Special Sub-Topic: Anthropological Theorists Click Here To Play: Anthropological Theorists

These 19th century theorists held that there was a biblical cause for societal variations.

Degenerationists. According to Degenerationism, prior to the destruction of the Tower of Babel all people were of one social group. Following God's destruction of the tower, the single human society split into various groups. Some degenerated, losing their "civilized" ways, and became savages. (not too PC I must say...)

John Locke was a proponent of this theory, especially popular in the 19th century, which states that all human beings start out in a primitive state, and are advancing towards a more advanced state.

Progressivism. John Locke proposed that the human mind was a blank slate, with knowledge and reason being derived from experience. As a result, individuals growing up in different societies would have varied experiences. This would explain the differences between human societies.

This 19th century theorist coined the term "survival of the fittest"

Spencer. Herbert Spencer was very interested in evolution, and applied Darwin's concepts to human societies. His organic analogy of human society linked biological and social evolution. Spencer considered Darwin's work as supporting his own, and it was Spencer, not Darwin as widely thought, that coined the famous term "survival of the fittest".

This evolutionist added "savagery, barbarism, and civilization" to the repertoire of anthropological terms.

Lewis Henry Morgan. Morgan believed there were universal evolutionary stages of cultural development marking the transition from primitive to complex. All societies, according to Morgan, progressed through savagry, barbarism, and civilization. Because of these beliefs, Morgan is considered to be a unilinear evolutionist.

This nephew of famed sociologist Emile Durkheim postulated that gift-giving in society reflects the society's underlying social structure:

Marcel Mauss. Gifts, according to Mauss, are material expressions of the social and behavioral rules that are inherent within a society. Gift exchanges forge and maintain social alliances, and increase social solidarity.

This man, deemed the father of American anthropology, pioneered a method of research known as Historical Particularism:

Franz Boas. Boas brought a rigorous approach to ethnographic fieldwork. He emphasized careful collection of ethnographic data and rejected comparisons between societies. He adamantly refuted unilinear evolutionist theory by clearly showing that it was possible for similar characteristics to come about through very different processes.

This functionalist believed that culture existed to satisfy seven basic needs of humans: nutrition, reproduction, comforts, safety, relaxation, growth, and movement.

Malinowski. Malinowski was concerned with how individuals satisfied their own basic needs within the constraints of their society. He believed that cultural institutions function to meet the needs of individuals in society.

This anthropologist belonged to the Culture and Personality school, and was greatly influenced by Gestalt psychology.

all entries are correct. All these anthropologists examined how humans acquired culture. As well, they looked at culture's relationship to individual personality. Three broad themes are apparent in the personality school: the relationship between culture and human nature (Mead), culture and individual personality (Benedict), and culture and a society's typical personality type (Kardiner).

Julian Steward labelled his study of multilinear evolution:

cultural ecology. Steward's cultural ecology is the examination of the cultural adaptations of humans to their environment. Culture is seen as an evolutionary adaptation to the environment.

This man almost single-handedly founded the modern field of structuralism:

Claude Levi-Strauss. Strauss proposed that anthropologists should not study how people categorize their world, but should look at the underlying patterns of human thought that produce these categories.