Theoretical Concepts of Cultural Anthropology - Essay Example

Theoretical Concepts of Cultural Anthropology

Introduction

Anthropology is the study of human beings and their relation to nature and other aspects of their environment. Cultural anthropology is one of its branches that explores the variations of culture among human societies and how this affects their relationships. Many theories explain the relationship of culture to mankind and how it impacts their lives. Some of the theories that account for the influence of culture in anthropology include Cultural Evolutionism, Symbolic Anthropology, Neo-evolutionism, and Functionalism. An analysis of these theories will be important in learning the relationship between culture and the behavior of human beings. This essay will use two theoretical concepts, Diffusionism, and Neo-evolutionism, to explain human culture while also looking at how it may relate to event studies.

Diffusionism Theory

Diffusionism is the spread of ideas, practices, and customs from one cultural community to another. The main ideologies proposed by this school of thought is that the spread of ideas and customs from one region or society to another leads to the widespread of a variety of cultural practices (Haviland et al., 2011). This school of thought gained traction in the late nineties and the early twentieth century. It also mainly comprised of the German school of thought and the British school of thought. Fritz Graebner and Wilhelm Schmidt were some of the primary proponents of this theory in Europe by founding the cultural school. These two cultural scholars rejected the idea of evolutionism in cultural anthropology and came up with different theories to support their ideals.

The central theoretical concept put across was that the various cultures spread across the world today arose from the few forms of civilization and cultural centers in the world, developed. This idea meant they believed that the spread of cultural ideas across the world was the main reason for human development in a majority of ancient civilization. The two scholars are the major founders of the Kulturkreise school of cultural anthropology since they argued that the cultural ideas came from clusters of few inventive centers known as Kulturkreise (Haviland et al., 2011). This school of thought was further propagated by British scholars such as William Perry, who argued that one of the leading innovative cultural clusters was Egypt. From this region, some ideas in different spheres of the world diffused to other societies.

Ember, Ember, and Peregrine(2011) argue that Smith and Perry were some of the experts of Egyptology, and their main argument is that some of the cultural advancements in technology and religion arose from Egypt and later spread to different parts of the world. Most people in the world are quite uninventive and may prefer to borrow and develop the cultures of another society as opposed to creating their own. However, one of the fundamental issues that arose with the application of this theoretical concept is that there are cases of societies with little to no influence of the Egyptian cultures. Smith and Perry rebutted the issue by arguing that it reaches a point where certain cultures diffuse a lot of cultures and inherently become degenerate. This theoretical approach is considered to be ethnocentric since they regard Egypt as the first society where ancient civilization arose. The lack of empirical data and analysis made it difficult for people to adopt the view of these two scholars. Their arguments are thus no longer considered to be valid in the study of cultural anthropology.

Father Wilhelm Schmidt was also a pronounced scholar and proponent of the diffusion theory of cultural anthropology. Like the British advocates, the German supporters also argued that people are uninventive and tend to copy ideas from other individuals or societies as opposed to inventing their own. However, one of the chief differences between the German school of thought and the British one is that they did not believe in one cultural center. Whereas British scholars believed that the main cultural center in the world, where ancient culture and civilization arose was Egypt, the German scientists disagreed. They believed that there weremany cultural centers in the world whose cultures influenced other societies. There was also an American school of thought led by Alfred Kroeber. This school of thought argued that diffusion was one of the main ways through which cultures spread their ideas and principles to each other. However, one of the fundamental differences with the other schools of thought was that they believed other cultures did not be assimilated fully be the said cultural centers. They argued that the society always changed the diffusing culture on the receiving end. It was thus difficult to claim that one or a few cultural centers were responsible for assimilating the cultures of the world.

This theory offers some of the fundamental explanation of the transfer of cultures among different societies. This theoretical concept, however, is entirely deductive and speculative, lacking the evidence from the field to back some of the claims that it makes. Cultural borrowing remains to be a fundamental concept that is still visible in cultures across the world especially with the advent of globalization.

Neo-evolutionism Theory

This theory explicates that culture evolves with the capacity of society to harness energy from its environment. This theory was a development from the evolutionism theory which argued that simple things became complex over a period. The evolutionism theory believed in the concept of gradual development of the human culture (Keesing, 1981). However, Neo-evolutionism presents a different argument than the evolutionism culture. Leslie White was the main theorist of this approach and argued that cultural change depended on, among other things, the per capita use of energy of a society in a year. His approach was further supported by the fact that there were a lot of inventions during the post-World War II era. Leslie White argued that energy and technological use were some of the primary causes of cultural change and evolution.

According to White, if this energy consumption changes then there are likely to be some shifts in the culture of the people using the energy. For example, when humans were mostly hunters and gatherers, their primary source of energy was the human energy that they had. Technological changes often lead to the introduction of new forms of energy which subsequently lead to culture change according to the neo-evolutionism theory. During the agrarian revolution, many changes resulted to the use of different forms of energy. At this time, the humans discovered that in addition to their energy, they could also use the energy of animals and plants to increase their agricultural productivity. This prompted some cultural changes such as the dependence on agriculture as the primary source of income for many people. In the industrial society, people have discovered various sources of energy from natural resources such as fuel, coal, and electricity. In the final stage, people are harnessing energy from nuclear sources of energy. The amount of energy that people use will determine the changes that will happen in their society. These changes have also led to some cultural and structural changes in the world.

According to Keesing(1981), the more complex a technological change is seen in a case, the complex the cultural developments and systems of a society change. Unlike the diffusion theory of cultural anthropology, this theoretical concept does not view that technological change comes from a certain culture. It is thus not an ethnocentric theory that focuses on one particular society. The theory works from a general perspective and is applicable in any society. Technological change in this case is seen to be the most important factor when determining the cultural spread of ideas and other principles. The major factors that shape the culture of a society include their environmental and technological conditions. People with similar environmental challenges are thought to seek the same technological solutions to solve some of these problems.

As a result, such societies tend to have similar social structures and run parallel political structures too. The emphasis of energy and technological changes de-emphasizes the need for ideals and the beliefs of a community. Julian Steward was also a major contributor to the theory since he argued that culture did not follow a single line of development. One of the major issues that Steward had with the other theories is that he believed no single theory could explain the evolution of human beings. He also noted that technology and economics were some of the major factors that influenced cultural change in a society. Other secondary factors that had a large impact on the cultures of societies included ideologies, political systems and the religious beliefs of the people. He believed that each of these factors made a significant contribution to the direction which the culture of the humans moves toward.

This theory explains some of the fundamental factors that impact the culture of people and how these factors inhibit change among societies. White offers a unilateral approach to the theory where technological change brought about by the use of energy influences the cultures of communities across the world. Steward provides a multi-lineal approach where some factors such as technology and economics, among others, have a significant impact on the cultures of society.

Literature Review

A variety of empirical studies have been done to substantiate some of the theoretical concepts behind the theory of diffusion and neo-evolutionism. one of the major studies that have been carried out seeks to understand the impact of one culture if introduced to another culture. The pitting up of two cultures found out that diffusion was not an automatic process that happened instantly (Stahl, 1994). It was found that the spread of culture in a host society presented different results than the explanations given by the theories. Stahl (1994) posits that one of the significant findings is that the borrowed elements of a new culture that is introduced into a host society will always go through some altercations. The norms and ideologies believed by one community may undergo some little or significant change when introduced to another society.

The propensity of a community to borrow some cultural aspects of another community depends on the extent to which this host community can incorporate some of the practices or beliefs (Stahl, 1994). It is thus imperative to understand that a society does not borrow everything that is presented to them but only pick certain aspects that they can integrate with their own cultures. The elements that are significantly alien to the host community or those that go against the religion of such a community are most likely to get rejected than to be refined. Such communities still hold pride in some of their cultural and religious beliefs and it may be quite hard to convince them to change such views. According to Stahl (1994), the acceptance of any cultural element on the part of the host will depend on the utility of the element to the borrower. Communities that also have a past of borrowing are more likely to borrow in the future than those that don't.

Steward (1972) carried out a study to understand some of the elements of cultural change in a society. He called this shift the cultural ecology. This form of neo-evolutionism argues that culture is an adaptation of humans to their environment (Steward, 1972). This study found that there are a variety of regularities that are found across different cultures across the world. However, Steward (1972) unlike the other scholars found that these regularities are not universal and are not progressive to all societies.

Scupin and DeCorse (2012) argue that one of the major shortcomings of the diffusion theory and some of its studies is that they focus on the ethnocentric ideology by demonstrating that other societies are better than their counterparts. These studies reveal that Western nations are some of the major cultural centers where diffusion started (Scupin & DeCorse, 2012). Many people link this as a form of bias to the non-western countries despite Egypt being found to be a fundamental cultural centre where ancient civilization is thought to have arose. The scope of such studies also presented a major shortcoming for the researchers. Since they could only pit two cultures with each other, the studies do not have the capacity and the ability to have a global outlook.

Another shortcoming presented by these studies is that there is little literature and studies that have been carried to investigate the matter (Kottak, 2011). Most of the research was done a long time ago and do not portray the real picture as things stand currently. The works of Perry and Smith, under the diffusion theory, are no longer considered to be valid since they are theoretical concepts that have no empirical data to back up such findings (Spiro, 1986).

A variety of studies may be conducted currently to understand some of the theories that govern cultural anthropology. One of the biggest problems with cultural anthropology that Steward (1972) highlights about cultural anthropology is that it cannot be explained using one theory. It would thus be imperative if some approaches are carried out to demonstrate the effect of culture on human behavior. It would also be enlightening to research on societies that have come into contact for an extended period but have not exchanged their cultures and some of the theories behind this. A future study can be conducted to research the impact of energy use on the current generation. Energy is quite an abundant resource in the current times and it may be safe to conclude that humans are no longer expected to use other sources of energy since there is sufficient energy. A study that analyses some of the future expectations of the Neo-evolutionism theory would be valuable in highlighting the credibility of the argument.

Relation to Event Studies

When hosting or managing an event, it is important to understand some of the social and cultural dynamics surrounding such an event and the impact on the success of the event. For example, when hosting a religious event, it would be prudent to comprehend how the different cultures among the different religion would affect the event. It would be advisable not to prepare pork in an event that will have both Muslims and Christians. As much as people from these two religions may tolerate the other's practices and beliefs, a successful event would have to consider the impact of culture.

One may also be hosting a multi-cultural event where people from many cultures will be invited. In such a case, it is imperative to understand each of the culture that is invited and some of the issues that they consider to be unacceptable. One of the findings of Stahl (1994) was that a host community was likely to reject beliefs that contravened their fundamental ideologies. The study of festivals and events are likely to help understand the social, economic and cultural aspects of a particular community (Van der Wagen, 2001). Farber (1983) asserts that a good event manager may be able to transform the cultural aspect of society into some form of entertainment that can be organized into a festival. This is especially possible in instances where tourists are ready to pay so as to see a particular ritual or culture of a community Farber (1983). Event managers can thus play a crucial role in preserving the culture of an individual society if they organize and encourage them to participate in these rituals or festivals that bring economic prosperity to the community.

Conclusion

The paper discusses some of the important theoretical concepts of cultural anthropology. The diffusionism theory which purports that culture is spread from one society to another when a community introduces its ideals, belief and practices to a host community. This theory is propagated by the British and the German school of thought. The British school of thought believes that Egypt is the central cultural cluster where civilization emerged. The German school of thought assumes the existence of some cultural centers spread across the world. This theory is, however, supported theoretically and there lacks empirical evidence to support its arguments. Neo-evolutionism is a theory explaining that culture changes as the use of energy increases in the society. This approach looks at the advancement of technology and its subsequent impact on culture across the world. From the agrarian revolution to the industrial revolution, the intake of energy has increased in the world and so has the culture changed. A variety of studies are explored and some of their shortcomings are also pointed. The paper also discusses the link between culture and the events field.