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8 - From Relativism to Cognitive Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2021

Alan Barnard
Alan Barnard
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Summary

The next debate to emerge concerned the idea of relativism. This was central to the Boasian vision of anthropology. Franz Boas believed that no culture is superior to any other, and his anthropology emphasized this. This idea was taken up by his students, including Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead. Opposing this we have Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, who believed that some cultures are superior to others. Another key figure was Benjamin Lee Whorf. His linguistic relativism sought to explain that languages classify differently. This is also apparent in kinship, where different categorizations might imply different ways of thinking.

Keywords

relativismculture and personalitycognitive science structuralismFerdinand de SaussureClaude Lévi-Strausspattern
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History and Theory in Anthropology , pp. 103 - 124
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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