Chapter 2: A Short History of Cultural Anthropology

The development of Western scientific thought, catalyzed by events including the invention of printing technology and increased contact with non-Western peoples following European expansion, created the conditions for systematic study of human societies. Geological discoveries by Charles Lyell and the fossil record challenged prevailing religious explanations for human origins, while Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection provided an evolutionary framework that early anthropologists attempted to apply to cultural development. Edward B. Tylor and Lewis H. Morgan proposed unilinear cultural evolution, a theoretical model that arranged all societies along a single developmental trajectory progressing from savagery through barbarism to civilization. This approach, though influential in establishing anthropology as a discipline, embodied significant flaws rooted in ethnocentrism, technological bias, and the unfounded assumption that progress was linear and inevitable. Franz Boas fundamentally redirected anthropological practice by introducing historical particularism, which emphasized rigorous fieldwork, cultural relativism, and scientific methodology over sweeping generalizations. Boas's influence generated diverse theoretical approaches including culture area studies, functionalism and structuralism that examined social institutions and their interconnections, diffusionism that sometimes overemphasized cultural borrowing, and multilinear cultural evolution that recognized multiple pathways of social change. Cultural materialism and human ecology emerged as frameworks for understanding how environmental conditions and material resources shape cultural practices and social organization. The rise of postmodern critique questioned anthropology's claims to objectivity and highlighted persistent biases including ethnocentrism, sexism, and the influence of the researcher on observed phenomena. Contemporary anthropology addresses urgent global issues such as colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, technological innovation, museum ethics, and equitable development while centering the agency and perspectives of marginalized populations.