Important Anthropologists

1. Important Anthropologists (Review)

2. Margaret Mead • American (1901-78) • Studied Samoan culture vs American culture • Concluded that individuals personality largely related to culture • Studied gender roles in different cultures and believed they are not universal

3. Ruth Benedict • American cultural anthropologist. Studied natives • Studied cultural influences (ex religion) in shaping human behaviour • Concluded that cultural was the sum of all the personality types within it

4. Franz Boas • German-American (1858-1942) • Focused on the language and culture of American Natives • Supported keeping notes or records of findings (so others could see where your conclusions are drawn from) and stressed scientific research methods • Ethnology- the study of origins, similarities and differences between races and cultures

5. Bronislaw Malinowski • Polish-English (1884–1942) social anthropologist and worked with people in New Guinea • Functionalist • Studied social organization in different societies • He rejected hierarchal beliefs (one culture superior to another)… which was common at the time • Role of anthropologist to explain, not judge

6. Raymond Dart • Australian Physical anthropologist (1893-1988) • Examined fossils and other remains to learn about early human evolutionary development • 1924 found skull which he believed to be the transitional stage between apes and humans (australopithecus= meaning southern ape)

7. Claude Levi-Strauss • Belgium-French cultural anthropologist (1908-2009) • Studied myths in different cultures and “supernatural powers” beyond human control • Believed that what people believe in important to understanding how they act • Studied how tribal behaviour and law codes reflected universal thought patterns • Did demonstrate that each culture also had taboo behaviours (ex incest)

8. Konrad Lorenz • Austrian (1903-1989) • Founder of ethology (comparing biology and behaviour of animals) • Imprinting- ducks would adopt the first moving thing they saw as a parent… studied the affects of different types of parental figures • Also studies human aggression and violence- believed it to be partially instinctive… left over from primal need when hunting for food was needed • Believed that our aggression could be focused constructively

9. The Leakeys • Louis, Mary and their son Richard (1944)- are British physical anthropologists • Reconstructed a series of ancient human civilizations dating from 100 000 to over 2 million years ago • Discovered australopithecus and homo habilis • Experimented with stone-age tools to find out how ancient peoples used them • Recruited others (Fossey, Goodall) to study primates in an attempt to understand beginnings of human civilization

10. Dian Fossey • American anthropologist (1938-1985) • Studied the mountain gorilla tribe of Rwanda (spent 19 years living with animals) • She imitated their habits and sounds with made primates accept her into their society • Gorillas are a highly structures social system • They are affectionate towards family members and aggressive towards outsiders

11. Jane Goodal • English primotologist (1934) • Funded by National Geographic • Since the mid 1960s spends most of her time observing and recording the behaviour of chimpanzees • Eventually won over their trust and accepted into their society, living amongst them • Chimps have tools (sticks for ants), not strictly vegetarian (sometimes they kill a member and eat them) • Have a highly structured society- an alpha male with supremacy which gave him the right to mate with all the females. The remaining where not allowed to mate until another took alpha position… then that other ape was treated with respect (like a grandparent) • Concludes that early human structure must have been very similar based on aggression and intimidation. Originally vegetarian, we became meat eaters once we learned to cooperate with hunting

12. Jane Goodall http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/specials/in-the-field-specials/jane-goodall-retrospective/