20th Century Anthropology Essay

In the 19th century, the science of anthropology truly took form to study the classification of the human race. The approach taken by most, if not all anthropologist of the 19th century, was aimed at providing explanations and models for the evolution of the human race as a single entity. In 1804, the interest in the study of man led to a principle for the study of human facts, this principle is known today as the concept of evolution. Even though this concept was brought about way before Darwin had published Origin of Species (1859), this early thinking provided the starting point for 19th century anthropologist. Nevertheless, after Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection had been published, evolutionists and anthropologist alike

Morgan. He classified and divided human evolution into three stages just as Taylor had done. These stages were; Savagery, barbarism and civilization. He however took things a notch higher subdivided savagery and barbarism into upper, middle and lower sections. Each of these sections was distinguished by a technological development, marriage, family, and political society. Most anthropological in the 19th century took this frame and developed schemes which were unilineal. By the beginning of the 20th century, many anthropologist turned to a multiethnic viewpoint. The transition from 19th century to 20th century anthropology was a short one, the dawn of the 20th century brought about an end to evolutionism in cultural anthropology. Franz Boas was one of the main anthropologist who was in disagreement with the methods of early anthropologists. He argued that 19th century anthropologist involved their personal arguments with the laws of the universe. He also added that they lacked adequate data to prove most of the theories which had been brought forward in the 19th century. Thus, the adaption of functionalism and historicism came about as a response to 19th century social

Sir Baldwin Spencer, who is considered by many as the father of cultural anthropology, studied a civilization is Australia. When studying the Aboriginal Australians, Baldwin’s methods involved him talking to the people and finding out about their culture. He monitored their way of life and formed theories about how they went about their organization, using Darwin’s theory of natural selection as a basis. Moving to the 20th century, we can take a look at anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski, who was famous for his work with the Torbriand Islander. He also involved in field work which was similar to that of Spencer in Australia, but what made his different was the way he vigorously immersed himself in the indigenous cultures he was studying. He embraced the value of studying everyday life in all its aspects. It wasn’t just enough to sit and listen and record what the tribal members said about their culture, it was vastly important for him to study how their culture played out in the way they lived their lives. Thus, from this we can see the major difference between 19th century anthropological practices and 20th century anthropological practices. The 19th century anthropologist, taking Baldwin Spencer as an example, focused mainly of theory and did little to try to engage with the culture when forming their theories. But, in the 20th century, individuals were more involved with