Development of Anthropology as a Discipline in the United States

Ruth Benedict, Alfred Kroeber and Hortense Powdermaker all discovered anthropology through a college lecture. Benedict had become a high school English teacher, social worker, writer and poet (Mead, 7). After attending a lecture by Alexander Goldenweiser and Elsie Clews Parsons, Benedict knew that this career would keep her interested and she would enjoy it (7). Alfred Kroeber majored in English, like Benedict, but after hearing Franz Boas in a seminar on American Indian Languages he switched to studying anthropology (Steward, 4). Hortense Powdermaker was not happy with her desk­job after graduating from college so she went back for more schooling (Hortense, 293). She took a course in social anthropology and knew that was the career for her (293). All three of these anthropologists started in careers not related to anthropology but for unknown reasons had attended a lecture focusing on anthropology. The effects of attending one lecture

Caleb L. Fry and Lauren T. Rios Department of Anthropology Lake Tahoe Community College One College Drive South Lake Tahoe, California 96150 USA Faculty Advisor: Daryl G. Frazetti Abstract

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

they perform the bulk of their work, and what it is they do in both problem

Discrimination was and is still a big part of society back then. “In the late 1800's to 1900's, discrimination was the main problem during those years. Discrimination is the distinction and not liking of a certain race, religion, or of what someone looks like because of a

When looking at the social changes in American culture at the turn of the century, we see extraordinary differences in the accepted behaviours and thoughts of American citizens. The century saw a major shift in the way that people lived, with changes in politics, society, culture, economics, and technology. At the beginning of the century, discrimination based on race and sex was significant, but by the end of the 20th century, women had the same legal rights as men and racism had come to be seen as detestable.

Race matters! Race has been probably the most dominating factor beneath the eugenics movement and the pseudo scientific experiments the Europeans physicians and scientists conducted on people of African origin and other races since the 18th century. The foundation for these studies can be associated with ancient Greece, the roots of today’s western values of knowledge, civilized, and democracy which are considered to be the basis for human development. Similarly to today’s Europeans, Ancient Europeans mustered enormous armies and naval forces that conquered and destroyed more advanced civilizations in the Near East, Asia Minor and Africa during which they destroyed records and stole ideas from the conquered people. Hence, the Europeans rewrote the history books to advance their concept of race superiority, which have been essential in the Atlantic world for the last five hundred years.

The 1900s were full of many events that were induced by discrimination. For the greater part of the 20th century, America was not a meritocracy. The definition of meritocracy is when someone is treated based on how hard they have worked. Many people of color did not live in a world with meritocracy. Mexicans saw meritocracy as an unrealistic view. The dominant race usually treated other races as inferior, based off the color of skin. For this reason, many minorities suffered from discrimination and injustices. Many Americans violated the Fourteenth Amendment which gives citizens the right of not getting deprived of privileges. Two scenarios, the Lemon Grove Incident and the Mendez case point to a pattern of institutionalized discrimination

1877 was a critical time in American history. However, 1877 was the point in time where African Americans were cheated out of the opportunity to achieve true racial equality in America. After Reconstruction ended, a slew of racist regulations, such as Jim Crow, and illegal housing laws were passed that handicapped an African American’s ability to pursue the American dream. Furthermore, the deferring onto the later generations regarding the topic of racial equality in America is the reason why there is racial unrest in our present time.

In this essay, I will be describing the certain discriminations African Americans face as a decline in their civil rights and civil status happened in the period between 1880 through 1915. I will also be describing the rise of womens civil rights and civil status throughout the same period. How women nearly became legal equals to men in almost all aspects besides voting. I will be supporting the thesis provided on the guidelines for the Mid-Term examination.

The 19th century marked a period of widespread racialization in the United States, which was carried out for political and economic purposes. However, as time went on race differences were seen as less relevant, especially when the minority races started proving themselves through their actions. Successful individuals from the minority groups were elevated while stories of less successful individuals, such as Asians and European immigrants diminished.

Prior to colonization, the Indigenous had a unified, democratic society. Hickerson (1973) described that, until European contact, “social organization remained firmly based in kinship and clanship and that modes of production and distribution remained egalitarian” (p. 18). The Indigenous peoples engaged in hunting, trapping, and fishing activities at a subsistence level. Indigenous communities did trade useful commodities and some luxuries. However, Hickerson (1973) described that trade and production were not directed towards profit, but rather, towards satisfying the immediate well-being of community members.

Bronislaw Malinowski is arguably the most influential anthropologist of the 20th century, certainly for British social anthropology. Malinowski saw himself as effecting a revolution in anthropology by rejecting the evolutionary paradigm of his predecessors and introducing functionalism, whereby institutions satisfied human biological need, as the way to understand other cultures. I argue that his lasting legacy, however, is methodological rather than theoretical. Although not the first to conduct fieldwork, his lengthy stay among the Trobriand islanders during World War 1 enabled him to study their culture and cover a wide range of topics, from economics to sexuality. He contributed to ethnography and fieldwork by living with the people he studied, getting to know them personally, participating in their activities, and conducting his research in the field has since become known as ‘participant observation’.

Boas’ reliance on empirical data to formulate theories underscores Kuhn’s central idea that paradigms are only changed through examination of new data. As data on cultures preceding Boas was slim at best, it is not hard to see how Boas could acquire data contrary to the existing viewpoint. This data collection itself was a new theory, the new invention required. Kuhnian thought states that preparadigmatic schools emphasize the collection of the facts, as Boas was emphasizing. Crisis within the paradigm is witnessed by the competition between the schools of thought. Emerging from this crisis is Boasian anthropology, with its reliance on empirical data as the basis for study. This data collection is subdivided into the four subfields Boas saw as a requirement for this new field. The four-field approach emerges as the dominant force in anthropology. With this approach the community changes its view of the field, and produces new methods and goals. These methods and goals have been used as a professional consensus in anthropology since the Boasian transformation.

Since the emergence of anthropology in the late 1800’s, the customs and methods of this academic discipline have been altered in many ways. It is assumed that in the early years of anthropology, theorists relied on travelers in order to articulate their theories (Dahl 2017). This practice is known as armchair anthropology and involves creating theories without any fieldwork. Some examples of famous armchair anthropologists include Edward Burnett Tylor and James Frazer. The work of both theorists involved no travelling or conducting of fieldwork. Early anthropology focused on primitive cultures and how societies transformed from being barbaric to civilized. In modern days, anthropology is discovering new topics to study every day and the information relies a great amount on fieldwork and lab work conducted by anthropologists to support their findings. As some of the early methods of anthropology continue to be used by anthropology, more are being developed in order to produce more efficient research and theories.