Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists

416 Pages·2008·0.86 MB·english

by  Jerry D. Moore

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ANTHROPOLOGY
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Praise for the Second Edition
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cultural evolution (cid:129) Boas (cid:129) liminality (cid:129) Ortner (cid:129) multilineal (cid:129) cultural evolution (cid:129) Boas (cid:129) liminality (cid:129) Ortner (cid:129) multiline
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VISIONS OF CULTURE
X

VISIONS OF CULTURE
X
An Introduction to Anthropological
Theories and Theorists
Third Edition
Jerry D. Moore
ADivision of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
ALTAMIRAPRESS
Adivision of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Awholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706
www.altamirapress.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2009 by AltaMira Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moore, Jerry D.
Visions of culture : an introduction to anthropological theories and
theorists / Jerry D. Moore. — 3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1145-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-1145-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1146-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-1146-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
eISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1239-1
eISBN-10: 0-7591-1239-8
1. Anthropology—Methodology. 2. Anthropology—Fieldwork.
3. Anthropologists—History. 4. Anthropologists—Biography. I. Title.
GN33.M587 2009
306—dc22
2008008638
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: What’s the Point? xi
PART I: FOUNDERS 1
1 Edward Tylor: The Evolution of Culture 5
2 Lewis Henry Morgan: The Evolution of Society 18
3 Franz Boas: Culture in Context 33
4 Émile Durkheim: The Organic Society 46
PART II: THE NATURE OF CULTURE 61
5 Alfred Kroeber: Configurations of Culture 65
6 Ruth Benedict: Patterns of Culture 78
7 Edward Sapir: Culture, Language, and the
Individual 88
8 Margaret Mead: The Individual and Culture 104
v
vi / Contents
PART III: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY 117
9 Marcel Mauss: Elemental Categories, Total Facts 121
10 Bronislaw Malinowski: The Functions of Culture 134
11 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown: The Structures of Society 147
12 Edward Evans-Pritchard: Social Anthropology,
Social History 161
PART IV: EVOLUTIONARY, ADAPTATIONIST, AND
MATERIALIST THEORIES 175
13 Leslie White: Evolution Emergent 179
14 Julian Steward: Cultural Ecology and
Multilinear Evolution 194
15 Marvin Harris: Cultural Materialism 204
16 Eleanor Burke Leacock: Feminism, Marxism,
and History 217
PART V: STRUCTURES, SYMBOLS, AND MEANING 227
17 Claude Lévi-Strauss: Structuralism 231
18 Victor Turner: Symbols, Pilgrims, and Drama 247
19 Clifford Geertz: An Interpretive Anthropology 259
20 Mary Douglas: Symbols and Structures,
Pollution and Purity 272
PART VI: STRUCTURES, PRACTICE,
AGENCY, POWER 289
21 James Fernandez: The Play of Tropes 295
Contents / vii
22 Sherry Ortner: Symbols, Gender, Practice 307
23 Pierre Bourdieu: An Anthropology of Practice 325
24 Eric Wolf: Culture, History, Power 343
25 Marshall Sahlins: Culture Matters 365
Postscript: Current Controversies 385
Index 393
About the Author 399

Acknowledgments
This book was written for students, and since 1993 various ver-
sions of the chapters have been tested on my students at Cali-
fornia State University, Dominguez Hills. I want to thank them
for their patience, questions, and puzzling looks—and for forc-
ing me to be clear in exposition and intent. When I was writing
the chapter on Edward Sapir, I felt an immediate empathy for
the Ottawa period in his life when he lacked students; to lack the
exchange of ideas with students would be a great loss, and I
thank my students for their contributions to this book.
I would also like to acknowledge four of my teachers who
taught me anthropological theory as an undergraduate and
graduate student: Michael Seelye, Joel Canby, Charles Erasmus,
and Albert Spaulding. I thank Dr. James W. Fernandez for an-
swering my request for information on his anthropological ca-
reer. I also want to thank Dr. Marshall Sahlins for providing me
with a copy of his curriculum vitae, an important source for
writing about his career and publications.
I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to my wife and
colleague, Janine Gasco, who read draft chapters, listened to the-
oretical and editorial problems, and whose advice was unfail-
ingly sound. In addition, I have discussed aspects of this book
with my friends and colleagues Andrew Stewart, Brenda
Bowser, and Susan Needham; I appreciate their comments, tol-
erance, and encouragements.
At AltaMira Press, I was fortunate to work on the first and
second editions with Mitch Allen, whose confidence in this
ix