Anthropological Theories In Anthropology

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Anthropology encompasses four main aspects in the field: archaeology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology. All four areas must collect data and find a way to interpret the data collected. Data is then interpreted with the use of theories. The data would be useless to any anthropologist without any meaning. Theory helps an anthropologist choose what data to collect and how to interpret the results. Authors McGee and Warms assert that theory “helps us think about who and what we are as human beings,” (2). Basic understanding of different anthropological theories enlightens anthropologist about different cultures by attempting to understand and learn from each other. Overtime some theories have been disregarded due to …show more content…

Both schools of thought strongly suggest if not require their anthropologist to spend a long period of time with the people they are studying. Franz Boas worked closely with the Kwakiutl for his entire life. Similarly Paul Radin worked with the Winnebago for approximately fifty years. It is also highly encouraged that the anthropologists will learn the local language and not rely solely on a translator to communicate with the natives. Boas affirmed, “the categories of language compel us to see the world arranged in certain definite conceptual groups” (Boas 2012: 124). What he is stating is anthropologist must view the work from an emic perspective. An emic perspective is learning and understanding a culture by participating being enriched in the surroundings. The only way to fully understand and become part of the culture is to learn the language. Benjamin Whorf, linguist who developed the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, also promoted the importance of language. He states that language shapes how humans perceive the world around them and also influence how they behave (Whorf 2012). This idea of fieldwork is still valued and practiced in today’s anthropological studies. However, Boas’s student Kroeber differs slightly with this idea. Kroeber was not as interested with the idea of focusing on a single community, but preferred a regional, super-organic view of cultures. A super-organic view of culture simply means to focus on the structure of the culture rather than the individuals inside the culture. Kroeber was still supporter of historical particularism, but he would rather combine the area cultures together to find similarities and differences instead of focusing on one culture like Boas and

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