Totems and Teachers: Key Figures in the History of Anthropology

Totems and Teachers: Key Figures in the History of Anthropology . Sydel Silverman, eds. New York: AltaMira Press, 2004. 258 pp.     

History of anthropology

The author describes the history of biological anthropology with special reference to the period from 17th to 19th century. The most important anthropological theories and methodological developments of that time as well as their representatives are discussed in detail.     

Key informants on the history of anthropology

The history of anthropology is a growing field of study within the discipline itself. Our series ‘Key Informants on the History of Anthropology’ is offered as a contribution to the discussion of how anthropology, as it is understood and practised today, evolved and took shape. In this invited contribution, T. O. Beidelman reflects on the formative, enlightening and sometimes dramatic encounters and experiences that have shaped his engagement with anthropology, and have influenced his many and lasting contributions to the discipline.     

History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia

History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, vols. & 2. Frank Spencer. ed. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997. 1,195 pp.     

History and future of visual anthropology

Visual recording of communication processes between communities or individuals by means of filming of photographing is of significant importance in anthropology, as it documents on site the specific features of various social communities in their encounter with the researcher. In terms of film industry, it is a sort of ethno-documentary pursuing originality and objectivity in recording the given subject, thus fulfilling the research mission. However, the potential of visual anthropology significantly exceeds the mere audiovisual recording of ethnologic realities. Modern methods of analysing and evaluating the role of visual anthropology suggest that it is a technical research service aimed at documenting the status quo. If the direction of proactive approach were taken, then the term ,visual anthropology' could be changed to ,anthropology of the visual,. This apparently cosmetic change of name is actually significantly more accurate, suggesting the denoted proactive swift in perceiving visual anthropology, where visual methods are employed to ,provoke< the reaction of an individual or of the community. In this way the "anthropology of the visual, is promoted to a new scientific sub-anthropological discipline.     

A History of Research on Warfare in Anthropology

In this brief history of warfare research, I identify four major periods: Foundation Period, Classical Period, Golden Age, and Recent Period. The myth of the peaceful savage arose in the Classical Period rather than in the later periods, as argued by Lawrence Keeley. The myth has its origins in an early evolutionary approach as well as in cultural relativism. It continues to play a major role in warfare research with some anthropologists arguing for the peaceable nature of man, while others argue that man has engaged in warfare from the beginning of prehistory, [ war, theories of warfare, history of warfare research, myth of peaceful savage ]     

On the History of British Social Anthropology

After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888-1951. George W. Stocking Jr. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.570 pp.
The Expansive Moment: The Rise of Social Anthropology in Britain and Africa 1918-1970. Jack Goody. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 238 pp.     

History in the Gene: Negotiations Between Molecular and Organismal Anthropology

In the advertising discourse of human genetic database projects, of genetic ancestry tracing companies, and in popular books on anthropological genetics, what I refer to as the anthropological gene and genome appear as documents of human history, by far surpassing the written record and oral history in scope and accuracy as archives of our past. How did macromolecules become “documents of human evolutionary history”? Historically, molecular anthropology, a term introduced by Emile Zuckerkandl in 1962 to characterize the study of primate phylogeny and human evolution on the molecular level, asserted its claim to the privilege of interpretation regarding hominoid, hominid, and human phylogeny and evolution vis-à-vis other historical sciences such as evolutionary biology, physical anthropology, and paleoanthropology. This process will be discussed on the basis of three key conferences on primate classification and evolution that brought together exponents of the respective fields and that were held in approximately ten-years intervals between the early 1960s and the 1980s. I show how the anthropological gene and genome gained their status as the most fundamental, clean, and direct records of historical information, and how the prioritizing of these epistemic objects was part of a complex involving the objectivity of numbers, logic, and mathematics, the objectivity of machines and instruments, and the objectivity seen to reside in the epistemic objects themselves.     

Anthropology as a nation-building rhetoric: the shaping of Turkish anthropology (from 1850s to 1940s)

Although the presence of anthropology is strongly felt during the first decades of the Turkish republican history, namely the period between 1923 and 1940, it is striking to see that the discipline was conceived more as a nation-building device than a scientific endeavour. This article traces the formation of Turkish anthropology from the late Ottoman period to the consolidation of the Republican regime, emphasizing the interesting oscillations between physical and social/cultural anthropologies, which are alternately brought to fore according to the requirements the political agenda.     

Telling a Story about the Past: Fact and Fiction in Two Recent Films on the History of Anthropology

Ishi, The. Last Yahi. 1992. 57 minutes, color. Produced and directed by Jed Riffe and Pamela Roberts. Distributed by the Center for Media and Independent Learning, University of California Extension, 2000 Center Street, Fourth Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704; 510/642-0460. Fax 510/643-9271. Available in video and 16mm.
Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed. 1995.85 minutes, color. Produced by Virginia Yans-McLaughlin. Directed by Alan Berliner. Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY l0016; 212/808-4980.     

Closing Ranks: Fundamentals in History,Politics and Anthropology

In this presentation, I discuss fundamentalism from a processual perspective, seeking to tease out some general qualities of the processes involved in a return to fundamentals amidst social change. I start with an analysis of the historical dynamics of Icelandic society in the period 1400–1800, showing how the increasing insistence on old patterns and cultural fundamentals contributed to the gradual destruction of a one time flourishing medieval society. This devolution, I suggest, is closely correlated with a process of amplification (Sahlins) of a particular set of values, leading to a loss of flexibility in the response to environmental and other changes. Next follows a discussion of present day concerns with nationalism and other interests in bounding oneself off from the surrounding world, and demanding recognition in return. One of the processes discussed is a process of transvaluation (Tambiah), assimilating particulars to a larger and less context‐bound scheme and thereby gradually deepening the cleavage between selves and others, sometimes to the point of epistemological closure (Ignatieff). Finally, one of the anthropological fundamentals, holism, is discussed with a view to reassessing its potential for present‐day anthropology. It is argued that through the process of knowing implied in fieldwork, anthropologists arrive at a dual understanding of perceived wholes and creative agents. A new sense of holism may still grant both consistency and uniqueness to the anthropological discipline.     

The Cutting Edge and the History of Anthropology

The Craft of Inquiry: Theories, Methods, Evidence. Robert R. Alford. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.168 pp.
. History of Anthropological Theory. Paul Erickson with Liam D. Murphy. Calgary, Alberta: Broadview Press, 1998. 254 pp.
An Introduction to Theory in Anthropology. Robert Layton. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.242 pp.     

Anthropology and Individual Lives: The Story of the Life History and the History of the Life Story

Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence . Charlotte Linde.
Storied Lives: The Cultural Politics of Self-Understanding . George C. Rosenwald and Richard L. Ochberg, eds.