The “use and disuse” of anthropological theory
16
Tamara Sellers Bloomsburg University THE “USE AND DISUSE” OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY
description
The “use and disuse” of anthropological theory. Tamara Sellers Bloomsburg University. Research goals. Deconstruct canons and note diachronic trends and changes within and between them . - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of The “use and disuse” of anthropological theory
Tamara Sellers
Bloomsburg University
THE “USE AND DISUSE” OF
ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY
Deconstruct canons and note diachronic trends and changes within and between them.
Note trends of Anthropological thinkers and their overall relevancy to the discipline over time.
Understand the “use and disuse” of thinkers and their ideas.
Compare our theory textbook canon of anthropological thinkers to their presence in AnthroSource.
RESEARCH GOALS
Access AnthroSourceUse theorists from theory textbook as search terms.Keyword Search: Theorists’ last names.Collect data on how often:
Theorists are cited Their works are published Articles are relevant to the thinker or use their ideas.
Create Excel tables and graphs to illustrate findings.Create word clouds to show diachronic changes.
Research does not include ALL theorists, only those referenced in the textbook Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History.
Data includes the first 25 of 41 thinkers within the textbook.
METHODOLOGY
DIGGING THROUGH DATABASES
DIGGING DEEPER
KEYWORD SEARCH: RAW DATA
KEYWORDS FROM ANTHROSOURCE JOURNALS 1880-2013
*Word Cloud made with www.wordle.net
KEYWORD FREQUENCY (1880-2013)
KEYWORD FREQUENCY (2000-2013)
*Word Cloud made with www.wordle.net
Top Referenced Theorists (1880-2013) A. L. Kroeber: 211 Articles Margaret Mead: 160 Franz Boas: 121 Eric Wolf: 72 Leslie White: 71
Top Referenced Theorists (2000-2013) Franz Boas: 22 Articles Margaret Mead: 15 Eric Wolf: 10 Sherry B. Ortner: 10 Karl Marx: 7 Marcel Mauss: 7
RESEARCH RESULTS
*Images used with permission by F. Warner
Above: Keyword Frequency (1880-2013)
Right: Keyword Frequency (2000-2013)
*Word Clouds made with www.wordle.net
DISCUSSION Only Margaret Mead & Franz Boas continue to be as cited
today as often as in the past. Father and Mother of the discipline—popular figures
Levi-Strauss has a weak place in the AnthroSource canon.
Eric Wolf, Sherry Ortner, Marcel Mauss, Marx, Malinowski, and Weber occur most often after Mead and Boas 2000-2013.
Does our canon text book correspond to the canon AnthroSource?
KROEBER OCCURS OFTEN EARLIER IN THE CANON (MID-CENTURY) , BUT THEN NEARLY DISAPPEARS FROM THE CANON BY
1970.“DEAN OF AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY”
