Essay - Anthropology Historical Foundations of Anthropology Essay 1 How Do the...

Anthropology

***** Foundations of Anthropology

***** 1

How do the methods of 19th Century Evolutionists explain ***** development of marriage, family, political organization, and religion?

***** ***** of the evolutionary theory ***** societal development arose from the precept that all cultures arose in a uniform m*****nner. Early theorists believed that various cultures represented different stages along the path to *****. Evolutionary anthropology ***** from encounters with cultures ***** were ***** Theorists such as Tylor ***** Morgan developed opposing viewpoints on the development of society.

Tylor disagreed that groups, ***** as the Native American population, were a degenerated culture (Tylor, cited in Anthropological Theory, 1871:30). He felt that culture from simple to complex and that it progressed through three distinct stages. Tylor argued ***** civilization ***** from savagery through barbarism into ***** (Tylor, cited in ***** Theory, 1871:38). All *****s were capable of becom*****g advanced civilizations. This is different from Morgan's idea, which had more subdivisions than Tylor's theory, but agreed with the basic premise that culture developed in a uniform fashion (Tylor, cited in Anthropological *****, 1871:37). Tylor believed that clues to primitive religion lie ***** magic, astrology, and witchcraft (Tylor, cited in Anthropological Theory, 1871:)..

Morgan felt ***** ***** family evolved in six ***** (Morgan, cited in Anthropological Theory 1877:44-45). The first stage was contained no constraints or bonded pairs. The next ***** was where a group of brothers was married to a ***** of sisters *****nd brother-sister mating was permissible. The third stage also included group marriage, but brothers and sisters ***** not *****owed to mate. The fourth stage involves a loosely paired male ***** fe***** that still lived in a ***** of other people. The fifth state is a p*****triarchic family ***** the husband may have more than one wife at a time. In the final stage is ***** monogamous family where one wife and ***** husb***** are equal in status. According to this model, the ***** became progressively smaller and smaller.

********** theories on family ***** are not supported by modern ethnographic evidence. "Primitive" societies today do ***** practice group marriage, as could be expected ***** Morgan's theory. Sir James George Frazer w***** considered a classical evolutionist. He theorized that magic was the root of religion. He promoted the idea that magic evolved into religion and religion evolved ***** science (Frazer, 1890).. ***** change was slow, but eventually represented complete transition. Frazer ***** felt that superstition was important in the evolution of culture, as it strengthened respect for the idea of private property, ***** the *****ls of marriage, ***** included adherence to strict rules of sexual morality (Frazer, 1890). Sir John Lubbock differed from Frazer and considered the evolution of religion to progress ***** atheism, to nature worship, to shamanism, to idolatry, ***** finally to monotheism (*****, 1872).

Comparative Method.

Comparative method stems from fields such ***** archeology and paleontology where evidence from the past is compared with ex*****ting societies and species to form hypotheses as to what they were like. The comparative ***** in anthropology