Key Theoretical Positions in Anthropology

Late 19th C First half 20th C Mid-20th C Late 20th C
  • Unilineal evolution
  • Diffusion
  • Historical particularism
  • Functionalism
  • Structural-functionalism
  • Cultural determinism
  • Culture & personality approach
  • Ethnoscience
  • Structuralism
  • Ecological anthropology
  • Cultural ecology
  • Multilinear evolutionism
  • Symbolic anthropology
  • Behavioural anthropology
  • Cultural materialism
  • Postmodernism

Lavenda, Robert H. and Emily A. Schultz
2000   Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. p.202.

Between truth and the search for truth, I opt for the second.
–Bernard Berenson, art historian (1865-1959)

Created 2001-03-19; last updated 2013-01-08