A Brief Summary on History of anthropology and Theories in

Anthropology

Introduction
Scholars debate on the question of how long have anthropology existed. The answer to this
question varies depending on what we mean by anthropology. There has been curiosity of
knowing about other people and their way of life throughout human history. On the other
hand, anthropology in today’s sense has its own particular time in history for its beginning.
Having in mind this concern, we will try to briefly overview history of anthropology and
anthropological theories.

Ancient Greek
Herodotus of the ancient Greek can be called the first anthropologist in the broadest sense of
definition of anthropology. He is best known for his account of the Persian war. But his detailed
travel narratives are rich source for our anthropological understanding of certain parts of the
ancient world. Herodotus began traveling at an early age and acquired intimate knowledge of
several foreign people. His scholarly ethnographical descriptions are highly readable today. The
conflict between universalism and relativism that has followed anthropology to this day is
evident in his writings too. He sometimes appears to be a Universalist when he refers some
foreign cultures as "the uncivilized." He also sometimes seems a relativist when he emphasis on
the importance of seeing foreign cultures in their own merit; people have different cultures
because they live in different circumstances.

Apart from Herodotus’s accounts, the anthropological paradox between universalism and
relativism is demonstrated in the wits of ancient Greeks as well. The sophists of Athens are
sometimes considered to be the first philosophical relativists while Socrates is the Universalist
who argues with them defending philosophical universalism. But they do not directly deal with
cultural difference in their debate.

Aristotle, The great philosopher of ancient Greek, tried to figure out the fundamental difference
between humans and animals in a sophisticated way. He concludes, after indulging in a through
philosophical anthropology, that although humans have several needs in common with animals,
rationality, socialization and morality make humans different from animal.
His anthropological endeavor to establish universality rather than difference between groups of
people has great importance to this day.

Alexander the great marched to the northern reaches of India with his armies spreading the
culture, such as science, art and philosophy of Greek city states into nations he conquered. In
this historical period, the geographer Strabo wrote several volumes of books about foreign
people and their culture. Since then, his writings have been serving as a rich source for our
anthropological understanding of his period. When the roman empire which has Christianity as
its state religion fall apart, the great roman empire divided into many small provinces which
were to reunite again only after the emergence of modern state. Due to that, there happened
shocking cultural crises.

The contemporary Europe is not a linier descendant of antiquity though they often present
themselves as such. Arabs conquered territory from Spain to India in 7th century. For the next
six or seven centuries, the socio-culture of the Mediterranean world remained sophisticated
and twisted. Ibn khaldun is the prominent historian and social philosopher of this period. He
wrote massive history of Arab and Berbers. He also developed one of the first non-religious
social theories. Khaldun emphasizes the importance of religion and kinship in creating the sense
of solidarity and mutual commitment among the members of a group.

Marco polo is the late medieval writer whose writings, with some others’, regarded to be the
forerunner for the latter-day anthropology. His most famous work is his book about china and
its culture that he wrote in his seventeen years stay there. The book of the unknown
Englishman titled "The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville" is also a great
anthropological treasure of that period. Both of these books demonstrate European interest in
foreign people. Then, early signs of capitalism began to emerge because of grand production
forces and other relevant causes that ensued significant socio cultural and economic change in
Europe. The economic competition between European capitalists forced them to sail through
many part the world including Africa, Asia and America in search of resources. The navigation
was accompanied by discoveries of new people and cultural exchange.
 The impact of European invasion.

The European conquest of Africa, Asia and the Americas played an important role in the
development of Europe and also of anthropology. Thanks to the invention of the printing press
in 1448, descriptions of these newly discovered places reached a large audience. But there are
many factual errors in their travelogues and they are also ethnographically weak due to the
ethnocentric tendency of the authors. There are also other writers who gave more truthful
accounts of the period. But in most books a more or less contrast is drawn between European
and “the others.” The discovery of America has played a significant role in secularizing
European intellectual life and in liberating science from authority of the church. When
European conquered America, the contradiction they witnessed between the life of Indians,
which are the indigenous people of America, and their idea of what it means to be human
forced them to rethink about their definition of human.