Configurationalism

1. Configurationalism
Anthropological Theory
IB Anthropology
UWC Costa Rica

2. Configurationalism developed by
two of Boas’s students…
Ruth Benedict Margaret Mead

3. Configurationalism
• Related to functionalism in sense that
culture is seen as integrated
• Remember, Boasians traced geographic
distribution of culture traits
• Boas recognised diffusion was not
automatic – environmental barriers, may
not be accepted by another culture
• Must be fit between culture and trait
diffusing in
• Borrowed traits would be indigenized

4. Bendict – ‘Patterns of
Culture’ (1934)
• Traits can come from any direction
• Benedict stressed culture traits (and
whole cultures) are uniquely patterned
or integrated
• Supports view that biology does not
determine culture

5. Mead & Configurationalism
• Found patterns in cultures including Samoa,
Bali and Papua New Guinea
• Esp. interested in how societies varied in in
patterns of enculturation
• Stressed plasticity of human nature and saw
culture as powerful force creating endless
possibilities
• Even among neighbouring societies, different
enculturation patterns could produce very
different personality types and cultural

6. ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’
(1928)
• Set out to study female adolescence to
compare with same period of life in US
• Assumed Samoan adolescence would
differ from same period in US and this
would affect adult personality
• Using ethnographic results, contrasted
sexual freedom with repression of
adolescent sexuality in US

7. Benedict and Mead
• Culture, not biology, determines variation
in human behaviour and personality
• More interested in in describing how
cultures were uniquely patterned or
configured than in explaining how they got
to be that way