WEEK 4

EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Social anthropology is a science and to know this fact, it is necessary to understand what is science. Some begin to consider a particular subject matter to be science as chemistry or engineering etc. common people distinguish between science and art in this very sense.

Scientific method is a systematic study of a subject matter within a limited scope. This method requires great patience, courage, hard labour, constructive imagination and objectivity. No man can utilize scientific system without a scientific notion, before starting work on a scientific system; a research scholar should minutely define the problem which is the subject of his research. The clearer is the definition the easier shall be the work of research. Main steps of scientific method are given below:
1. Observation: The first step in scientific system is to observe the subject matter of research minutely and carefully. This observation often needs the help of the instruments. These instruments must be exact.
2. Recording: The second step needed in scientific system is to record this observation carefully. An impartial objectivity is very essential in doing it.
3. Classification: Then the classification and organization of the collected material will have to be done. It is a very serious step. In the words of Karl Pearson, “The classification of facts, the recognition of their sequence and relative significance is the function of science”. The classification is done inn such a way that a relation and semblance in the scattered elements may be seen. Thus the subject matter is arranged on logical grounds.
School of Distance Education
Social Anthropology Page11
4. Generalisation: the fourth step in a scientific system is to find a common rule or to generalize on the basis of semblance in the classified matter. This common rule is called a scientific principle. In the words of MacIver “such a law is simply another name for a carefully described and uniformly recurring sequence of conditions”.
5. Verification: A scientific system does not stop after making generalizations. The verification of these generalizations is also necessary. Scientific principles can be verified and such a verification is their necessary condition without which they cannot be called scientific.



Social Anthropology as a science
An examination of social anthropology, on the basis of the aforesaid six rudiments, reveals that social anthropology possesses all the essential elements of a science.
1. Social anthropology makes use of scientific method: All methods of social anthropology are scientific. They make use of scientific techniques like schedule,, participant observation, historical procedure and case history, etc. First of all, they gather facts through observation. Then they are recorded in an orderly form. Afterwards this matter is classified and in the end, common principles are made on the basis of accepted facts. The validity of these principles are examined.
2. Social anthropology is factual: Social anthropology is a comparative study of the facts about social events, relations and reactions. Participant observation is its main method. In this method an anthropologist goes to live among those people whom he has to study. Thus his study is in accordance with facts.
3. The principles of social anthropology are universal: the rules of social anthropology are proved in all countries so long as the circumstances are the same; there is no chance of an exception in them.
4. The principles of social anthropology are veridical: thus the principles of social anthropology always prove true on verification and even on re-verification. Their validity can be verified b anybody and at any time.
5. Social anthropology defines cause effect relations: social anthropology discovers cause-effect relations in social facts, events and relations, etc. for example, an anthropologist, after his comparative study of various cultures tells us about life style to be found in a particular culture and the extent to which the life styles undergo a change with culture changes. Thus, social anthropology answers ‘what’ along with ‘how’.
6. Social anthropology can predict : On the basis of cause-effect relationship, social anthropologist can guess the future and can predict about social reactions and events, etc. he can decide ‘what will be’ on the basis of ‘what is’ after knowing the cause-effect relations.
For example, by observing cultural change, he can predict about a change of life pattern.
It is clear from the aforesaid discussion of the nature of social anthropology that social anthropology is a science. It contains an abstract form of thoughts. Scientific study is possible only through abstract forms. The rules of these abstract forms decide the reactions of concrete things. In this way the rules of social anthropology are universal and veridical in practical shape. Social anthropology has brought revolutionary change in the notions of psychologists, sociologists, politicians and social reformers, has given a hope for organization of human society in future and has presented useful suggestions to decide pattern of its organization
.
Aims of social anthropology
The primary aim of social anthropology is to gather information about human nature. Human nature is a controversial subject. Different scholars have laid emphasis upon different aspects of human nature. The primitive man and society present human nature in its most rudimentary and raw form. Therefore their study is useful for the understanding of the basic essentials of human nature without much influence of culture upon them.
Another aim of social anthropology is the study of the processes and results of cultural contacts. Most of the primitive societies are gradually coming in contact of more developed cultures. This contact is gradually creating social, religious, economic and political problems and disorganization. The administrators and the social planners require the help of social anthropologists in the understanding of processes and consequences of cultural contacts. According to the Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain and Ireland the most important aims of social anthropology are the following:
1. The study of primitive culture in its present form.
2. The study of cultural contact and specific processes.
This includes exploration of the influences of outer groups creating cultural changes.
3. Reconstruction of social history.
4. Search for universally valid social laws.

Thus the chief aim of social anthropology is to study human society, social institutions, culture, and kinship bonds in their most elementary form. Besides being useful for the understanding of present day human societies, it aids to our knowledge of human history as well as the nature of social institutions. It is hence that social anthropology is closely related to history and archeology.
Utility of the study of primitive societies
The primary object of social anthropology is to understand primitive people, the cultures they have created and the social systems in which they live and act.”  Thus social anthropology primarily concentrates on the study of primitive societies.
Ralph Piddington points out the following characteristics of primitive societies:
1. The primary trait of primitive societies is illiteracy and the absence of writing or literature.
2. The primitive societies have social organization based upon small groups such as clans, tribes totems, etc.
3. The technological level of development is very low.
4. The social relationships based upon locality and blood relationships are the most important.
5. There is generally an absence of economic specialization and too much division of labour. Thus the primitive societies are little communities. Robert Redfield has called it, “the folk society”. According to him the absence of systematic art, science and theology is also characteristics of primitive societies.

Appearance of anthropology as a discipline
Man and his surroundings have always been a perennial source of wonder and reflection for himself. This consciousness instigated him in searching the realities. Therefore, it is futile to talk about the beginning of the study of man. For the genesis of systematic thinking we usually refer back to the classical Greek Civilization especially to the writings of Herodotus in fifth century B.C. Not only Herodotus, many other Greek and Roman historians namely Socrates, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato, etc. are considered as pioneer social thinkers. They first expressed their significant interest in man’s affairs considering the perspective of Universe. Their approach was purely humanistic and they postulated a social theory from organismic point of view.
The emergence of anthropology as a distinct discipline occurred only recently in nineteenth century. Sydney Slotkin in his book ‘Readings in early Anthropology’ traced the history of many anthropological sub-disciplines form seventeenth and eighteenth century. But he also agreed that the real professional interest of the subject did not appear until nineteenth century. The unusual peoples and their unknown way of life evoked interest of navigators and other explorers. As a result in 1800 a society named as ‘Observers if Man’ was founded in ParisSchool of Distance Education
by the union of naturalists and medical-men. This society promoted the study of natural history by providing guidance to the travelers and explorers of far places. But meanwhile, for the long series of Napoleonic wars, the commerce and the foreign travel were interrupted.
In the conclusion,
Anthropology is therefore considered as the product of scientific developments in western world. The tradition of social philosophies continued till the advent of industrialization in west and it emerged as a distinct discipline in the nineteenth century; Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) perhaps boosted the zeal of all scientists in different fields. Darwin showed that life had evolved from the unicellular organism and went to the way of complex multicellular organism, through the process of evolution. This idea not only opened the new avenues for zoology, anatomy, physiology, philology, palaeontology, archaeology and geology; it also accelerated the pace of socio-cultural studies. Being influenced by Darwin, a group of intellectual namely Spencer, Morgan, Tylor reached to the conclusion that evolution did not operate only in case of physical aspect of mankind, but also in cultural life. Accordingly, the year 1859 may be taken as the date of birth of anthropology; R.R. Marret (1912) termed anthropology as ‘child of Darwin’