Diffusionism and the American School of Historical Ethnology

Bibliographic Data

ID2196205
AuthorsAlexander Goldenweiser (corresponding author)
Year1925
Volume31
Issue1
Pages19-38
Publication date1925-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/213819
OpenAlexW1966844076
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Anti-evolutionary trend of modern ethnology: Modern research reveals the course of culture to be complex and varied rather than uniform; gradual at times but cataclysmic and revolutionary at others; progressive here and there, but only too often retrogressive and most of the time indifferent. Graebner and his school: Cultural contact to him is the problem of ethnology. In estimating cultural similarities he uses the quantitative and qualitative criteria which, he believes, apply no matter what the distance between the two cultural areas. Thus he comes to build up his hypothetical culture areas and cultural waves. Graebner was taken to task by critics for overestimating our ability to discern and evaluate cultural similarities, for his "mechanical" view of culture, and for his disregard of geographico-historical probabilities. W. H. R. Rivers' contribution: Rivers' position is superior to Graebner's in so far as he gives due weight to psychological factors, but he also is subject to the criticism of using the theory of diffusion as a dogmatic postulate, not a heuristic tool. "The Archaic Civilization" of G. Elliot Smith and W. J. Perry: In the hands of Elliot Smith and Perry the theory of diffusion becomes a reductio ad absurdum of the "historical" approach. American School of Historical Ethnology: Criticisms by Boas and his disciples of the theory of social evolution. Critical use of diffusion in restricted areas. Revision of the environmentalist theory. The theory of convergence. The concepts of culture areas, marginal areas, and culture centers

Archaeology · Art · Civilization · Convergence (economics · Criticism · Culture theory · Epistemology · Ethnology · Literature · Reductio ad absurdum · Sociology · Subject (documents · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy

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