Various theoretical movements

Like opposite social scientists, systematic altogethery loo folkg for general patterns in benevolent appearance is the important unravel that anthropologists take on. They also develop theories and use scientific methods to test their research as they struggle to determine their differences and similarities in urban, industrial and cross-cultural societies.Its important feature is always its emphasis on the insiders view of a society. It aims to provide an understanding of the various cultures as it determines how great deal of a culture view the world. Thus, discoveries and studies in anthropology ultimately contribute to world(prenominal) harmony and with respect to the beliefs and values separately wholeness possess.Theories in AnthropologyVarious suppositional movements devour been identified and studied and most of the principles frequently overlap or contradict each some other altogether. Some concentrate on one-time(prenominal) civilizations while some study on pr esent ones (McGee, 2004).In the book of doubting Thomas Kuhn, several theories were stimulated and were based on a positivist epistemology. historic Particularism, Culture and Personality, Structuralism and Functionalism as well as many others check the broad spectrum of Anthropology. alone there are theories as well that alter the acquaint that dichotomizes the relationship between reality and surmise and these are the theories that are influenced by post-modern perspectives such as the theory of Interpretivists and Constructivists. To further breakdown and understand how each school of vox populi bunks, defining the primary(prenominal) themes and how they differentiate from one other will categorize each movement and its impact, if any, to present studies.Evolutionism in the ordinal Century claims that societal groups developed according to one universal arrange of cultural evolution (McGee, 2004). Stated simply, the proponents of this theory identified universal evolutio nal stages and ca-ca classified different societies as savage, barbarian civilization.They came to this conclusion by examine the data they have collected from traders and missionaries in the study of the various cultures they were interested in.Although most theorists rarely went to the societies they were analyzing, they organized the data they have collected, albeit second-hand data, and applied a general theory to all societies. Thus was born the train of survey placing westward Societies with rather advanced technologies and placing these societies at the highest rank of civilization (Erickson, 2008).The main theme that categorizes this movement is the supposal that human fountainheads share similar characteristics all over the world (Moore, 2004). Does this mean that all people and their societies will go through the similar processes of development? It seems so for another underlying assumption is all that belong to Western Societies are superior to other societies in the world.This assumption may be based on the fact these same societies possess the military and economic power against technologically simple societies (McGee, 2004). But can this then apply to other aspects of societies, such as kin systems, religion and childrearing customs? There is a logical progression that cannot be denied and this can be observed in the use of simple in any casels to apply complex technology in most Western Societies.However, this train of thought offers a rather simplistic explanation on the development of Western Societies. Generally, it became too racist and during that time, Henry Morgan believed that evolution only moved from primordial societies to the Western societies.He also argued that intelligence is not a valid set to be raised for all people in various societies have different levels of intelligence and supported as well by Burnett Tylor.This theory was strongly attacked by supporters of the Historical Particularism for they see this theory as too speculative and ethnocentric and at the same time, approaches as too secular and the views on the various cultures are influenced by the Marxist Anthropology (McGee, 2004).Historical Particularisms main point is to focus its research on a specific society, its unscathed and its own history richly detailing the cultural traits and characteristics into its descriptive technology (Erickson, 2008). Franz Boas primarily led other theorists to support ethnography method or else of the comparative method, stressing the importance of a solid and intensive ground work research.He was considered the Father of American Anthropology because he openly challenged the proponents of the previous theory who he believed are overtly racist in nature and is responsible for influencing a large number of ethnographers who include Kroeber, Lowie, Spier, Wissler, Mead, Radin, Bunzel, Sapir, Benedict, Herskovits, Hoebel and many others like him ( Moore, 2004).The problem thus far with this theor y is that it has very little stimulation resulting in a electrostatic view of cultures and did not develop a sense of cultural dynamics and continuities. It however laid the ground work for systematic field work and research.Structuralism is best exemplified by a leading intellectual of the age, published extensively his writings and revolved his theory around the basic question, what are the human patterns of thought that bring order to the world? bringing to the forefront the other question, how does man deal with chaos?Levi-Strauss stressed the main points of this theory that the mind takes varied and potentially chaotic experiences to attempt to logically structure this experiences in binary star configurations, and incorporating these with dominant images and symbols we come across in the world (McGee, 2004). Levi-Strauss believed that these configurations is an unconscious(p) process devoid of being developed and articulated but sort of deeply rooted from the structures o f the mind.He argued that since all people of all cultures utilize binary principles to organize and structure the experiences they encounter daily, the manner of comprehending the meaning to any tincture must logically have an antithesis or opposite. This explains the rise of various symbols in human societies that run through symbolic polarities like right-left, moon-sun, female-male, life-death, and good-evil.The major office of this theory is the logical study of myth and thinking where knowledge give a significant message about how things are organized and specifically mediate or less(prenominal)ens experiential contradictions (order to chaos) and introducing an anomalous element virgin mothers, tend of eden ( Evolutionism, 2008).This theory used a non empirical approach in its methods where most positivists ague and they believed that the structures of thinking should be based on binary principles. They also believed that all forms of thinking are logical and not less sig nificant and the tools are just the things that differ at the way one processes the information around him.