Franz Boas

-Father of Modern Anthropology

-Fought against racist views

-Advocated cultural relativism

-Historical particularism

-Was also a linguist :)

-Believed in immersing oneself first-hand into systematic studies

Margaret Meade

 -Studied w/ Boas and Benedict

-Key figure in 20th century of bringing cult. anthro into public eye

-Famous study in SOMOA

(women coming-of-age; controversial)

Zora Neale Hurston

-Author; wrote "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

-Student of Boas'

-Collected folktales from her hometown as a study

("Mules and Men," and "Tell My Horse" were two very famous ones)

Bronsilaw Malinowski

-Ethnographic study of the Trobiand Islands

-During the study he learned about research, and decided the emic perspective is very necessary

-Kula study (going from island-to-island with the shell gift things) 

-Idea of FUNCTIONALISM

Ruth Fulton Benedict

-Wrote the book, "Patterns of Culture"

-Said there aren't higher or lower cultures; and that each culture has a uniqe pattern, which influence the people's personality

-Under the Gestalt Approach (your personality makes up every part of who you are)

Claude Levi-Strauss

-Structuralism!

-Applied languages to studying culture

-Looked at the organization/structure of cultures

-Took myths from societies and studied them and looked at the core value, core structures of the society

Johann Gottfried von Herder

-Nationalism!

-Language is a cultural identity

-One language=one language=one people

-The volk idea 

Clifford Geertz

-Description of societies is super important

-Thin and thick description (ex: twitches and winks)

-Thick description is incredibly important!

-Interpretivism

Karl Marx

-Was a social theorist and activist

-Influenced all the social sciences

-Agricultural economy 

-Said society is organized to produce things

Max Weber

-Believed mostly in dominance

-Recognized 3 types of it:

1) Traditional

2)Charismatic

3)State Dominance

Arjun Appadurai

-Scapes!

-Can't see boundaries, lines, but can see them connected

1)Technology

2) Financial

3)Ethno

4)Media

5)Ideo

Benedict Anderson

-Nation-state

-Made 4 pts about origin of nationalism

-Wrote "Imagined Communities"