Action Anthropology
Action Anthropology
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行动人类学
DOI：
10.1086/201616
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发表时间：
1975
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
S. Tax
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Tax
人类学的核心概念一直是我们称之为文化的东西。随着世界被发现，人们不得不注意到，人们以不同的标准，以不同的方式生活。一个民族的特殊生活方式我们称之为文化。我们知道，文化在一个社区中代代相传;它们在改变的同时也在持续。我们有时候把文化说成是人类的社会遗传。人类学家已经积累了大量有关世界文化的资料，包括过去和现在的。人类在这个星球上发展的文化的数据描述确实是如此浩如烟海，以至于在一本书中汇编或总结已经变得不切实际。它们需要一个图书馆，我们可以从中选择;我们正在使用伟大的计算机器使之成为可能。在我们所看到的文化形式的令人眼花缭乱的多样性中--这种多样性是如此之大，以至于我们有时会怀疑，我们所能想象到的任何习俗实际上是否在某个地方没有被人类实践过--在我们学科成立以来的120年里，我们已经从这种多样性中得出了许多关于人类和文化以及人类文化和社会的概括。文化人类学和社会人类学的理论，就像所有科学的理论一样，随着每一年、每一个年代、每一代人的发展，都在不断地扩大、修改和丰富。我们收集我们的时尚和新奇，探索和发挥所有科学家必须。VVe还发展了很多新词，这些新词时好时坏;在这个行业里，我们对它们大惊小怪，甚至直呼其名。我记得我读研究生的时候，最伟大的词是功能主义;人们是或不是功能主义者，有些人被认为是否定的。结果当然，这个标签涵盖了很多东西，对不同的人来说是不同的象征。毕竟，学者和科学家群体是一个群体，与其他群体一样，也会受到同样的文化和社会进程的影响。今天下午我来到这里是要讲一个叫行动人类学的东西。这个短语似乎是我发明的，1951年首次公开使用。我不知道它被广泛使用，也不知道它对所有可能使用它的人意味着什么，也不知道在某些圈子里，它甚至可能不是一个坏词。在芝加哥大学一起工作的人类学家圈子越来越大;我在这里打算做的只是试图弄清楚我们用这个短语的意思，以及我们如何实践行动人类学。
THE CENTRAL coNcEPT of anthropology has always been that which we call culture. As the world is discovered, it becomes compelling to notice that peoples live by different standards, in different ways. The particular way of life of a population we call its culture. We know that cultures pass down in a community from one generation to the next; that they persist at the same time that they change. We sometimes talk about culture as the social heredity of man. Anthropologists have developed a tremendous volume of data on the cultures of the world, past and present. The data-descriptions of the cultures that man has developed on this planet-are indeed so voluminous that it has become impracticable to compile or summarize then in a single work. They require a library, no less, from which we may select; and we are on the way to using the great computing machines to make this possible. Out of the bewildering variety of cultural forms that we see—the variety is so great that we sometimes wonder if any custom we can imagine has not in fact been practiced by men somewhere-out of this variety we have in the past 120 years since the founding of our discipline hammered out a great many generalizations about man and culture and about cultures and societies of men. The theory of cultural and social anthropology becomes enlarged and modified, and enriched, as do the theories of all sciences, with each passing year, decade, generation. We gather our fads and novelties, probing and playing as all scientists must. VVe also develop a lot of new words, which come in and out of fashion; and in the profession we fuss and fume about them, and even call names. I recall for example when I was a graduate student the great word was functionalism; people were or weren't functionalists, and some who were supposed to be denied it. It turned out of course that the label covered many things, and was a different symbol for different people. After all, a community of scholars and scientists is a community and subject to variations of the same cultural and social processes as other communities. I have come here this afternoon to speak about something called action anthropology. It is a phrase which appears to be my invention-first used publicly in 1951. I do not know how widely it is being used, and what it means to all those who may use it-nor whether in some circles it may not even be a bad word. There is a growing circle of anthropologists who have worked together at the University of Chicago; and what I propose to do here is try only to make clear what we mean by the phrase, and how we have been practicing action anthropology.