Leslie White
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Leslie White | |
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Born | |
Died | March 31, 1975 | (aged 75)
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Anthropologist |
Known for | Neoevolutionism White's law |
Part of a series on |
Anthropology of nature, science and technology |
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Social and cultural anthropology |
Leslie Alvin White (January 19, 1900,
Early years
White lived first in
White studied at Columbia, where
In 1927 White began teaching at the
Buffalo transition
Teaching at
White went to Michigan when he was hired to replace
White brought Titiev, his student and a Russian immigrant, to Michigan as a second professor in 1936. However, during the
As a professor in Ann Arbor, White trained students such as
White's anthropology
Over time, White's views became framed in opposition to that of
One of White's strongest deviations from Boas's philosophy was a view of the nature of anthropology and its relation to other sciences. White understood the world to be divided into cultural, biological, and physical levels of phenomena. Such a division is a reflection of the composition of the universe and was not a
The object of study was not delineated by the researcher's viewpoint or interest, but the method by which he approached them could be. White believed that phenomena could be explored from three different points of view: the historical, the formal-functional, and the evolutionist (or formal-temporal). The historical view was dedicated to examining the particular diachronic cultural processes, "lovingly trying to penetrate into its secrets until every feature is plain and clear." The formal-functional is essentially the synchronic approach advocated by Alfred Radcliffe-Brown and Bronisław Malinowski, attempting to discern the formal structure of a society and the functional interrelations of its components. The evolutionist approach is, like the formal approach, generalizing; but it is also diachronic, seeing particular events as general instances of larger trends.
Boas claimed his science promised complex and interdependent visions of culture, but White thought that it would delegitimize anthropology if it became the dominant position, removing it from broader discourses on science. White viewed his own approach as a synthesis of historical and functional approach because it combined the diachronic scope of one with the generalizing eye for formal interrelations provided by the other. As such, it could point out "the course of cultural development in the past and its probable course in the future" a task that was anthropology's "most valuable function".
This stance can be seen in his views of evolution, which are firmly rooted in the writings of Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, and Lewis H. Morgan. While it can be argued that White's exposition of Morgan and Spencer's was tendentious, it can be safely said that White's concepts of science and evolution were firmly rooted in their work. Advances in population biology and evolutionary theory passed White by and, unlike Steward, his conception of evolution and progress remained firmly rooted in the nineteenth century.
For White, culture was a superorganic entity that was
White spoke of
- Technology is an attempt to solve the problems of survival.
- This attempt ultimately means capturing enough energy and diverting it for human needs.
- Societies that capture more energy and use it more efficiently have an advantage over other societies.
- Therefore, these different societies are more advanced in an evolutionary sense.
For White "the primary function of culture" and the one that determines its level of advancement is its ability to "harness and control energy."
White differentiates between five stages of human development. At first, people use the energy of their own muscles. Second, they use the energy of
- P = ET,
where E is a measure of energy consumed
Selected publications
- Ethnological Essays: Selected Essays of Leslie A. White. University of New Mexico Press. 1987.
- The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome. 1959.
- The Science of Culture: A study of man and civilization. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949.
- The Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico. American Anthropological Association Memoir 60, 1949.
- The Pueblo of San Felipe. American Anthropological Association Memoir No. 38, 1938.
- The Pueblo of Santo Domingo. American Anthropological Association Memoir 60, 1935.
- The Acoma Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology, 47th annual report, pp. 1–192. Smithsonian Institution, 1932.
See also
- List of important publications in anthropology
References
- .
- ^ "Ave Atque Vale, Central States Anthropological Society". Anthropology News. May 6, 2022. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ Lowie, Robert Harry (1960). Lowie's selected papers in anthropology. George A. Smathers Libraries University of Florida. Berkeley,: University of California Press.
- ^ a b "American Materialism". As.ua.edu. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ a b "Leslie White". Mnsu.edu. Archived from the original on May 31, 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
Further reading
- Leslie A. White: Evolution and Revolution in Anthropology by William Peace. University of Nebraska Press, 2004 (the definitive biography of White).
- Richard Beardsley. An appraisal of Leslie A. White's scholarly influence. American Anthropologist 78:617–620, 1976.
- Jerry D. Moore. Leslie White: Evolution Emergent. Chapter 13 of Visions of Culture. pp. 169–180. Alta Mira, 1997.
- Moses, Daniel Noah (2009). The Promise of Progress: The Life and Work of Lewis Henry Morgan. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
- Elman Service. Leslie Alvin White, 1900–1975. American Anthropologist 78:612–617, 1976.
- The Leslie White Papers - Finding guide and information about Leslie White's papers at the Bentley Historical library.