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Anthropology Previous Year Question Solutions

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  • Few questions from my side:

    Q 1. Social structure and social organization dichotomy.
    Q 2. Race is a valid concept.
    Q 3. Culture and personality school. with special reference to Benedict
    Q 4. diffusion school is sum of migration plus evolution. Discuss. .
    Q 3. Culture and personality school. with special reference to Benedict

    Culture and personality school is psycho-analytical approach towards anthropology that tries to examine the interrelationships between culture and personality. It attempts to study culture as it is embodied in the character of its members. Different themes of this school includes Culture determines the formation of personality by Margraet Mead, Personality builds culture by Ruth Benedict and Culture and Personality both influence each other by Linton,Kardinar and Cora-DuoBois.

    Benedict, driven by her humanist and cultural relativist instincts, showed patterns of culture of a particular group unlike malinowski who tried to find universal patterns of culture. She stated that each group is more or less consistent pattern of thoughts and action analogous to individuals and the different patterns of each culture are integrated by what she call Special Genius which gives the culture it's distinct configuration.
    Special Genius is of two types namely Appolonian and Dionysian. Appolonian are kind,peace loving and disciplined people. She takes example of Pubelo of New Maxico who show Appolonian ethos. They believe in peace, cooperation, and common ownership. There is lack of competition and conflict. Dionysian Genius drives Dobu of Malenesia and Kwakiutl of NorthWest coast of America who are aggressive, deceivers and believe in materialism.

    Benedict was criticised by Morris Opler that there are more than two bases of cultural integration and by Mead that culture influences personality and not vice versa.Still her study directed the attention of anthropologists to the symbolic meanings and emotional significance of cultural features that had hitherto been considered primarily through functional analysis


  • Critical review of the answer----

    Introduction Ok...

    In the body u described about consistent pattern of thoughts existing in individuals belonging to a culture....But this has been criticized...by David Friend Aberle concerning Peublo people or Appolonian culture on the grounds that they cannot be consistent like----though they may be calm, gentle, and much given to ritual when in one mood or set of circumstances, but they may be suspicious, retaliatory, and warlike in other circumstances.

    One more thing In all see differentiated culture in four types and not two geniuses which u mentioned---Apollonian,
    Dionysian, Paranoid and Megalomaniac....

    this has also been criticised becuse her approach to understanding culture was instrumental in moving the focus to the individual in order to understand behaviors within a culture instead of looking for universal laws of human behavior.

    She was also criticized by Herskovits for limiting the study of personality type within a culture. So therefore many questions remained unanswered like Interaction of different culture and their impact on personality types of individuals.

    Regarding ur conclusion cannot say anything----So I would like to mention two things. Write answers only which u can remember in exams. Don;t use complex sentences to make ur answer look different because ultimately what u can remenber and write will do the trick...meanwhile if u r comfortable with it then no issues...

    Between I have just started prep a week ago..so plz forgive me if my views looks like an amateur one.. :)


  • Critical review of the answer----

    Introduction Ok...

    In the body u described about consistent pattern of thoughts existing in individuals belonging to a culture....But this has been criticized...by David Friend Aberle concerning Peublo people or Appolonian culture on the grounds that they cannot be consistent like----though they may be calm, gentle, and much given to ritual when in one mood or set of circumstances, but they may be suspicious, retaliatory, and warlike in other circumstances.

    One more thing In all see differentiated culture in four types and not two geniuses which u mentioned---Apollonian,
    Dionysian, Paranoid and Megalomaniac....

    this has also been criticised becuse her approach to understanding culture was instrumental in moving the focus to the individual in order to understand behaviors within a culture instead of looking for universal laws of human behavior.

    She was also criticized by Herskovits for limiting the study of personality type within a culture. So therefore many questions remained unanswered like Interaction of different culture and their impact on personality types of individuals.

    Regarding ur conclusion cannot say anything----So I would like to mention two things. Write answers only which u can remember in exams. Don;t use complex sentences to make ur answer look different because ultimately what u can remenber and write will do the trick...meanwhile if u r comfortable with it then no issues...

    Between I have just started prep a week ago..so plz forgive me if my views looks like an amateur one.. :)
    u don't look like amateur especially while quoting david aberle and Herskovits..
  • Few questions from my side:

    Q 1. Social structure and social organization dichotomy.
    Q 2. Race is a valid concept.
    Q 3. Culture and personality school. with special reference to Benedict
    Q 4. diffusion school is sum of migration plus evolution. Discuss. .
    Q 3. Culture and personality school. with special reference to Benedict

    Culture and personality school is psycho-analytical approach towards anthropology that tries to examine the interrelationships between culture and personality. It attempts to study culture as it is embodied in the character of its members. Different themes of this school includes Culture determines the formation of personality by Margraet Mead, Personality builds culture by Ruth Benedict and Culture and Personality both influence each other by Linton,Kardinar and Cora-DuoBois.

    Benedict, driven by her humanist and cultural relativist instincts, showed patterns of culture of a particular group unlike malinowski who tried to find universal patterns of culture. She stated that each group is more or less consistent pattern of thoughts and action analogous to individuals and the different patterns of each culture are integrated by what she call Special Genius which gives the culture it's distinct configuration.
    Special Genius is of two types namely Appolonian and Dionysian. Appolonian are kind,peace loving and disciplined people. She takes example of Pubelo of New Maxico who show Appolonian ethos. They believe in peace, cooperation, and common ownership. There is lack of competition and conflict. Dionysian Genius drives Dobu of Malenesia and Kwakiutl of NorthWest coast of America who are aggressive, deceivers and believe in materialism.

    and by Mead that culture influences personality and not vice versa.Still her study directed the attention of anthropologists to the symbolic meanings and emotional significance of cultural features that had hitherto been considered primarily through functional analysis
    critical review...

    1st bold: this is wrong and incomplete statement

    2nd bold: this is wrong... she never contradicted malinowski,, her target were evolutionists and diffusionists.. malinowski didn't aimed to find pattern

    3rd bold: completely mistook theory .. culture is not analogous to individuals.... morover it is not diff. patterns that are integrated but the same pattern is outcome of similar traits and forms and integrated patern..

    4th bold: Mead never criticized benedict

    th bold: toooo vague.. infact she reaches too close to functional analysis while doing psycho-analytical analysis and has been criticized for this as she neglect historical analysis...
  • Hey regarding neglect of historical analysis... she was not able to answer how history shapes culture and inturn shapes personality types...Just a clarification If someone doesn't get it...


    Meanwhile man thanks..but its a bit of research and answer writing and nothing else..

    One more thing we should focus more on clarity of concept and value addition which could be understood easily.
    Because while writing complex sentences we tend to loose clarity of concepts and the recievers and readers have no idea of the sentence.

    So my point is if we r reviewing or writing plz elaborate so that it new commers like us could understand it.
  • Regarding ur first bold can u plz elaborate why its wrong and incomplete...??
  • Regarding ur first bold can u plz elaborate why its wrong and incomplete...??
    its all related to locus of cultural integration.. and not about embodiement of culture in individuals... u are thinking the reverse way...
    Hey regarding neglect of historical analysis... she was not able to answer how history shapes culture and inturn shapes personality types...Just a clarification If someone doesn't get it...


    Meanwhile man thanks..but its a bit of research and answer writing and nothing else..

    One more thing we should focus more on clarity of concept and value addition which could be understood easily.
    Because while writing complex sentences we tend to loose clarity of concepts and the recievers and readers have no idea of the sentence.

    So my point is if we r reviewing or writing plz elaborate so that it new commers like us could understand it.
    first of all accept that u are not new comer..

    second... u r wrong for bold part... splitting hairs.. its not that she was not able to answer but rather it was that she never attempted to answer.. ... moreover, she neveer said, history shapes culture.. so u are mistaking again,,

  • i think enough discussion on 1 question.. attempt other questions also..
  • Haha...Thanks man If I didn't looks so....Yaar first carefully see what I have written...but leave it. Let's give our thought to the next qn...
  • One more things let's go acc to the syllabus. From topic to topic. Because its really difficult for me atleast to jump from society to theories.
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