Anthropology is the study of cultures, using the qualitative observatory method to understand humans (Barrett, 2009). Originated from the Greek, Anthropology, “Anthropos” means humans and “logos” mean study, is defined as the study of human or the science of humanity (Barnard, 2000), ranging from biological evolution to social and cultural development. Despite being the inauguration of different branches and subfields in anthropology over time, there are four main branches of anthropology (Haviland, Prins, Walrath & McBride, 2013), physical or biological anthropology, social or cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology.

A theory is defined as a logical set of imaginary, intangible and sensible principles that shape the structure and orientation of a field of inquiry (Hendriksen & Van Breda, 1992). Since theories work as the basic building blocks of every discipline, multiple theories, in anthropology also have been developed so far. Some of them have been depreciated while others are still fresh. Some of the most common theories of anthropology are functionalism, structuralism, diffusionism, and evolutionism.

Functionalism

Functionalism, developed in the early twentieth century, is the reaction of the diffusionism and evolutionary theory of the late nineteenth century. Functionalist compares the society with a living body to study it. A society has different institutions, just like a living body, that perform several functions individually to run the society as the whole (Langness, 2005).

The functionalism is divided into two main subcategories bio-cultural functionalism and structural functionalism. In bio-cultural functionalism, Malinowski proposed that persons have psychological needs that are fulfilled by institutions. Ember and Peregrine (2011) defined this very theory of Malinowski as “all cultural traits serve the needs of individuals in a society; that is, they satisfy some basic or derived needs of the members of a group”. While doing his research on Trobriand Island, he found that those peoples have a firm belief in magic and in case of insecurity they rely on magic to psychologically satisfy themselves. Malinowski hence resulted that an individual has both psychological and physiological needs and to satisfy them, customs, tradition and cultural institutions exist (Scupin and DeCorse, 2012).

The second version of functionalism, known as structural functionalism, was developed by Radcilffe-Brown. Instead of taking biological needs, he focused primarily on the social structure, especially how the society works. He proposed that a society is just a system of relationships, which keeps up itself through cybernetic response. Whereas institutions are the logical part of those relationships (Mahmud, 2008) and a society has multiple institutions that ensure the harmony of the society. Radcliffe-Brown measured individual unrelated unlike Malinowski’s emphasis on them (Goldschmidt, 1996).

In my opinion, the functionalism is a theory that revolves around the basic human psychology of needs. We human being, as social animals, need others to thrive and survive in the world. To fulfil our needs and to answer our psychological questions cultures and societies were born.

Structuralism

The second theory of anthropology is structuralism that was developed by Claude Levi-Strauss in 1972. Structuralism is the framework that has its own perceptive. Things have to be seen in a larger perspective as they are part of a greater structure, not individually in separation. Since they are the part of a greater structure, therefore, the theory is given the name of structuralism (Barry, 2009). The theory of structuralism actually proposed that human thoughts are the ones that actually structured the culture. And cultures are composed of different hidden traits, like languages, that despite being hidden govern the behaviour of the individuals of the society. The structuralist therefore tries to recognize the fundamental importance of human thoughts as needed in cultures.

In short, the theory of structuralism, based on the Gestalt School of Psychology, i.e. the whole is better than the part, highlights that the basics of the culture must be recognized in the context with the whole structure (Rubel, Paula, and Rosman, A., 1996).

From the definitions about the theory of structuralism, it is clear that, like the functionalism, the theory of structuralism is also based on the basic human psychology. But unlike functionalism, human thoughts are the one that develops or structures a society.

Evolutionism

Based on the theory of evolution of Charles Drawin’s, evolutionism is one of the theories of anthropology. As the species grows into complexity over time so does the society. Herbert Spencer uses this theory to describe the steps and process for the growth of the culture. This concept of Spencer is beautifully described by Richard Münch (1994, p.35). “He combined the philosophical utilitarianism of his British compatriots Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill with the organicism and evolutionism blossoming in his own days because of the striking success of Darwin’s evolutionary theory in biology”. This theory, regardless of its’ blooming in the life of Spencer, got criticisms from the modern scholars and collapsed, just like the evolutionary theory, shortly after his death.

The British anthropologists Tylor along with Morgan of America today are known as the founders of the evolutionism. They coined the theory of unilineal evolution in society. According to them the society always grows in a single direction and is passed through different stages like the civilization, the barbarism and the savagery (Scupin & DeCorse, 2012).

Instead of defining the beginning of the society or how the cultures have developed the theory of evolution talks about how the society thrives or grow. Since a culture is a complex structure of multiple institutions which grow to satisfy human need, it is needed to have a large number of institutions in the culture as the society goes bigger and bigger, that is where the theory of evolution comes handy.

Diffusionism

Defined as the diffusion of the customs, ritual, and practices from one society or culture to another one (Haviland, et.al. 2013), diffusionism is one of the modern theories of anthropology. There are two main schools of thoughts in diffusionism, the British and the German. Both schools of diffusionism believe in the creativeness of people. Diffusionists thought that People, instead of developing ideas for themselves, choose to scrounge the inventions from other societies (Ember, et.al. 2011).

The main difference between the two is that the British school of thought believes that all the cultures are originated from a single civilization of Egypt. To justify why some cultures lack the sign of Egyptian culture, they coined the idea of cultural degeneration (Scupin & DeCorse, 2012). On the other hand, the German gives some more space by adding more than multiple cultures in their circles of origin. “This German word for this theory of diffusionism is “Kulturkreise” that literary means cultural circles” (Mohamad, Mahboob, Mustari, &Syafika, 2014).

Another modern day school of diffusionism is the American. They think that some alteration is always there in the receiving culture. “The diffusionists also faced a lot of criticism” (Mohamad et al., 2014) like other theorists of anthropology.

Diffusionism is the theory that defines why we have common rituals and customs in our society and how the cultures share the same traits. In my opinion, societies try to copy other ones when they saw them blooming, or simply they duplicate only that customs and rituals that are beneficial for them. But this is not in all cases when the cultures have a similarity that’s why, in my opinion; the theory of diffusionism has its back draws or loopholes in it.

References

Barnard, A. (2000). History and Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Barrett, S. (2009). Anthropology: A Student’s Guide to Theory and Method (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press.

Barry, P. (2009). Beginning theory: An Introduction to the Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Ember, C., Ember, M., & Peregrine, P. (2011). Anthropology (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Goldschmidt, W. (1996). Functionalism. In Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (1st ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Haviland, W., Prins, H., Walrath, D., & McBride, B. (2013). Anthropology: The Human Challenge (14th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Hendriksen, E., & Van Breda, M. (1992). Accounting theory. Chicago: Richard D. Irwin.

Langness, L. (2005). The study of culture. Novato, Calif: Chandler & Sharp.

Mahmud, S. (2008). Socio-cultural Anthropology: A Review of the Major Schools of Thought. Social Science Review, 25(2), 75-92.

Mohamad D. N., Mahboob H. D., Mustari, S., & SyafikaR. N. (2014). An Overview of the Anthropological Theories. International Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 4(10), 155-165.

Münch, R. (1994). Sociological theory: From the 1850s to the 1920s. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers.

Rubel, Paul, A. and Rosman, A. (1996). In Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (1st ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Scupin, R., &DeCorse, C. (2012). Anthropology: A Global Perspective (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.