ANT-1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Evolutionary Anthropology, Ethnography, Baffin Island
Document Summary
Presentism: the act of judging and evaluating past ideas and actions according to the moral standards and norms of the present. Doesn"t mean don"t acknowledge the flaws but acknowledge they are there. Anthropology and colonialism: evolutionary anthropology helps justify colonial civilizing mission , the evolutionist schema was both the perfect explanation of justification for. Two most famous german anthropologists: adolf bastian (1826-1905) and friedrich ratzel (1844-1904) Adolf theory of independent invention: humans have similar mental capacities and, when faced with similar problems come up with similar solutions. Friedrich theory of diffusionism: humans are un-inventive. Technologies and ideas are transmitted through contact between cultures. Culture circles combine the 2 views: technologies and ideas originate from a number of different points and then spread through diffusion. He decide to study the eskimo and their relationship to the environment (he took down the habits of the eskimo) He undertook a geographical expedition to map out the eskimos.
