Regional Comparison in African Anthropology

In: African affairs: the journal of the Royal African Society, Band 78, Heft 310, S. 103-113

Abstract

The elaborate comparative models that characterized nineteenth-century ethnology fell into disuse with the more modern concern with the internal structures of particular 'tribal societies.' The secondary Africanist tradition of regional 'culture area' studies, represented by such diverse figures as M. Herskovits, H. Baumann, & G. P. Murdock, also collapsed in the face of functionalist anthropology, at least in part because the theoretical shortcomings of culture-trait analysis became increasingly apparent. One consequence of these developments has been a neglect of the very evident fact that cultural fields do indeed exist, & provide a fertile basis for particular forms of comparative analysis. One may, within a culture area, hold certain factors constant in analyzing variations in local systems; one may study the various local evolutions of traditions with a single origin; &, perhaps more ambitiously even, one may discern underlying structural regularities which define the culture area, despite the complexity of regional variation. This may be true of regions of Africa as it is of traditional Australia, or much of Indonesia, or of India, & the focus of research should more often be the cultural region. AA.