Transcript Anthropology Hall of Fame

Anthropology Hall of
Fame
Margaret Mead
The most famous of the
early anthropologists
 Studied cultures in Pacific
islands
 Compared Samoan teens
to American teens
 Conclusion: personality
influenced by society
 Later focus: gender roles
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Accused of sloppy
methods
 Used too many personal
stories, not enough
statistics
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Many thought she
exaggerated the sexual
liberation of young
Samoans
But: she’s an important
pioneer, she popularized
anthropology
Ruth Benedict

Studied role of
religion  human
personality
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Studied Aboriginal
peoples of US Plains
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Culture “personality
writ large”
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i.e., the sum of all the
personality types of its
people
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Studied Japanese
culture to assist
redevelopment after
WWII
Bronislaw Malinowski
 Social
Anthropologist
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 All
social institutions
are designed &
modified to meet
needs of most of the
population
 (founder)
 Studies
& compares
social organizations
in different societies
 Studied
people of
New Guinea &
Trobriand Islands
His functional theory

Rejected Cultural
Evolutionism
Cultural Evolutionism?
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All societies develop in a regular series of predictable stages
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Savage  Primitive  Sophisticated
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Criticisms against Cultural Evolutionism:
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It’s racist
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Implied that newer is more advanced
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Ethnocentric, judges Western civilization as best, others compared
to it
Malinowski: anthropology to explain, not judge
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Don’t rate cultures,
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Point out similarities, differences
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REQUIRES: exhaustive observation & detailed record-keeping
Raymond Dart Physical Anthropologist
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Examine fossils /
other remains
To understand
evolutionary
development of
humans
Skull found 1924,
Australopithecus
“Southern Ape”
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Findings disputed

1947, found more
evidence supporting
claim
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Today,
Australopithecus a
valuable discovery
Louis & Mary Leakey
Likely the most
famous family of
physical
anthropologists
 1930’s people thought
human origins in Asia
 Leakey disagreed,
went to Africa
 Australopithecus
 Homo habilis
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Experimented with
ancient tools  how
ancestors hunted
 Thought: study of
primates would help
us to understand our
ancestors
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Jane Goodall
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Worked with Leakeys
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Alpha male wins supremacy,
has the right to mate with
the females
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Observed & recorded lives of
chimpanzees
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Initially from a distance,
once she gained their trust,
from close up
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Eventually usurped, has a
privileged role as respected
grandparent
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Key findings:
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Our human ancestors:
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Chimps make & use tools
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They aren’t strictly
vegetarian
Highly developed social
structure, based on
aggression
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Originally vegetarian,
became meat eaters when
able to co-operate to hunt
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They have a social structure
Biruté Galdikas
Focus: orangutans
 Why?
 Share 98% genetic
material with humans
 Foster parent to a 1
year old male
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Observations
 (similar to Goodall’s)
 Highly structured
social communities
 Violence always
possible
 “looking into the
…eyes of an
orangutan…image of
our own creation…
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Dian Fossey
 “Gorillas
in the
Mist”
 Observed gorillas,
from a distance,
close up
 They show
affection  family
 Aggression 
outsiders
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Common theme:
primates share much
in common with our
early human ancestors