ANTH 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Truman Doctrine, Cash Crop, Social Darwinism
6 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Tuesday June 5th
ANTH 212
History and Theories of Development
• Who are experts/ policy makers speaking to and what are they saying
• Enlightenment
o 1700s
o Before this was the middle ages
▪ Period of intense religious laws
▪ European societies under went very little change
o After enlightenment
▪ End up with enlightened philosophers/ thinkers – they are all old, white
and male
• Intellectual forefathers
▪ Intellectual history is vested in this time when there are allot of
civilizatios ho hae ot udergoe dark ages
• Only when Europeans started thinking more enlightened → pin
point that world is going through tremendous change
▪ Period of creativity and innovation
• Idea emerged that there would be a straight forward sense of
rationality
o How can we inspire people to be more rational and
productive (protestant ethic –the idea that protestant
people would be rewarded if they worked really hard
when they were living and this motivated allot of people
to move to cities and to work in factories and to be
exploitable in European industrialization)
o Problem that emerged from this time is that countries/
parts of the world that would be brought under colonial
rule
▪ Seen as being uncivilized and primitive
▪ Europeans were being strict about living a purpose
driven life – enlightenment thinkers were
intimidated by the new societies that would
become the peripheries
• People move to cities → People to work in factories -→ this was
not questioned
o Time when certain ideas become imagined – freedom from religious dogma;
primitive way of living/ civilized way of living
▪ These ideas continue to be reflected in development/ underdevelopment
o Elighteet oiides ith the age of oloial apitalis
▪ How to rule over colonial societies –
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ Chinese – leaders said that they hae eerythig they eed ad dot
need outside help
• European nationalism – Europeans were ruling over their own
societies and forcing allot of the world to do things their own way
o These notions are reflected in current practices of
development around the world
• Darwin and the social sciences
o Theories were based on case studies of animals and plants
o As time goes on – a species will adapt to the place where it lives and a species
will become more effective in the environment in which they live
o Allot of religious authorities did not like this
o Daris ideas ere eraed y Europea thikers i 19th c.
▪ Took physical adaptability of species and transposed it to looking at how
soieties futio soial Dariis – kinda problematic
• This analysis of Darwinism was applied to different societies
around the world
o Europeans are more productive – released themselves
from religious dogma, were more of an industrial/
capitalist society, reached these sooner then others
▪ Europeans were seen to be doing things the right
way
▪ Part of the colonial project – not to destroy or
oppress other societies in other countries but to
bring them up to speed with other societies that
would e doig thigs the right ay
▪ Darwin took concepts in a biological way and these ideas were taken in a
social way
o Emile Durkheim – admierer of Darwin
▪ Applied these socialist ideas to compare primitive and modern societies
▪ Results – developed ideas of mechanical and organic solidarity
▪ Know the difference:
• Mechanical – rural, subsistence, farming people living in villages
• Organic – not subsistence, people work in service, people identify
with each other – we are bound together by a community →
exemplifies organic solidarity –
o Societies that have reached organic solidarity – these
societies are more productive, have more independence,
and have a higher level of individual consciousness
o The colonial powers
• Social development in the colonies
o European powers when they gained control of European countries – they did not
think that people of Africa would live in an inferior state forever, but they could
be educated and enlightened like Europeans were
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
