Richard James
ANTH460
Prof Lowe
Lesson 7
Prompt 2
The culture concept, in the history of academic anthropology, has taken a multitude of forms which were influenced by societal and philosophical challenges different scholars and thinkers attempted to address within their own era. From the ancient writings of Herodotus comparing Greek and non-Greek cultures, to Ibn Khaldun studying how different societies evolve and relate, to Renaissance scholars contrasting classical antiquity with their current society, to later thinkers such as Morgan and Tylor attempting to classify societies and explain their cultural evolution, each thinker operated within the confines of their era’s rules, assumptions and traditions. From a modern anthropological lens, these scholars and thinkers had their own unique set of contributions to the study of culture, with each notable contribution advancing the discipline and refining the means in which we have come to understand the complex nature of human history. By following these progressions and contributions, within the framing of their historical context, we are able to acquire deeper meaning into cultural studies and how they have been shaped by their respective eras.
For ancient civilizations, the study of culture was oftentimes conducted by people who were largely focused on their own society, acting more as historical propagandists with biases toward anyone else who bore no cultural resemblance to themselves, than objective observers. Culture, within this construct, was often described in flattering and celebratory ways, showcasing their society’s martial triumphs, monument building and the superior ways in which they conduct themselves in comparison to their inferior neighbors. Seldom had anyone attempted to describe other cultures with a hint of scientific objectivity until Herodotus, in 440 BC. “The History of Herodotus” serves as a foundation of anthropological thinking, where Herodotus is attempting to “preserve from decay” (classics.mit.edu) what Greek and Barbarian men have done and prevent their deeds from being lost in time. Herodotus conducted these observations from the viewpoint of an Ionian Greek man, living within the Persian empire. Despite his Greek roots, he was influenced by Persian traditions of cultural respect, leniency and curiosity. Throughout his travels, documenting the cultural traditions of Greeks, Persians, Phoenicians and Egyptians, he set himself apart from other notable scholars of his time by performing a more well-rounded cross-cultural analysis. Looking to understand human diversity, explaining and contrasting cultural differences between Greek and non-Greek societies, Herodotus created one of the earliest and broadest cross-cultural analysis in the ancient world. His writings pioneered rational inquiry into how humans organized themselves and how their traditions and behaviors contrasted with other societies, thus laying the groundwork for how future scholars study cultural differences.
After Herodotus’ contribution to the study of culture, human societies, such as Roman, early Christian and Islamic, viewed cultural comparison oftentimes as a means to emphasize universal human values. Historians such as Tacitus contrasted Roman civilization with barbarian societies, oftentimes with a political purpose, while Christian scholars contrasted culture through a limited theological lens, such as Thomistic Christianity advocating human reason being a gift from God in order to understand his natural world. However, it was not until Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century AD, that we see a seismic shift in cultural studies with his monumental contribution to the evolution of anthropological studies with “The Muqaddimah”. The standout in this style of analysis is his incorporation of the natural sciences and how they shape cultural development, forgoing supernatural phenomena as the reasons for differences between societies and races. An anecdote about absurdities, such as the “Copper City”, where an entire city is covered in copper, and “When the person who climbs the walls of the city in order to enter it, reaches the top, he claps his hand and throws himself down and never returns”, (The Muqaddimah), highlights Khaldun’s embrace of natural reasoning and rejection of myths which were commonplace during this era. Ultimately, Khaldun’s embrace of this level of scientific objectivity was groundbreaking from an anthropological evolutionary perspective, as his systematic analysis of social change would lay the groundwork for modern sociological and anthropological studies.
Following on from Khaldun with our anthropological progression, we enter the late 1300’s and 1400’s where, in the Renaissance in Europe, there was a “renewal” of classical antiquity, where artistic, aesthetic and cultural styles from Greek and Roman civilization were embraced and studied. Scholars, attempting to draw contrasts and comparisons between Renaissance culture and that of classical antiquity, conceived of culture through, as Rowe highlights in “The Renaissance Foundations of Anthropology”, archeological, institutional and linguistic studies. It is through these studies they created new methodologies for describing non-Western cultures, despite “no continuous anthropological tradition of comparative studies stretching back through the Middle Ages to Classical Antiquity” (Rowe, 1). Regardless of this limitation, Renaissance scholars such as Ciriaco de’ Pizzicolli of Ancona, who was inspired by archeological monuments and how their direct study offered more than from literary traditions, dedicated his life to studying inscriptions, sculpture and architecture. What remained of his notes, and their influence on posterity, as Ciriaco’s contemporaries and Rowe highlight, were considerable and he is credited with founding the disciple of archeology. Rowe goes on to conclude the Renaissance fascination with Classical antiquity, and through the works of notable scholars like Ciriaco, contributed heavily to the erosion of bias which typically isolated the west.
Another step in this anthropological evolutionary journey, takes us to the works of late 19th century contemporaries Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor, whose studies were attempting to classify societies and explain cultural development over time. Morgan, an American scholar, is considered the “father” of kinship studies, and his British counterpart, Tyler, can be credited with being the “father” of cultural anthropology in Britain. Both scholars adhered to the notion that human societies advanced through specific evolutionary stages and their contributions were critical steps toward modern anthropology, despite the modern-day critiques of their models. Morgan’s focus on kinship and social organization led him to theorize societies progress through lower, middle and upper evolutionary categories. He proposed “a general evolutionary sequence of group marriage, or marriage ungoverned by complex kinship, followed by kinship determined through matrilineal and patrilineal descent” (Erickson and Murphy, 33). Morgan’s groundbreaking work on kinship, primarily among the Iroquois, arrived during a period of Indigenous land dispossession. While his framework aimed to classify social structures, it inadvertently reinforced hierarchical assumptions prevalent in 19th-century America. For Tylor, who achieved multiple anthropological “firsts”, such as the “first academic professor of anthropology, at Oxford University in 1884; he wrote the first anthropology textbook, Anthropology (1881); and, in Primitive Culture (1871), he offered the first definition of culture by a professional anthropologist” (Erickson and Murphy, 34). Tylor’s works primarily focused on religious beliefs and institutions, and through a civilization’s evolutionary path, where they progressed from different levels of religious sophistication, culminating in the “advanced” stage of monotheism, which appears to value Christianity, likely shaped by Victorian biases. This viewpoint was controversial, as it promoted the idea Christianity had primitive roots, and was noted for giving Anthropology a radical reputation. Despite the historical context in which Morgan and Tylor operated, their contributions to anthropology were felt long after their works were published.
Across centuries of anthropological development, thinkers and scholars shaped the study of culture within the intellectual and societal constraints of their time. From Herodotus’ comparative cross-cultural analysis to Ibn Khaldun’s scientific approach, from Renaissance scholars' methodological innovations to Morgan and Tylor’s cultural evolutionary classifications, each one contributed to refining the ways in which culture was understood. While their frameworks were influenced by their era’s prevalent biases, political and religious ideologies, and historical circumstances, their works laid the foundation for a discipline dedicated to explaining cultural differences.
The evolution and culmination of these thinkers and scholars' contributions set the stage for Franz Boas in the 20th century, whose groundbreaking emphasis on cultural relativism rejected the prevailing hierarchical models and evolutionary classifications up to that time. Boas’s work challenged the assumptions in prior works, insisting that cultures be studied on their own terms, within their own unique historical contexts. His efforts reshaped modern anthropology, moving it away from rigid categorization and toward a more nuanced, empirical and scientific approach.
Ultimately, this 2300 year intellectual journey reflects the evolving nature of human inquiry. Anthropology continues to adapt, challenge assumptions, and broaden perspectives. Just as past scholars refined the ideas of their predecessors, the study of culture remains dynamic and complex, reshaped by new methodologies, deeper engagement, and an ever-expanding understanding of human diversity.
Sources
The Internet Classics Archive | The History of Herodotus by Herodotus. classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.1.i.html.
Khaldun, Ibn. The Muqaddimah. Translated by Franz Rosenthal, 1377.
https://marxistnkrumaistforum.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/the-muqaddimah.pdf.
Rowe, John Howland. The Renaissance Foundations of Anthropology. American Anthropologist,
vol. 67, no. 1, 1965, pp. 1-20. Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association. https://enlosbordesdelarchivo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/22the-renaissance-foundations-of-anthropology22.pdf.
Erickson, Paul A, and Liam D. Murphy. A History of Anthropological Theory, Sixth Edition. 2021.