Anthropology Diffusionism

Diffusionism

Description: This theory refers to the transmission of cultural characteristics or traits from the common society to all other societies. The main representatives thought that most inventions happened just once and men being capable of imitation, these inventions were then diffused to other places. Regarding to them, all cultures originated at one point and then spread throughout the world. They opposed the idea of progress from simple to complex forms held by the evolutionists. In addition, they held that primitive or modern is also a relative matter and hence comparative method is not applicable.

Historical background: Originated in the end of the nineteenth century as a means of comprehending the nature of the spreading of human culture around the world. During this time, researchers had begun to analyze not only advanced cultures, but also cultures with people that can´t read or write. Examining these very different cultures created the main problem of understanding how humans progressed from primeval conditions to superior states.

Period:  1900-1930

Postulates:

• Criticizes the Psychic unity of mankind of evolutionists.
• All cultures originated at one point and then spread throughout the world.
• Egypt was the culture center of the world and the cradle of civilization.

Main representatives and their most important texts:

• Alfred Kroeber

• Culture, a critical review of concepts and definitions
• Configurations of culture growth
• A roster of civilizations and culture

• Friedrich Ratzel

• The history of mankind
• Influences of Geographic Environment, on the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography
• Sketches of Urban and Cultural Life in North America

Functionalism

Description: Interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society. Society is more than the sum of its parts; rather, each part of society is important for the stability of the society. In the functionalist theory, the different parts of society are principally composed of social institutions, each of which is aimed to fill different needs, and each of which has particular consequences for the form and shape of society. The parts all depend on each other. The core institutions defined by sociology and which are important for this theory include: family, government, economy, media, education, and religion.

Historical background: Before the 20th century, higher education was primarily training for clergy and the elite. But in the early 20th century, higher education transitioned to become a center for science and the general education of the masses. This mean that education began to serve a new function; it had not always served the function of preparing individuals for the labor force. Functionalists might respond that this transition can be explained by looking for other institutional changes that precipitated this change. 

Period: 1900-1930

Postulates:

• Societies are thought to function like organisms, with various social institutions working together like organs to maintain and reproduce societies.
• Institutions come about and persist because they play a function in society, promoting stability and integration.
• Functionalist perspective proposes a distinction between manifest and latent functions.
• Attempts to explain social institutions as collective means to meet individual and social needs.

Main representatives and their most important texts:

• Émile Durkheim

• The socialism
• Ethics and the sociology of morals
• Primitive classification

• Radcliffe Brown

• Method in social anthropology
• Taboo
• Structure and function in society

French structuralism

Description: Describes that things cannot be understood in isolation; they have to be seen in the context of the larger structures they are part of. Elements of culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger system or structure. Structure was the code governing the form of social institutions rather than anything that was itself empirically available. His analysis would focus on the quality of the relationships between the elements of his object of study and their arrangement. Structuralism is found in all areas of thought and study. The structuralism mode of reasoning has been applied in a diverse range of fields.

Historical Background: Structuralism thought holds other social systems to be analogous to language. Before Saussure, the field of linguistics had primarily consisted of cataloguing the world’s languages and tracing etymologies. Saussure rejected the study of empirically available elements of language for the study of the independent formal relations between them. Grammarians wanted to describe the underlying grammatical rules that we follow when we talk or write. Nineteenth-century linguistics is mainly interested in the history of language and the origin of individual words.

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