A Problem of Cultural Evolutionism In The Contemporary Anthropological Theorizing
A problem of cultural evolutionism can be considered as one of the main problems of anthropological theory, because it is related to the subject of anthropology as well as to its nature as a separate discipline. The origins of anthropological theory were closely related to the ideas of cultural evolutionism, which developed in the 19th century. According to the ideas of cultural evolutionism, the anthropological discipline focused on the study of human culture as a whole, on the basis of analysis of its different manifestations in time and space. At the same time, the development of anthropological theory in the 20th and the 21st centuries challenged the principles of cultural evolutionism as well as it challenged the traditional opinion toward the subject of anthropological discipline. Thus, according to a current level of the development of anthropological theory, the anthropology already cannot be considered as a holistic discipline, which studies the human culture as a whole on the basis of cultural evolutionist approach.
The Cultural Evolutionism and the Origins of Anthropological Theory
The ideas of the cultural evolutionism determined the origins of anthropological theory. First of all, the anthropology was founded as a discipline in the second half of the 19th century on the basis of ideas of the so called “classic evolutionism”, which was associated with the approach of Charles Darwin. The ideas of “classic evolutionism” or “biological evolutionism” of Charles Darwin influenced a creation of the theory of cultural evolutionism and determined the main ideas of this theory, because the ideas of cultural evolutionism copied and adapted the propositions of Charles Darwin about the variability of biological species as an evidence of biological evolution. According to modification of Charles Darwin’s theory in the theory of cultural evolutionism, the variability of cultures can be considered as an evidence of the cultural evolution of humanity. In the context of this approach, different cultures, which exist in different places of the world, represent different stages of cultural evolution of the humanity, which were preserved in these cultures. On the one hand, from the perspective of this approach, a study of different in space cultures was considered as equal to a study of different in time cultures, because they represented the stages of cultural evolution in time. On the other hand, from this perspective, the anthropology should study the human culture as a whole, because all stages of its evolution in the past preserved in the so called “primitive” cultures of the present times, while these cultures were not considered as independent cultures, but only as stages of general cultural evolution. In this context, the cultural evolutionist approach determined a foundation of the anthropology as a discipline which studies the human culture as a whole on the basis of study of remains of different stages of cultural evolution, which preserved in different cultures.
The Anti-Colonial Criticism of Anthropological Theory
The nature of anthropology as a discipline made it an object of anti-colonial criticism in the second …
