Quantitative Analysis of Paradigm Shifts in American Anthropology:

The Hermeneutics of Language

Curtis Hummel 2012

HYPOTHESIS

• The time frames for the four major theoretical paradigms in American Anthropology (Salvage, Acculturation, Resistance, and Post-Modern) can be distinguished through quantification of word choice variation.

• This methodology refines and modifies the qualitative findings of Edward Bruner (1986) and Thomas Patterson (2001).

Essential Literature

• Dumont, Jean-Paul: Prologue to Ethnography or Prolegomena to Anthropography (1986)

• Blakey: Man and Nature, White and other (2010)

• Jordon, Glenn: On Ethnography in an Intertextual Situation: Reading Narratives or Deconstructing Discourse? (2010)

Sequential Models of Paradigms in Anthropology

• Bruner: Ethnography as Narrative (1986) • 1930s-1940s (acculturation):

“the dominate story constructed about Native American culture change saw the present as disorganization, the past as glorious, and the future as assimilation” (Bruner, 139).

• 1970s (resistance): “the golden age is in the future, as the indigenous people struggle against exploitation and oppression to preserve their ethnic identity” (Bruner, 140).

• Patterson: A Social History of Anthropology in the United States(2001) . Chapter Headings • 1. 1776-1879: Anthropology

in the New Republic • 2. 1879-1929: Anthropology

in the Liberal Age • 3. 1929-1945: Anthropology

and the Search for Social Order

• 4. 1945-1973: Anthropology in the Postwar Era

• 5. 1974-2000: Anthropology in the Neoliberal Era

PARADIGMS

• DEFINITION: Popular narrative structures used to conceptualize a position in a meaningful, theoretical way. A paradigm is used to promote (or demote) a concept. They are usually referred to as theoretical models. (Bruner 1986)

• Shifts generally take place over a ten year period.

• Many words experience lag in either acceptance or rejection.

PARADIGMS (Interpretation)

1895-1929: Salvage Anthropology

• 1930-1954: Acculturation

• 1955-1979: Resistance

• 1980-2004: Post-Modern

DATA SET

• American Anthropologist: academic journal

• 1895-2004

• 22 groupings

• 5 year intervals

• e.g. 1895-1899, 1900-1904, …, 2000-2004

• 29 words in the test set

• 4 words predictive of the 4 paradigms:

• Salvage: primitive

• Acculturation: extinct

• Resistance: education

• Post-modern: colonization

years 1895-1899 1900-1904 1905-1909 1910-1914 1915-1919 1920-1924 1925-1929 1930-1934 1935-1939 1940-1944 1945-1949 1950-1954 1955-1959 1960-1964 1965-1969 1970-1974 1975-1979 1980-1984 1985-1989 1990-1994 1995-1999 2000-2004 total

pages 283 363 254 429 203 372 745 338 598 357 191 209 322 125 158 205 97 142 263 159 80 173 6066

words 102213 93687 141402 133013 53498 130141 266734 129973 248098 159167 85398 91947 145610 130894 87322 111440 50331 72922 132687 78931 57105 126405 2628918

% of pages 4.7 6.0 4.2 7.1 3.3 6.1 12.3 5.6 9.9 5.9 3.1 3.4 5.3 2.1 2.6 3.4 1.6 2.3 4.3 2.6 1.3 2.9 100

% of words 3.9 3.6 5.4 5.1 2.0 5.0 10.1 4.9 9.4 6.1 3.2 3.5 5.5 5.0 3.3 4.2 1.9 2.8 5.0 3.0 2.2 4.8 100

Percent of total words in paradigm

Representative of Salvage

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

Pe

rce

nt

of

wo

rd in

fiv

e y

ear

pe

rio

ds

primitive

1895-1899

1900-1904

1905-1909

1910-1914

1915-1919

1920-1924

1925-1929

1930-1934

1935-1939

1940-1944

1945-1949

1950-1954

1955-1959

1960-1964

1965-1969

1970-1974

1975-1979

Representative of Acculturation

0.5

1.8

1.4

0.6

0.8 0.8

2.4

1.5

0.9

1.7

1.9

0.2

1.1

0.7

0.4

1.6

0.2

0.4 0.4

0.8

0.1

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

Pe

rce

nta

ge o

f w

ord

in f

ive

ye

ar p

eri

od

Extinct Normalized 1900-1904

1905-1909

1910-1914

1915-1919

1920-1924

1925-1929

1930-1934

1935-1939

1940-1944

1945-1949

1950-1954

1955-1959

1960-1964

1965-1969

1970-1974

1975-1979

1980-1984

1985-1989

1990-1994

Representative of Resistance

1.9

0.0

0.3

0.0 0.0 0.0

0.7

0.3 0.4

1.0

0.3

3.3

2.1

1.6 1.4

1.9

4.1

0.0

0.7

0.4

2.4

2.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

pe

rce

nta

ge o

f w

ord

s in

fiv

e y

ear

pe

rio

d

education

1895-1899

1900-1904

1905-1909

1910-1914

1915-1919

1920-1924

1925-1929

1930-1934

1935-1939

1940-1944

1945-1949

1950-1954

1955-1959

1960-1964

1965-1969

1970-1974

1975-1979

1980-1984

Representative of Post-Modern

0.13 0.00 0.53

0.20 0.13 0.21 0.00 0.26 0.00 0.26

1.51

0.15 0.33 0.47 0.16 0.06

1.62

0.84

1.63 2.06

14.48

6.22

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Pe

rce

nt

of

Term

Occ

ure

nce

s P

er

5 Y

ear

Pe

rio

ds

colonial

1895-1899

1900-1904

1905-1909

1910-1914

1915-1919

1920-1924

1925-1929

1930-1934

1935-1939

1940-1944

1945-1949

1950-1954

1955-1959

1960-1964

1965-1969

1970-1974

1975-1979

Oddity “I”

0.21

0.11

0.16

0.19

0.20

0.24 0.25

0.29

0.16 0.17

0.11

0.04

0.13

0.16

0.06

0.20

0.12

0.16 0.16

0.09

0.16 0.15

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

1895-1899

1900-1904

1905-1909

1910-1914

1915-1919

1920-1924

1925-1929

1930-1934

1935-1939

1940-1944

1945-1949

1950-1954

1955-1959

1960-1964

1965-1969

1970-1974

1975-1979

1980-1984

CONCLUSION

• The different choice words can be used to conceptualize and isolate the major theoretical paradigms of American Anthropology.

• The paradigms defined by Bruner and Patterson are present, but may take on a different shape than previously distinguished.