Approaches in Anthropology...so far

Just a quick overview of the theoretical approaches in anthropology that we've covered so far.  I'm going to try my best and distill the major points as well as those elements that remain with the discipline.

• Unilineal Cultural Evolutionism--sees all human groups as progressing through the same sequence of cultural/social stages.  Progress compels each forward. Certain human groups have moved farther along than others.  This ethnocetnric framework is no longer subscribed to by anthropologists.  However, it did offer a comprehensive approach to understanding human diversity and underscored the similarities between all human groups.
• Historical Particularism--Cultural diversity is best explained by the unique history of a group of people.  Through the processes of innovation, diffusion and migration, particular configurations of cultural elements come together.  This approach is primarily descriptive and most anthropologists dig deeper, either in an explanatory or an interpretative way, today, but this approach is important in emphasizing history and the interconnections between groups of people.
• Functionalism--Both versions discussed in class see cultural as doing something. Malinowski saw culture as functioning to meet the needs of individual humans. Radcliffe-Brown argued culture functioned to perpetuate the structure of a society.  Radcliffe-Brown's is derived from the work of Durkehim, so is consistent with the structural-functionalist approach in sociology.  The focus on social patterns is very much still with anthropology.  However, most anthropologists (and sociologists) are also interested in how social patterns change as well as persist.
• Neoevolution--Here we see a clear focus on change, but patterned change (contra Historical Particularism) and change that jettisons much of the ethnocentrism of Unilineal Evolutionism.  But the rest of this one...we have to wait until Monday.