The Beginning of Anthropology An artifact of late 19th Century Western Civilization

The Beginning of Anthropology Shift in Weltanschauung from idea that human beings are “apart from nature” to the idea that we are “a part of nature.” Just a little shift in prepositions! Although to many, Charles Darwin exemplifies this shift…. Before Darwin’s Origin of Species, there was Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by Anonymous. A current book, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by James A. Secord, charts the Weltanschauung of the 19 th Century society in which evolutionary theory and the social and behavioral sciences began to develop in modern form.

The Beginning of Anthropology The Enlightenment Precursors John Locke ( ) George Berkeley ( ) idealism: nothing, including material objects, exists apart from perception; external objects are ultimately collections of ideas and sensations

The Beginning of Anthropology The Enlightenment Benjamin Franklin ( ) Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( ) Discourses on the Sciences and the Arts (1751) A Discourse upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind (1755) - known as the Second Discourse The Social Contract (1762)

The Beginning of Anthropology The Industrial Revolution Shift in production from animate energy to inanimate energy. Population increase….social transformations…..social unrest

The Beginning of Anthropology Other disciplines with similar origins: Sociology - Auguste Comte ; Emil Durkheim Economics - Adam Smith ( ) ; David Ricardo; Karl Marx Psychology - Wilhelm Wündt; Wm. James

Physical Cultural Primatology Study of primates Anthropometry Measurement of human physical characteristics Osteology Study of bone Ethnology Emphasizes CULTURE Ethnography Emphasizes culture Human Genetics Biological inheritance Social Anthropology Similar to Sociology Linguistics Study of Language Forensic Anthropology Applications to Law Archeology Interested in the Past