ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology is comparatively a new subject, and the origin and growth of the subject has taken place through centuries. T. K. Penniman’s in his book ‘Hundred Years of Anthropology‘ (1935) classifies the development of anthropology into four periods are discussed below:
1. Formulatory period (before 1835):
This is the first and longest period in the history of Anthropology. It extends from the time of the Greek historians, philosophers and naturalists.
a. Penniman considers Herodotus (484-425 BC) as the first anthropologist. He is also considered as the father of Greek Ethnography. He collected a large number of facts about peoples in different cultural stages. He not only talked about the origin of culture, but also described the spoken language, physical types, material culture, marriage and divorce, social laws customs etc.
b. Protagoras (480-410 BC) is another Greek philosopher who has contributed to the knowledge about human beings and culture. In his opinion “man is the measure of all things”. He was the first to propose the theory of relativism. He also introduced the evolutionary scheme, which explains how different social traits come into existence.
c. Socrates (470-399 BC) was of the opinion that every society is guided by certain universal values. He mainly put forwarded the philosophical aspect of social thinking.
d. Plato (428 – 348 BC), another Greek thinker proposed the ideas about state, marriage, education, etc. According to him, humans outside social control, are but animals and it is really the society that makes the individual, a social being.
e. Like Plato, Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) also proposed his view of the state and the humans. He had clearly understood the difference between functional and structural similarities. This is clear from the fact that he classified bats with the mammals and not with the birds and the whales with the mammals and not with the fishes. Aristotle believed that the state determines the behaviour of humans. Without law and justice, humans would be the worst of all animals and he also proposed that human being is a social animal.
In the medieval period, various travelers and explorers wrote details about the people they encountered. Among these, Marco-polo (1224-1313) and Vasco-Da-Gama (1397-1499) contributed a lot towards the enrichment of knowledge on Anthropology.
During the 17th century, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes formulated different theories for the study of society. John Lock provided the metaphysical foundation upon which the Anthropologist formulated their formal definition of culture. German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) wrote the book Anthropology in 1789 suggesting the animal origin of man and concluded that human knowledge comes from pre-human condition.
There was a lot of curiosity to learn about the different races of human kind during the 16th century. Demonstration of blood circulation by William Harvey in 1628, and the discovery of microscope by Leeuwenhoek opened a new world of study. Vesalius had made an attempt to compare human being with ape. He also tried to dissect the human body. In 1735, Carl Linnaeus published his book ‘Systema Naturae’ where in he has clearly mentioned about the inclusion of human in the Zoological classification.
During 16th and 17th centuries, Christian missionaries travelled all around the world for the spread of Christian ideology and conversion of people into Christianity. They studied the culture of native people to make their attempt of conversion easy. During the period of colonization British administrators conducted many studies on native people to make their administration easy. Edgar Thurston, (Castes and Tribes of India) William Crook (Tribes and Castes of the North Western Provinces), Verrier Elwin (Philosophy of NEFA) and John Russel made significant contributions in Anthropology by conducting various studies on the culture of different groups in India.
2. Convergent Period (1835-1859):
During this period, divergent views about the origin of biological and social aspects of human being were expressed by scholars of different countries. Among these, the contribution of Karl Marx (1818–1883), Charles Lyell (1797–1895), and of William Smith (1769–1839) are important. Marx accepted the dialectical process as the moving power of history. In the field of Archaeology, Boucher Deperthe’s discoveries of flint implements at Abbeville in 1838 and 1846, Dr. Rigollet’s discovery at Saint Acheul in 1854 are some of the new developments. Neanderthal’s discovery at Dusseldorf in 1857 gave a new outlook about human evolution. James Prichard classified and systematized the facts about races of humankind in his book The Natural History of Man in 1833 and Physical History of Man in 1836. He proposed the differences of colour, hair, stature and form and examined the criteria of racial classification. The convergence of all these ideas was completed with the publication of Charles Darwin’s book The Origin of Species (1859). In this book, he proposed his theory of organic evolution popularly known as ‘Darwinism’. With the publication of this book, physical evolution of human being based on scientific investigation was established. Thus, diversities of arguments expressed about origin of human being and society came to an end with the publication of Origin of Species.
3. Constructive Period (1859–1900):
During this period Anthropology started as an independent discipline in many universities. A Department of Anthropology was started in Oxford University in 1884 and Cambridge University in 1900. Scientific researches and publications by scholars like E. B. Tylor, James Frazer, Henry Maine, and L. H. Morgan, came out during this period. Different branches of anthropology like ethnology, pre-history, social anthropology and physical anthropology were also evolved.
Apart from England, Germany and USA, anthropological researches had flourished in France and some other countries as well. Contributions of Emile Durkhiem in France helped to popularize Anthropology in France. Some important journals like ‘American Journal of Folklore’, ‘Bulletin of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland’ (now known as ‘Man’) etc. were also started during this period. Large number of anthropological articles was published in these journals. Colonial administrators had also published their reports and papers in this journal. The researches done by British officers like Edgar Thurston, Russel, and others facilitated the growth of anthropological tradition in India.
4. Critical Period (1900 onwards):
Penniman used the term ‘critical’ to denote this period because of the crucial contribution made to the development of Anthropology during this period. Some significant developments had also marked this period. The first chair of social anthropology was started in 1908 in the University of Liverpool in Britain. It was chaired by Sir James Frazer. The first Anthropology department in India was started in the University of Calcutta in 1920. In 1919, Social anthropology had been introduced as a subject in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bombay.
During this period, different schools of thought in anthropology were founded. Functional school of thought, structural school of thought, school of diffusion, and culture and personality school are prominent among them. Authors of this period specialized in theorizing the concepts, definitions and different aspects of culture. For instance, B. K. Malinowski, based on his field expedition among the Trobriand Islanders proposed his idea of Functionalism. Radcliffe Brown, based on his study of the Andaman Islanders established his theory of Social Structure during this period. Similarly, the American scholars such as A. L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Clark Wissler played their own role in shaping the destiny of world anthropology.
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