ANTHROPOLOGICAL THOUGHT: From Evolutionism to Postmodernism and Beyond

Vijoy S. Sahay

About the Book

The book covers how the anthropological ideas emerged; first, in the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers; thereafter, by the renaissance scholars during the 18th century in Europe; and finally, during the mid-19th century, especially, after Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution.
The book covers the contributions of all the evolutionists of the 19th century. The weaknesses of one school of thought gave rise to another; and in this way, ‘Evolutionism’ was replaced by ‘Diffusionism’, and in ascending order there emerged the schools of ‘Historical and Dialectical Materialism’, ‘Functionalism’, ‘Structure-Functionalism’, ‘Culture and Personality’ or ‘Psychological School in Anthropology’, ‘Structuralism’, ‘Cultural Ecology’, ‘New-Evolutionism’, ‘New Ethnography’, ‘Cognitive Anthropology’, ‘Anthropology of Symbolism’, ‘Interpretive Anthropology’, ‘Cultural Materialism’, ‘Postmodernism’, and ‘Human Materialism’.
In addition, a number of concepts that developed in anthropology, such as, Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, Emic and Etic Studies, National Character Studies, Study of Culture at a Distance, etc., have also been discussed in the book. Above all, the life and contributions of all the major anthropologists of the world, such as, E.B. Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, James Frazer, Karl Marx, J.F. McLennan, Adolf Bastian, Emile Durkheim, A.R. Radcliffe Brown, Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski, Franz Boas, A.L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Ralph Linton, Abram Kardiner, Cora-du-Bois, Claude-Levi Strauss, Julian Steward, Leslie White, Marvin Harris, Paul Magnarella, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida have also found place in the book.
This book will indeed be beneficial to all the students, researchers, and instructors in social science in general, and anthropology, sociology, and psychology in particular.

---

Contents

1    Introduction
2    Anthropological Ideas in Historical Perspective
3    Evolutionism
4    Diffusionism: British, German and American
5    Historical Particularism of Franz Boas
6    British Social Anthropology: Structure-Functionalism and Functionalism
7    Culture and Personality / Psychological School in Anthropology
8    Neo-Evolutionism
9    Structuralism: Claude Levi-Strauss and Prague School of Linguistics
10    New Ethnography
11    Materialist Theories in Anthropology
12    Postmodernism and Beyond
13    Postscript

---

About the Author / Editor

Vijoy S. Sahay is Former Head, Department of Anthropology, University of Allahabad. He obtained PhD for his fascinating research work on the Nicobar Archipelago under the supervision of Professor L.P. Vidyarthi. His has been passionately teaching anthropological theories and conducting field research among the most primitive tribal groups of the country, particularly the primitive tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Author of a number of books and over 50 research papers, Prof. Sahay is the Founder Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the internationally renowned research journal, The Oriental Anthropologist. His latest book is Experiencing Anthropology in the Nicobar Archipelago (2021). Besides visiting and delivering lectures in different universities in India and abroad, Prof. Sahay was a Visiting Fellow to the KwaZulu Natal University, Durban, South Africa; Aarhus University, Denmark; Rajiv Gandhi Central University, Arunachal Pradesh; Vidyasagar University, Midnapore; and Kamaraj University, Madurai. He has also been a member of two important committees constituted by the Government of India for the protection and preservation of the dwindling tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

---