ANTH 103 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Great Man Theory, Wright Brothers, Mendelian Inheritance
Document Summary
Leslie white was, like mead, a strong advocate of cultural meaning, the self-proclaimed evolutionist and promoter of energy as a measure of human progress. White saw cultural anthropology as a science, and named it analytical culture. White believed that cultural forces, relying on the innate human capacity for symbolic thought, were so powerful that people made little difference. White dismissed what was then called the "great man theory of history," the idea that individuals were responsible for significant discoveries and epochal changes. White looked instead to the system of cultural forces that produced great people. In those historical periods, conditions for the expression of creativity and grandeur, such as the renaissance, were right and individual talent was blossoming. At other times and places, there may have been just as many brilliant minds but the culture has not accepted their voice. White pointed to the simultaneous observation as evidence of the theory.
