Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism
This was a period in science and human thought that affected great changes in how people understand the world and human development.
Notable people of this era include:
Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace,
Herbert Spencer,
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor,
Lewis Henry Morgan,
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Notable publications include:
-Herbert Spencer, The Social Organism (1860)
-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook (1845-1846)
-Edward Burnett Tylor, Science of Culture (1871)
Lewis Henry Morgan
-Lewis Henry Morgan, Ethnical Periods (1877)(link to article)
This is one of Morgan’s articles articulates his nineteenth century view that helped to shape anthropological theory. This was written in 1877 and discusses human progress evolution form savage to civilize. This theory of human cultural development was one of the historical foundations of nineteenth century evolution and the development of anthropology.
Morgan’s purpose is to define and category human cultural development, since there are common patterns and systems, needing structure and order. He viewed this as a moral development of the “primary institutions” such as Subsistence, government, language, the family, religion, house life and architecture, and property believing that these were in conjunction with discovery and inventions (McGee and Warm 2004, 57). These seven categories starting with the techniques of providing food to civilization beginning with the idea of ownership are what Morgan uses to define important stages in human cultural development. These are solid points that seem very reasonable to accept to some degree within anthropology and labeling of human culture and social development.
The other aspect of his theory from “Ethnic Periods” is what he calls factors were he illogically groups stages of human development starting with lower, middle and upper savagery and then moving upward to lower, middle, and upper barbarism to conclude at status of civilization (McGee and Warm 2004, 61-62). Fellow anthropologists, such as Franz Boas, criticized Morgan over his grouping method, such as the Polynesian people being labeled as middle savage in there development, but were instead of a higher category in relation to their social and governmental chiefdom structure (McGee and Warm 2004, 63-64). In this period, Morgan viewed what he would consider primitive societies as living fossils and that “human development is predetermined by the natural logic of the human mind” based on what he called “germs of thought” (McGee and Warm 2004, 66). Morgan was looking at the world’s diversity cultural and people finding that there was the ability to provide a foundation of cultural birth.
5 responses so far ↓
Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism « Making Anthropology Public // January 24, 2009 at 5:23 am |
[...] Anthro Theory Posted by: theanthrogeek | January 24, 2009 [...]
merrilymccarthy // January 30, 2009 at 12:45 am |
Lewis Henry Morgan mentioned some interesting comments about how we reach moments, other than those classified by a clock or a date. He says that no matter where we are “we reach different conditions at the same time.” Now he was thinking of this in terms of one lesser conditions inspiring a greater conditions, like a stick, then a spoon in real simple terms or stone preceded bronze and then along rolled the iron. This was a method of dating employed by peoples everywhere whether by a conscious intention or a natural occurence brought on over a flow of evolutionary causation. I really appreciate the word use: a sucession of inventions of greater need and adapted to a lower condition must have occured before the want of pottery to be felt.” There is a flow of natural grace and poetry, not only in the words, and thoughts, but in the ideas commensurate with the commentary.
to examine that which came before, a hardening of pottery by fire or the simple process of drying….all these words used to explain how similar we all are.
merrilymccarthy // January 30, 2009 at 12:51 am |
The real ah ha moment came from the stimulus of production. Who else in the world divides humanity by this facility: production of goods. Well we should not glow to far here, the earth is our competitor in this respect, she produces. No one regards the earth as human, however rethinking Herbert Spencer, who talked up the idea of our movement from natural earth, sky, and water sources, and points out how similar we are to all life around us, as perhaps an extension of it, well Marx and Engels were not examing the productivity of the earth as a part of mans or people productivity. How can we separate, an earth that is able to grow an ear of corn, while man stands and claims, by the virture of his ego driven will, that “he grew the field of corn.” Did he forget all that the earth, sky, and water did prior before his morning discovery of the crows consuming “his” corn?
Inconditus alio // February 5, 2009 at 6:10 pm |
I don’t understand how people think that evolution always means a linear progression. Evolution is change and not always for the best, as in appendixes. Just the other day in my Sociology 131, Sex and Gender, someone said that capitalism is the “natural” evolutionary end for any country/economy, lest others just fall by the wayside. I agree with merrilymccarthy on this one, the earth is evolving just as we are, so shouldn’t we consider her alive and producing a part of our evolution (nature rather than nurture)?
Merrily // February 20, 2009 at 6:16 pm |
Library Grand Opening
Grand openings are not my thing. However I broke my rule to hurry up and get there because I heard this awesome song being sung by the Fresno State Musical Group, surprisingly enough I was completely across the campus in the outside parking lot in front of the Peters Building. And this sets the speed of the entire report: acoustics of the library!
Of course I was not on time for the opening and after the music I heard I figured the whole honors celebration was finished, but low and behold as my feet touched the marble in front of the building I was greeted by the backsides of several hundred suits and this lead me to notice two things, the darkening of American fashion and everyone appeared of the same gender, at least this is what one general sweeping glance feed into my information starved brain.
The small FSU band was medaling out more of its brass sounds and the folks up front who were not in cramped spaces, the dignitaries of the ceremony were hand shaking with big smiles on their faces. There was a lot of hand shaking going on. There was a lot of smiles and knowing nods of appreciation and appraisal, at least outside.
Finally the moment came and we were all generously invited to stroll in, although people who were hungry to see the interior were shouldering the space more forcefully than the less wealthy or opportunistic. Once inside the genders began to separate. Now I could discernable visualize men in dark suits, punctuated by striped ties (usually) and white shirts, (normally) and women dressed in dark suits of either pants or skirt styles, with their red blouses peeking out at the array of hand shakers and smiling well wishers.
I finally was able to walk inside. I looked a little and listened a little and then prepared to do some serious observing. My first immediate impression was the spaciousness of the entire entryway and well, you can see almost all the way from one end of the building to the other…just lots of space. And lots of sound traveling everywhere, not just because of the activity or people because you are looking at folks in suits, not traditional students who actually are noisier than the regular traffic, but many people trying to talk quietly and walk softly. From the volume of space I deduced it would require a lot of students to fill up the building.
Walking inside a ways I found a place to light and observe the traffic. Along the wall that looks out into the Peace Garden, which the day before in The Collegian was advertised as “A Quiet Place To Think”, I found a shelf with an area to place my book so I could write my notes, which by the way, was not quiet at all! In fact the din was an absolute uproar of the continual sound of feet traipsing up and down the specially designed stairway that stretches in a wonderful slope, from the basement of the library up to the third or fourth floor. I am thinking rather dryly here that the architect must have had his subliminal design inspiration stuck in the San Andreas Fault Line, because that is what he produced, one glaring fault line of constant shoes on metal stairs from the bottom of the building completely to the top of student access. Add this design element to the already open and spacious areas and you are listening to a din, a roar of clacking of feet on metal and the sound of voices crossing the rooms, up and down the entire space from basement to the upper most ceilings. For a bragged about 10 Million Dollar building and educational asset to Fresno State this is not good. This is a huge problem.
I found a man who would speak to me on the subject, although he left out his name, and he said, “We are aware of the problem and have been, but the stairs were specially designed and built for this library and now we have to find a way to correct the problem. (I guess that means now they will have to go over their budget.)
(But I overheard some else say that Table Mountain Funds had gotten frozen and so that is the problem with some of their progress.) And this was overheard when I went out of the especially donated sealed balconies on the second and third floors, which are completely sealed from the inside but are open for two stories and the sound floats up and down like an audio scope and now they have all that space, which is empty for the moment and has absolutely no privacy. Well, the library has no privacy.
Not even in the cell phone booths that are located on every floor. They are lovely in content but if you are in them, watch out what you say to whomever is on the phone, because every word you say in the library is heard everywhere else. If you are in the cell phone booth…it sounds like ducks are out in the pond chattering away. I kid you not! And the people were talking quietly to one another, either, explaining how things work, or giving directions.
The staff was scrambling around saying things like, “this is dangerous, about the Compact shelving on every floor. And this furniture is not the furniture that is going to be here.” I kind of liked the furniture, it looked to me as though they had enough places to sit for several thousand students, a theatre, group rooms, Compact Stacks, music area, journalism area, collections with 6 rows of automated racking and a full on kitchen, copiers, places to plug in and pull out, however I did not see the Famous Starbucks anywhere.
I have more and will continue this at a later time. My next set will be about those infamous automated compact racks, that are already being labeled “body crushers.”