Development of Social Anthropology

 

The study of human behavior and culture has been a subject of interest since the beginning of human life, with the genesis of systematic thinking often tracing back to the Greek Civilization, particularly Herodotus' writings in the fifth century B.C. Herodotus, also known as the father of Anthropology, asked fundamental questions about the differences between people and their surroundings. Early social anthropologists followed these travel accounts to frame their social anthropological study.

Each age of geographical discovery saw a burst of interest in new societies discovered by explorers and colonizers. These societies were considered "other cultures" and were completely different from their own society and culture. Europeans, particularly in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, were prompted to question why other people were so unlike themselves.

The nineteenth century saw the rise of comparative ethnography, with some writers like Jesuit missionary Lifitau, Charles de Brosses, and Montesquieu starting the history of comparative ethnography. Montesquieu believed that differences in legal systems could be explained by relating them to differences in other characteristics of the nations they possessed, such as population, temperament, religious beliefs, economic organization, and customs. Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith from Scotland based their generalization on the widest reading of the institutions of different societies available at that time.

The concept of evolution became popular with the discovery of Darwin's principle of natural selection in the evolution of biological species, greatly influencing the study of society and culture. Scholars like Henry de Saint Simor, August Comte, and Herbert Spencer spoke about evolution in philosophical terms but did not offer empirical evidence of how it had taken place. However, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, scholars in the USA and UK began to focus on the stages of evolution.

Some historians believe that the origin of social anthropology is traced to David Hume and Immanuel Kant, who were the first philosophers to define social anthropology. However, it is believed that the systematic history of social anthropology rightly begins from Henry Maine and Lewis Henry Morgan, who are considered the founding fathers of social anthropology.

In the 19th century, social anthropologists were greatly influenced by Darwin's work, which established that the origin of man has passed through several stages from apes to Homo Sapiens. Anthropologists tried to follow the logic of Darwinism and applied it to establish the origin of social institutions, which prevailed throughout the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century.

Social anthropology, a discipline that emerged from the work of social Darwinists, has its roots in Henry Maine's Ancient law (1861) and Lewis Henry Morgan's books, including Ancient Society (1877). Maine proposed a distinction between status and contract societies, arguing that kinship was crucial in determining one's position in society. Morgan's contribution to early Anthropology formed the theoretical background for evolutionary theory, which supports the notion of social evolution, stating that human society has passed through stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilisation, each characterized by a specific economy.

Evolutionists like W.H.R. Rivers, Sir James Frazer, A.C. Haddon, and Charles Seligman contributed to different fields, defining social anthropology as a science of social evolution. When evolutionary theory emerged in Anthropology, many schools came up with an anti-evolutionary idea, criticized for relying on travel accounts and forming the structural-functional school of thought, represented by British Anthropologist Radcliffe-Brown. Another school of thought, the school of diffusionists, was also formed, who were not convinced by the concept of evolutionary progress of society and culture. They believed that culture not only developed but also degenerated, and that man was basically uninventive.

Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski are considered the first modern Anthropologologists who argued the necessity of doing fieldwork. Boas, a critic of classical evolutionists, emphasized the importance of collecting empirical data and conducting fieldwork in the USA to study American Indians in 1880. He founded Modern American Cultural Anthropology and studied the influence of culture on personality and vice versa. Malinowski, founder of the functional school of thought, is known for his work on the Trobridianders living in New Guinea, conducting fieldwork among these tribals between 1915 and 1918.

Malinowski's ethnographic account based on his fieldwork, 'Argonauts of Western Pacific', is a landmark publication in Anthropology, and his concept of participant observation was developed. Overall, the development of social anthropology has been significantly influenced by the work of early social anthropologists and the importance of fieldwork in understanding and studying diverse societies.

Radcliffe-Brown, a contemporary of Malinowski, developed the social structure concept to explain forms in social anthropology. This concept deals with the study of the status and role of a person within an institution, as well as the network of social relations within an institutional framework. Radcliffe-Brown criticized classical evolutionists for their pseudo-historical approach, which he argued had no place in scientific investigation.

In the early twentieth century, scholars who were critical of evolutionary theory began studying how society lived and functions, leading to the popular structural-functional approach. This approach emphasized the study of present society rather than diachronic studies. Social anthropologists began studying present social structure, focusing on the interrelationship of social institutions and their functions. However, this approach faced criticisms for not accounting for social change and not considering adaptive changes.

By the 1940s, anthropologists revived the need to study evolution, introducing the approach of neo-evolutionism in archeology. V. Gordon Childe, Leslie White, and Julian Steward represented this school of thought, defining social evolution with a new perspective. Marvin Harris further emphasized the distinction between nomothetic and ideographic approaches to the study of culture.

Robert Redfield introduced the study of civilization to social anthropology, developing concepts like folk-urban continuum and great and little traditions. This led to the introduction of village, town, and city studies. Other scholars who contributed to this field include Morris E. Opler, Milton Singer, Meckim Marriot, and Mandel Baum.

As a branch of Anthropology, social anthropology has been experiencing many new trends, including theoretical theories like symbolism and ethnography, applied aspects like developmental studies, new field methods and techniques, and ideas like postmodernism. Several anthropological sub-fields have emerged, stressing separate and specific cultural aspects and using the prefix "Ethno" to indicate their alliance with culture.