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19th Century Anthropologists

            One of the most difficult concepts to understand in anthropological studies is the view of culture held by the 19th century evolutionary anthropologists. The model was broken up into two categories: Civilized and primitive. The 19th century popular view of the civilized was that of a moral force. The primitive cultures were "brute savages." The previous century had a bit of a different view of these two cultures. In that period, the civilized were deemed as corrupt and the primitive were "noble savages." The model went on to discuss the evolution of society. The linear evolution diagram shows how different things diverted from simple to complex. Some of these things were technology, social organization, and most importantly culture. This was one of the first times that culture was proven to evolve as well. One of the most important concepts that surfaced during this time was data collection which allowed things to be proven wrong and right.
             The studies of Lewis Henry Morgan identified some of the more scientific views of culture. He identified that the evolution of society had three different stages. Civilization was first, followed by Barbarism, and savagery. Each group was also broken down into Upper, Middle, and Lower societies. Morgan's theory was that every level of culture and society moved along this process of evolution. .
             Franz Boas was another man who had many a critique of the evolutionary perspective. Unlike many other anthropologists of the time, Boas used culture modernly. He referred to culture as a "mind and spirit" of a group of people or even as a "coherent whole." Boas is most notable for his studies of cultural relativism. This is the perspective that each culture has its own distinct history and one cannot use universal laws to assume how culture operates. Cultural relativism pointed out that the differences in peoples were the results of historical, social and geographic conditions and all populations had complete and equally developed culture.


Essays Related to 19th Century Anthropologists

1. Frank Boas

One of the most difficult concepts to understand in anthropological studies is the view of culture held by the 19th century evolutionary anthropologists. ... The 19th century popular view of the civilized was that of a moral force. ... The previous century had a bit of a different view of these two cultures. ... Unlike many other anthropologists of the time, Boas used culture modernly. ... Also because of his influence, anthropologists began to do ethnological fieldwork to gather sound evidence. ...

  • Word Count: 444
  • Approx Pages: 2

2. Race???

In the 19th and early 20th century, Joseph Arthur Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chambe! ... By limiting the criteria to certain physical characteristics, anthropologists at one time agreed on the existence of three relatively distinct groups of people, namely Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid, distinguished by such traits as skin color, hair type and color, shape of body, head, and facial features, and blood traits. ... Anthropologists stress the heterogeneity of world population, and many reject the concept of race outright. ...

  • Word Count: 337
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Forensic Anthropology

Forensic anthropologists apply standard scientific techniques developed in physical anthropology to identify human remains, and to assist in the detection of crime. ... In addition to assisting in locating and recovering suspicious remains, forensic anthropologists work to determine the age, sex, ancestry, stature, and unique features of a decedent from the skeleton. Forensic anthropologists help identify individuals who have died in disasters, wars or due to homicide, suicide or accidental death. ... Examining the bones of an individual can help the forensic anthropologist determine his or he...

  • Word Count: 3176
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4. Overview Notes on Anthropology

Biological anthropologists focus on human variation and paleontology. ... Instead, these anthropologists take a little of both and use it. Applied or practicing anthropologists can work within government, politics, medicine, and other career fields. A few types of specialists within applied anthropology are medical anthropology, cultural ecologists, and economic anthropologists. ... Diffusionism developed during the late 19th century. ...

  • Word Count: 2220
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  • Has Bibliography

5. Are People Born Criminals

Phrenologists taught that a the brain consists of many different faculties each governing an aspect of human behavior and thus contributed greatly to the early 19th Century beliefs of criminality being a mental illness. ... Criminal anthropologists taught that some criminals are unchangeable and doomed to lives of crime. ... Scientists for centuries have proposed a wide range of biological explanations of crime, some incorporating premise from the past, others striking out in new routes. ... Hooten being American anthropologists, publisher of Crime and the Man in 1939 attacked the conclus...

  • Word Count: 1589
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. History of Tesol

As is probably evident by the number of multilingual speakers around the world Language teaching has been around for many centuries. ... Prior to the 18th and 19th Centuries Language teaching would probably have focused on classical languages such as Ancient Greek or Latin where scholars would have been drilled in perfect grammar and translation. ... The grammar translation method (gtm) popular between the mid 18th and late 19th Century focused on direct translation from texts in and out of the target language. ... During the 19th Century there was a great deal of prejudice against Modern Lang...

  • Word Count: 1867
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Culture

The classic definition of culture was provided by the 19th-century English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor in the first paragraph of his Primitive Culture (1871): Culture . . . is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. ... This conception of culture served anthropologists for 50 years. ... In Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952), U.S. anthropologists A.L. ... The definition of culture that is preferred by Kroeber and Kluckhohn and also by many other...

  • Word Count: 4734
  • Approx Pages: 19
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Brazil

Hudson says that "As emphasized by anthropologists such as Gilberto Freyre and Darcy Ribeiro, all the racial and ethnic groups that arrived in Brazil intermingled and intermarried, with few exceptions-. ... In the 16th century, the area now known as Brazil was inhabited by several hundred indigenous tribes who, while racially similar, spoke different languages and had different cultures. Intermarriages by the natives among Portuguese settlers and, later, among African slaves, produced a racial mix that was further diversified in the 19th century as German, Lebanese, and Italian immigrants bega...

  • Word Count: 1576
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

9. African American Literature

All of these works by Brown gave his the reputation as the most prolific literary figure of the mid-19th century. ... The last (but definitely not the least) author put into the Pre-20th century category in this paper is Frances Harper. ... Another one of the few women who are remembered for their part in the advancement of African American Literature during the Harlem Renaissance is the author/anthropologist Zora Neal Hurston. Hurston is one of few African American women recognized for their work during the 20th century and she is one of the greatest writers/anthropologists during the Harl...

  • Word Count: 2200
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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