structure. By and large, anthropological studies have completely ignored the genesis and basis of social relations, class formation, conflict, contradictions and the question of gender in particular. Precisely this is the crucial point which economic anthropology-formalism, substantivism, structuralism and materialism approach, respectively. In the present exercise an attempt is made to briefly appraise these schools of thought. Continue reading Diverse approaches in economic anthropology: Some reflections
An Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism in Complex Society
by Abner Cohen
Proposes guidelines for the analysis of the causal interconnections between the cultural diversity of American cities and the struggle for economic and political power among the various groups in the cities…
Abner Cohen (1921-2001) was, before his retirement, Professor of African Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at London University. His books include The Politics Of Elite Culture (1981) and Masquerade Politics: Explorations in the Structure Of Urban Cultural Movements (1993).
- Pub. Date: March 1977
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Format: Textbook Paperback, 168pp
Continue reading Two-Dimensional Man
(Les Structures élémentaires de la Parenté)
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
The fundamental characteristic of marriage as a form of exchange is seen particularly clearly in the case of dual organizations. This term defines a system in which the members of the community, whether it be a tribe or a village, are divided into two parts which maintain complex relationships varying from open hostility to very close intimacy, and with which various forms of rivalry and co-operation are usually associated. These moieties are often exogamous, that is, the men of one moiety can choose their wives only from the other, and vice versa. When the division into moieties does not regulate marriages, this role is frequently assumed by other forms of grouping.
There may be a second bipartition of the group, parallel or perpendicular to this earlier division, the moieties may embrace exogamous clans, sub-clans or lineages, or, lastly, the modalities of marriage may depend upon specialized forms called marriage classes. Continue reading The Elementary Structures of Kinship
Claude Lévi-Strauss
En 1952, l’UNESCO publiait une série de brochures consacrées au problème du racisme dans le monde. Parmi celles-ci, C. le Lévi-Strauss donnait avec “Race et Histoire” un court essai qui dépassait de beaucoup son sujet pour introduire à une réflexion nouvelle sur la culture occidentale, le sens de la civilisation, le caractère aléatoire du temps historique, etc… Continue reading Race et Histoire
 Selected Essays by K. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN
This is possibly the final volume of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown’s published and unpublished contributions to social science in general and social anthropology in particular. It presents, in Part I, Radcliffe-Brown’s major methodological papers in chronological order and follows, in Part II, with his last finished statement on the nature and development of social anthropology, originally prepared as the first portion of a projected introductory book on social anthropology. It is published with the kind permission and encouragement of Professor E. E. Evans- Pritchard, Radcliffe-Brown’s literary executor, and any royalties will accrue to a research fund set up in Radcliffe- Brown’s name. Continue reading Method in Social Anthropology
A TEST CASE IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
RODNEY NEEDHAM
The University of Chicago Press
This is a methodological essay, but it is pragmatic, not an empirically empty disquisition on how things ought to be done. I have written it in the conviction that the elaboration of method is best done in the resolution of particular problems; so I have taken an issue on which two very different theoretical approaches have been brought to bear, and I have tried to show that one is more useful than the other. The specigd mediodological value of this test case lies in the fact that, exceptionally in social anthropology , it is a problem which, I think, can be quite definitely solved : of the two answers considered, one is essentially right and the other is demonstrably wrong.
Continue reading Needham: Structure and Sentiment
An Historical Sketch Of The Progress Of Opinion On The Origin Of Species, Previously To The Publication Of The First Edition Of This Work I will here give a brief sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of Species. Until recently the great majority of naturalists believed that species were immutable productions, [...]
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