Diffusionism
Diffusionism as an anthropological school of thought, was an attempt to understand the nature of culture in terms of the origin of culture traits and their spread from one society to another. Versions of diffusionist thought included the conviction that all cultures originated from one culture center (heliocentric diffusion); the more reasonable view that cultures originated from a limited number of culture centers (culture circles); and finally the notion that each society is influenced by others but that the process of diffusion is both contingent and arbitrary.
Diffusion may be simply defined as the spread of a cultural item from its place of origin to other places (Titiev 1959:446). A more expanded definition depicts diffusion as the process by which discrete culture traits are transferred from one society to another, through migration, trade, war, or other contact.
Diffusionist research originated in the middle of the nineteenth century as a means of understanding the nature of the distribution of human culture across the world. By that time scholars had begun to study not only advanced cultures, but also cultures of nonliterate people (Beals and Hoijer 1959:664). Studying these very diverse cultures created the major issue of discerning how humans progressed from primeval conditions to superior states (Kuklick 1996:161). Among the major questions about this issue was whether human culture had evolved in a manner similar to biological evolution or whether culture spread from innovation centers by diffusion.
Franz Boas
Franz Boas (1858 – 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"
Among Boas' main contributions to anthropological thought was his rejection of the then popular evolutionary approaches to the study of culture, which saw all societies progressing through a set of hierarchic technological and cultural stages, with Western-European culture at the summit. Boas argued that culture developed historically through the interactions of groups of people and the diffusion of ideas, and that consequently there was no process towards continuously "higher" cultural forms. This insight led Boas to reject the "stage"-based organization of ethnological museums, instead preferring to order items on display based on the affinity and proximity of the cultural groups in question. Boas also introduced the ideology of cultural relativism which holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked as higher or lower, or better or more correct, but that all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture, and judge it according to their own culturally acquired norms. For Boas the object of anthropology was to understand the way in which culture conditioned people to understand and interact with the world in different ways, and to do this it was necessary to gain an understanding of the language and cultural practices of the people studied. By uniting the disciplines of archeology, the study of material culture and history, and physical anthropology, the study of variation in human anatomy, with ethnology, the study of cultural variation of customs and descriptive linguistics, the study of unwritten indigenous languages, Boas created the four field subdivision of anthropology which became prominent in American anthropology in the 20th century.
Strength
Boas is an important person with the logic of the understanding of the development of culture through the diffusionist perspective in anthropology. He empowered diffusionst interpretation in the study of culture by saying the culture goes ahead through expand and develop. Franz Boas became able to make establish the study of the relationship between human and culture in anthropology. Likewise he conducted the study of ethnic groups and their historical development process especially focused on their language, culture, traditions, magic, folk tales, art, song, dance, etc. Therefore he is also known as mythologist who determines the subject matter of anthropology. He conducted the study of physical growth and change of human beings. He used historical approach in anthropological study.
Weakness:
How much he emphasized the process of diffusion in the development of culture the much he became unable to the interrelated interpretation about the impact of geographical, environmental and ecological aspects in culture. He has not mentioned well about the condition of culture diffusion depends on the interaction of human beings. How much the culture differs in the course of time and how much culture does on changing with the lapse of time is also not mentioned well in his study.
Diffusionism as an anthropological school of thought, was an attempt to understand the nature of culture in terms of the origin of culture traits and their spread from one society to another. Versions of diffusionist thought included the conviction that all cultures originated from one culture center (heliocentric diffusion); the more reasonable view that cultures originated from a limited number of culture centers (culture circles); and finally the notion that each society is influenced by others but that the process of diffusion is both contingent and arbitrary.
Diffusion may be simply defined as the spread of a cultural item from its place of origin to other places (Titiev 1959:446). A more expanded definition depicts diffusion as the process by which discrete culture traits are transferred from one society to another, through migration, trade, war, or other contact.
Diffusionist research originated in the middle of the nineteenth century as a means of understanding the nature of the distribution of human culture across the world. By that time scholars had begun to study not only advanced cultures, but also cultures of nonliterate people (Beals and Hoijer 1959:664). Studying these very diverse cultures created the major issue of discerning how humans progressed from primeval conditions to superior states (Kuklick 1996:161). Among the major questions about this issue was whether human culture had evolved in a manner similar to biological evolution or whether culture spread from innovation centers by diffusion.
Franz Boas
Franz Boas (1858 – 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"
Among Boas' main contributions to anthropological thought was his rejection of the then popular evolutionary approaches to the study of culture, which saw all societies progressing through a set of hierarchic technological and cultural stages, with Western-European culture at the summit. Boas argued that culture developed historically through the interactions of groups of people and the diffusion of ideas, and that consequently there was no process towards continuously "higher" cultural forms. This insight led Boas to reject the "stage"-based organization of ethnological museums, instead preferring to order items on display based on the affinity and proximity of the cultural groups in question. Boas also introduced the ideology of cultural relativism which holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked as higher or lower, or better or more correct, but that all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture, and judge it according to their own culturally acquired norms. For Boas the object of anthropology was to understand the way in which culture conditioned people to understand and interact with the world in different ways, and to do this it was necessary to gain an understanding of the language and cultural practices of the people studied. By uniting the disciplines of archeology, the study of material culture and history, and physical anthropology, the study of variation in human anatomy, with ethnology, the study of cultural variation of customs and descriptive linguistics, the study of unwritten indigenous languages, Boas created the four field subdivision of anthropology which became prominent in American anthropology in the 20th century.
Strength
Boas is an important person with the logic of the understanding of the development of culture through the diffusionist perspective in anthropology. He empowered diffusionst interpretation in the study of culture by saying the culture goes ahead through expand and develop. Franz Boas became able to make establish the study of the relationship between human and culture in anthropology. Likewise he conducted the study of ethnic groups and their historical development process especially focused on their language, culture, traditions, magic, folk tales, art, song, dance, etc. Therefore he is also known as mythologist who determines the subject matter of anthropology. He conducted the study of physical growth and change of human beings. He used historical approach in anthropological study.
Weakness:
How much he emphasized the process of diffusion in the development of culture the much he became unable to the interrelated interpretation about the impact of geographical, environmental and ecological aspects in culture. He has not mentioned well about the condition of culture diffusion depends on the interaction of human beings. How much the culture differs in the course of time and how much culture does on changing with the lapse of time is also not mentioned well in his study.
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