ANTHRO 3AC Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Marcel Mauss, Social Physics, Social Fact
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o Every culture has it's own pattern/configuration/temperament/personality
o Certain temperaments are valued by each culture,
o Temperaments which are valued are regarded as normal, those
temperaments which are devalued are regarded as pathological
o People who do not possess those temperaments are regarded as
abnormal
o Norms and ethics may also be divided along gender
8. Diffusionism
o Cultural Diffusion - Cultures are affected by the forms of neighboring
cultures - people might borrow ideas and forms across culture
o Cultural forms emerged in civilizational centers
o Diffused outward toward more peripheral sites
o If two cultures differ, then track differing diffusion
o Certain traits, certain cultural fragments of the specific patterns of unique
cultures could diffuse between neighboring groups. Some cultures exerted
powerful influences on other cultures, and they became centers of
diffusion, their traits diffusing outward to other groups. Colonialism was
for the 'Boasians' [followers and students of Boas] a very powerful agent
of diffusion in which 'Western' language, art, manners, dress, religion, and
ethics were diffusing into smaller tribal societies and eroding or even
obliterating tribal mores.
9. Evolutionary (or Deep) Time
o Charles Lyell
o Deep time -
o
Principles of Geology
(1830-33)
o Showed that the earth is much older than was thought at the time (6000
years)
