Cultural anthropology

Written by: Paul Mercier Last Updated
Alternate title: ethnology

The “grand diffusionists”

The large and influential American school of “culture history” anthropologists led by Boas should not be confused with a distinct and smaller group of Austro-German diffusionists, led by Fritz Graebner and Wilhelm Schmidt, who constituted what has been called the “culture-historical” school in Europe. These latter, too, rejected classical 19th-century evolutionism, but they were nevertheless inclined toward painting grand theories—principally the theory that out of a few ancient cultural centres or civilizations, born quite separately, there had developed the array of cultures existing today. Diffusion, or the spreading of culture traits, in their view, was the prime ... (100 of 5,636 words)

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