Points of Reaction

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 583.

In the 1950s a dissatisfaction with existing vague and rigid theories of cultural change stimulated the adoption of an ecological perspective. This new perspective considers the role of the physical environment in cultural change in a more sophisticated manner than environmental determinism (see Cultural Ecology web page at http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/eco.htm ). Ecological anthropology is also a reaction to idealism, which is the idea that all objects in nature and experience are representations of the mind. Ecological anthropology inherently opposes the notion that ideas drive all human activities and existence. This particular field illustrates a turn toward the study of the material conditions of the environment, which have the potential to affect ideas. Furthermore, Steward was disillusioned with historical particularism and culture area approaches, and he subsequently emphasized environmental influences on culture and cultural evolution (Barfield 1997:448). Boas and his students (representing historical particularism) argue that cultures are unique and cannot be compared (Barfield 1997:491). In response, Steward's methodological approach to multilinear evolution calls for a detailed comparison of a small number of cultures that were at the same level of sociocultural integration and in similar environments, yet vastly separated geographically (Barfield 1997:449).