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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page research paper that examines various theoretical perspectives in anthropology. Views summarized include those of Roy A. Rappaport, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Clifford Geertz, among others. Bibliography lists 9 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khculant.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
anthropologists focus on culture and the ways in which societies maintain solidarity and group identity. On the other hand, others focus on the ways that individuals interpret cultural rules, symbols
and regulations. The following survey of cultural anthropology examines some of the major theoretical positions in anthropology for how they approach questions of individual variation. Roy A. Rappaport Roy
A. Rappaport is credited with bringing the viewpoints of ecologically-oriented anthropologists together with those of structural functionalism, which has been referred to as "neofunctionalism" (McGrath, 2002). Rappaport view culture as
a function of the ecosystem, which translates into topics such as carrying capacity and energy expenditures having a central focus in his studies. His study of the Tsembaga Maring
people of New Guinea is considered to be one of the primary texts for this school of thought. The actually study group for Rappaports book consisted of roughly 200
people who lived in relatively isolated valleys. This native tribe practices animal husbandry with pigs as their primary resource (Rappaport, 1968). The pigs are slaughtered to pay "brideprice" and
also at the end of a war; therefore, it is crucial to this culture that the pig population should be kept at precisely the right numbers (Rappaport, 1968). This goal
is accomplished via a cycle of war, ritual slaughter of pigs and subsequent regrowth of the pig population. This cycle typically takes between ten and eleven years to complete.
Rappaport found a direct correlation between the belief that the sacrifice of the pigs was for their ancestors and the size and spatial spread of human and animal populations (1968).
As this illustrates, Rappaport was largely concerned with the way that symbolic ritual served as medium to support cultural paradigms. His focus was on the ecosystem as a
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