History of Theory and Method in Anthropology

349 Pages·2022·5.248 MB·English

by  Regna Darnell

HISTORY OF THEORY AND METHOD IN ANTHROPOLOGY
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Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology
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36 Series Editors
37 Regna Darnell
38 Robert Oppenheim
HISTORY OF THEORY
AND METHOD
IN ANTHROPOLOGY
Regna Darnell
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln
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12 © 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska
13 Acknowledgments for the use of previously published or copy-
14 righted material appear in each chapter’s notes, which consti-
tute an extension of the copyright page.
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All rights reserved
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The University of Nebraska Press is part of a land-g rant insti-
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tution with campuses and programs on the past, present, and
18 future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Otoe- Missouria,
19 Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples,
as well as those of the relocated Ho-C hunk, Sac and Fox, and
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Iowa Peoples.
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Publication of this work was assisted by the Murray- Hong Fam-
23 ily Trust, to honor and sustain the distinguished legacy of
24 Stephen O. Murray in the History of Anthropology at the Uni-
versity of Nebraska Press.
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
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Names: Darnell, Regna, author.
27 Title: History of theory and method in anthropology / Regna
28 Darnell, University of Nebraska Press.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2022] |
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Series: Critical studies in the history of anthropology | Includes
30 bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021058923 | isbn 9781496224163 (hard-
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back) | isbn 9781496231307 (paperback) | isbn 9781496232243
32 (epub) | isbn 9781496232250 (pdf)
33 Subjects: lcsh: Anthropology— North America—H istory. |
Anthropology—M ethodology—N orth America. | Indians of
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North America— Research— History. | bisac: social science /
35 Anthropology / Cultural & Social | social science /
Ethnic Studies / American / Native American Studies
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Classification: lcc gn17.3.n7 d3693 2022 | ddc 301.097— dc23
37 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058923
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Set and designed in New Baskerville ITC Pro by Laura Buis.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations . . vii
List of Tables . . viii
Acknowledgments . . ix
Editorial Method . . xvii
Introduction . . xix
List of Abbreviations . . xxvii
1. What Is History? An Anthropologist’s Eye View . . 1
2. Applied Anthropology: Disciplinary Oxymoron? . . 21
3. The Anthropological Concept of Culture at the End
of the Boasian Century . . 45
4. Calibrating Discourses across Cultures in Search
of Common Ground . . 63
5. “Keeping the Faith”: A Legacy of Native American
Ethnography, Ethnohistory, and Psychology . . 85
6. Anthropological Approaches to Human Nature, Cultural
Relativism, and Ethnocentrism . . 101
7. Text, Symbol, and Tradition in Northwest Coast Ethnology
from Franz Boas to Claude Lévi- Strauss . . 117
8. Mind, Body, and the Native Point of View: Boasian Theory
at the Centennial of The Mind of Primitive Man . . 135
9. Franz Boas as Theorist: A Mentalist Paradigm for the Study
of Mind, Body, Environment, and Culture . . 151
1 10. The Powell Classification of American
2 Indian Languages . . 177
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11. The Revision of the Powell Classification . . 205
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12. Désveaux, Two Traditions of Anthropology in Mirror:
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American Geologisms and French Biologism . . 225
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13. Rationalism, the (Sapir- )Whorf Hypothesis, and
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Assassination by Anachronism . . 233
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9 14. The Structuralism of Claude Lévi- Strauss . . 243
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15. Obituary for Frederica de Laguna (1906– 2004) . . 263
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16. Obituary for Dell Hathaway Hymes (1927– 2009) . . 271
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17. Obituary for George W. Stocking Jr. (1928–2 013) . . 281
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14 18. Review of Glimpses into My Own Black Box: An Exercise
15 in Self- Deconstruction, by George W. Stocking Jr. . . 289
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19. Obituary for Anthony F. C. Wallace (1923–2 015) . . 293
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18 Index . . 301
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vi Contents
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Frederica de Laguna (1906– 2004) . . 262
2. Dell Hathaway Hymes (1927– 2009) . . 272
3. George W. Stocking Jr. (1928–2 013) . . 282
4. Anthony F. C. Wallace (1923– 2015) . . 294
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4 TABLES
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12 1. The Powell classification . . 184
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2. The Brinton classification . . 200
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3. Sapir linguistic classification by number of stocks . . 217
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4. Sapir linguistic classification by language families . . 217
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 1
Delivered at the annual meeting of the American Society for Eth-
nohistory, New Orleans, October 3, 2009. I thank Timothy Bisha,
Jim Birckhead, Robert L. A. Hancock, Dean Jacobs, Bryan Loucks,
and Dan and Mary Lou Smoke for ongoing conversations at many
stages of this rethinking. The fine hands of Ray DeMallie, Ray
Fogelson; and Tony Wallace, all now deceased, lie just below the
surface and live in memory. I also thank the late Keith Basso, Neal
Ferris, Walpole Island First Nation (Bkejwanong Territory), Dri-
ton Nushaj, the late Blair Rudes, and my late husband, György
Ozöray, who was a geologist.
Chapter 2
I particularly thank Joshua Smith, Robert L. A. Hancock, and Craig
Proulx for the nomination for the Weaver-T remblay Award and
their generous introduction and Liz Guerrier for the warm hos-
pitality of Dave’s Place. I am proud to have been a sometime and
continuing mentor to each of them. It is impossible to enumerate
all who have contributed to my thinking on the issues discussed
in this chapter. I am grateful for so many opportunities to engage
in wide- ranging dialogue. Anthropology is a collective enterprise
of colleagues speaking respectfully to one another across perme-
able borders of culture, gender, academic discipline, and profes-
sional generation, then taking their insights out into the world.
I acknowledge generous support from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada for many of the projects
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