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Evolutionism in cultural anthropology:

a critical history
Front Cover
1 Review
Westview Press, 2003 - Social Science - 322 pages
Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropologytraces the interaction of evolutionary thought and anthropological theory from Herbert Spencer to the twenty-first century. It is a focused examination of how the idea of evolution has continued to provide anthropology with a master principle around which a vast body of data can be organized and synthesized. Erudite and readable, and quoting extensively from early theorists (such as Edward Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, John McLennan, Henry Maine, and James Frazer) so that the reader might judge them on the basis of their own words, Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology is useful reading for courses in anthropological theory and the history of anthropology.
  

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Review: Evolutionism In Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History

User Review  - Rebecca Anderson - Goodreads

Really good book that takes a wonderful approach to Cultural Anthropology and how it came to be. I suggest this to anyone and everyone with any interest in anthro or history related subjects. Read full review

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Contents

The Early History of Evolutionism
1
The Reconstruction of Cultural Evolution
9
The Characteristics of Cultural Evolution
27
The Determinants of Cultural Evolution
39
AntiEvolutionism in the Ascendancy
75
Early Stages in the Reemergence of Evolutionism
99
Issues m Late Midcentury Evolutionism
127
Features of the Evolutionary Process
151
What Drives the Evolution of Culture?
185
Other Perspectives on Cultural Evolution
213
Elements of Evolutionary Formulations
229
Current Issues and Attitudes in
263
References Cited v
289
Index
313
Copyright

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Page 49 - THE laws of the phenomena of society are, and can be, nothing but the laws of the actions and passions of human beings united together in the social state. Men, however, in a state of society, are still men; their actions and passions are obedient to the laws of individual human nature.
Page 14 - On the whole it appears that wherever there are found elaborate arts, abstruse knowledge, complex institutions, these are results of gradual development from an earlier, simpler, and ruder state of life. No stage of civilization comes into existence spontaneously, but grows or is developed out of the stage before it. This is the great principle which every scholar must lay firm hold of, if he intends to understand either the world he lives in or the history of the past.
Page 51 - The sun illuminates the hills, while it is still below the horizon ; and truth is discovered by the highest minds a little before it becomes manifest to tne multitude. This is the extent of their superiority. They are the first to catch and reflect a light, which, without their assistance, must, in a short time, be visible to those who lie far beneath them.
Page 69 - There can be no doubt that a tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to give aid to each other and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes ; and this would be natural selection.
Page 28 - The theory of human degradation to explain the existence of savages and of barbarians is no longer tenable. It came in as a corollary from the Mosaic cosmogony, and was acquiesced in from a supposed necessity which no longer exists. As a theory, it is not only incapable of explaining the existence of savages, but it is without support in the facts of human experience.
Page 51 - Obscure as is the problem of the advance of civilisation, we can at least see that a nation which produced during a lengthened period the greatest number of highly intellectual, energetic, brave, patriotic, and benevolent men, would generally prevail over less favoured nations.
Page 11 - So far as those parts of man's doings are concerned, which neither have, nor need have, anything moral about them, so far the laws of him are calculable. There are laws for his digestion, and laws of the means by which his digestive organs are supplied with matter. But pass beyond them, and where are we ? In a world where it would be as easy to calculate men's actions by laws like those of positive philosophy as to measure the orbit of Neptune with a foot rule, or weigh Sirius in a grocer's scale.
Page 1 - The principle of Development involves also the existence of a latent germ of being — a capacity or potentiality striving to realize itself. This formal conception finds actual existence in Spirit; which has the History of the World for its theatre, its possession, and the sphere of its realization.
Page 63 - It is accordingly probable that the great epochs of human progress have been identified, more or less directly, with the enlargement of the sources of subsistence.
Page 57 - Ideas do not govern and overthrow the world : the world is governed or overthrown by feelings, to which ideas serve only as guides.

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References from web pages

Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History ...
In Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History, the person who is arguably, its current leading exponent presents a historical overview and ...
www.aesonline.org/ 3050

Blackwell Synergy - J Royal Anthropological Inst, Volume 12 Issue ...
Evolutionism in cultural anthropology: a critical history – Robert L. Carneiro. David Riches11University of St Andrews. 1University of St Andrews ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/ abs/ 10.1111/ j.1467-9655.2006.00303_37.x

ingentaconnect Evolutionism in cultural anthropology: a critical ...
Evolutionism in cultural anthropology: a critical history – Robert L. Carneiro. Author: Riches, David1. Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological ...
www.ingentaconnect.com/ content/ bpl/ jrai/ 2006/ 00000012/ 00000002/ art00049;jsessionid=2o7nbiidbpvem.alice?format=print

Briefly noted
brieflynoted. Robert Carneiro. Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,. 2003. 322 pp. $37 (paper). ISBN 0-8133-3766-6. ...
doi.wiley.com/ 10.1002/ jhbs.20204

Robert L. Carneiro - Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology
Selected Works. Nonfiction. Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology · The Muse of History and the Science of Culture. Quick Links. Authors Guild ...
rlcarneiro.com/ work1.htm

Journal of Biosocial Science 39:02 null
J.biosoc.Sci, (2007) 39, 319–320. Book reviews. Sexual Conflict. By Göran Arnqvist & Locke Rowe. Pp. 360. (Princeton University. Press, New Jersey, 2005. ...
journals.cambridge.org/ production/ action/ cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=730084

Senior Seminar in Anthropology
D. La Lone. Senior Seminar in Anthropology. Spring 2005. Evolution: A Unifying Concept in Anthropology’s Past and Future. Capstones of Knowledge (And Why It ...
www.depauw.edu/ acad/ socanthro/ Syllabi_New/ Spring%2005/ LaLone%20spring05/ LaLone%20SS%20Anth%20452%20spring05.doc

Talk:Evolutionism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I refer you, for example, to Robert Carneiro's Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History. Furthermore, according to Robert Carneiro, ...
en.wikipedia.org/ ?title=Talk:Evolutionism

IN SEARCH OF HOW SOCIETIES WORK: Tribes -- The First and Forever Form
Carneiro’s Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History (2003), Jared. Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997), ...
rand.org/ pubs/ working_papers/ 2007/ RAND_WR433.pdf

plantillas PS.T65
Responsable de la Sección: Carmen Alcrudo. Dirige: José Miguel Alcrudo. Nº 523. 3 diciembre 2001. Fundada en 1945. PÓRTICO. Antropología 18. Semanal ...
www.porticolibrerias.es/ c/ PS523ANT.pdf

About the author (2003)

Robert L. Carneiro Curator of South American Ethnology, American Museum of Natural History, and adjunct professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. His field work has been among the Kuikuru of central Brazil, the Amahuaca of eastern Peru, and the Yanomamo of southern Venezuela.

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