ANTH 2160 Lecture : January 9th 2012.docx

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 2160
• Professor: D Rose

Document Summary

Attempted to establish anthropology as a science. Inspired by idea of evolution from natural history (darwin) Informed by enlightenment ideals of progress through rational inquiry. There was a strong sense of ethnocentrism led by european ideology. There are specific stages with identifiable traits. Each stage must emerge from the one before. European society was the epitome of progress and perfection so far and all other societies were thought to go through the same stages. This way of thinking was a step forward because it recognized that we are all human beings (regardless of sex, race, religion etc). Lewis henry morgan"s ethnical stages: (savagery and barbarism had lower middle and higher total of. Anthropologists at this time were armchair theorists because they did no field work, they just read the accounts of other people. -civilization was morgan"s description of his own society and he based all other/different societies as lower.