Irving Goldman
Encyclopedia
Irving Goldman was an anthropologist. He is known for his acute ability to reconstruct the worldviews and systems of thought of the indigenous peoples
whose lives and thought he analysed in several major works, some now regarded as classics in the field of anthropology
.
to Louis Goldman, an immigrant Russian carpenter
, and his wife Golda, who died before he was six-years-old. Three elder brothers had died from a plague epidemic
in Russia
before his parents took the step to emigrate
to the United States
.
He intended to make a career in medicine, and graduated from Brooklyn College
as a pre-med student
in 1933, but quickly changed directions and went, as an 'eager but utterly unoriented student' to study under Franz Boas
at Columbia University
. Under Boas's supervision, he completed his PhD
, with a thesis on the Alkatcho Carrier Indians
of British Columbia
, having done research among the Modoc Indians
in California
in the meantime (1934). His first major publication consisted of four chapters of a book co-authored with its by then famous editor Margaret Mead
, namely, Cooperation and Competition Among Primitive Peoples, (1937).
When Boaz received a substantial grant
from the Social Science Research Council
, Goldman was the beneficiary, along with several of his colleagues, (Buell Quain
, Jules Henry
, William Lipkind
, Bernard Mishkin, Ruth Landes
, Morris Siegal, and Charles Wagley) to open up what was then a terra incognita
for anthropology. Goldman himself was assigned to study Chibchan
-descended Páez
of the Central Andes
of Colombia
. However he defied his Department and on his own initiative decided to venture into the Vaupés for his fieldwork.
The result was ten months of fieldwork in 1939-1940, from September to June, in the southern region of Vaupés spent studying the Cubeo
people of the Cuduiarí, which at the time was an 'anthropological terra incognita
'. The result was a monograph
, The Cubeo: Indians of the Northwest Amazon, still regarded by specialists as 'the very best book on the Vaupés region'. His work on the Cubeo, the name being a europeanization of the Tukano jesting term Kebewá (meaning 'the people who are not') is still considered a classic in its field. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
called his structural analysis
of Cuneo society 'among the best that have been written on the social organization of Amazonian Indians
in general. His acute observations combined with meticulous scholarship make this a book of lasting value.'
The expertise he gained from his stint in the field in South America
led to Goldman's recruitment as an analyst of the region. He worked in Nelson Rockefeller
's Bureau of Latin America
n Research. When World War II
broke out, he was drafted
and assigned to do intelligence work
with Latin America as his area of analysis. Specdifically, he worked as a research analyst for the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
from 1942-1943. He was reassigned, with the rank
of 2nd Lieutenant
, to the Office of Strategic Services
until war's end. He was then transferred to the State Department
, as Chief of Branch for the Office of Research Analysis, until he was released in July 1947 as a security risk
. Ruth Benedict
managed to secure him an appointment to Sarah Lawrence College
, in Yonkers, New York
. He was subsequently interviewed, in 1953, by the McCarthyist
Jenner Committee
. part of the Senate Judiciary Committee but, while answering all questions regarding himself, he refused to divulge the names of other members of the Communist Party of the United States
, citing his rights under the First Amendment
, a risky tactic at the time, in the face of threats that he would be cited for contempt
. He had joined the American Communist Party in 1936, but left it in 1942. His individual moral position was supported by Sarah Lawrence College and he was able to continue teaching there until his retirement in 1980.
In the postwar period, he conducted fieldwork among the Tzotzil of Chamula
Indians in Chiapas
, Mexico
. He returned for two stints of field research among the Cuneo in 1968-1970, and 1979 From 1980, he taught at the New School for Social Research until his full retirement in 1987.
After his fundamental work on the Cubeo Goldman went on to publish monumental, if controversial, studies on two other classic areas of anthropological interest, on Polynesian societies, and on the Kwakiutl
of North America. For him, the development of the discipline of anthropology best progressed, in his view, by a dialectic
al 'interplay between field and armchair
', which he proceeded to undertake by advancing general interpretations.
He died in 2002 at the age of 90.
. Both of these latter two societies he regarded as examples of a primitive 'aristocracy'. In Goldman's view, 'civilizations are the product of developing aristocracy', and their impact operates predominantly through the medium of status
-rivalry, status being analysed in 18 Polynesian societies in terms of mana
, Tohunga
(expertise) and Toa (military prowess). Though the evolution
ary reconstruction was dubious, the analysis of status and power gained acclamation. The thesis behind his great work on Polynesia is contained in its keynote
frontispiece
quotation from Balzac:
At stake were three issues. One was historical: the nature of Polynesian societies before contact with the West irremediably altered them (2) How did existing socio-political systems function?, and (3) what were the underlying dynamics that accounted for the differentiation of social forms? In Howard's view, given the virtual absence of reliable and detailed accounts of traditional Polynesian social systems
, any attempt to reconstruct the ancient society was doomed to remain speculative, and yield only a theoretical sandcastle. He compared Goldman's work to that of his comprehensive predecessors, Robert W. Williamson and the latter's editor Ralph Piddington, whose wariness about the possibility of working out a system of kinship
structures from the large confusion of primary sources from dubious hands stood in marked contrast to Goldman's ambitious overview. Marshall Sahlins
, in a critique of an earlier version of Goldman's theory, had implied that 'status rivalry', if not the operation of a type of political system, looks in Goldman's approach to be some 'disembodied value' or 'attribute of the Polynesian psyche'
He proposed three evolutionary historic phases: Traditional (seniority
of descent
determines the way authority
and power are allocated, is religious and headed by a sacred chieftain
); Open (where the traditional system undergoes modification to allow secular military and political power to operate, sharpening status differences), and Stratified (where a clear-cut break in status emerges, which is both economic and political) in Polynesian cultural development, with each phase having its own characteristic forms of kinship, authority, rites, and beliefs.
The status lineage
in Polynesia differed from the conventional form in its lack of exogamy
. For Goldman, descent is not really a means to status, it is the heart of status', and descent is rooted in the overriding principle of honour
, and thus a certain logistical freedom exists for commoners to manoeuver'. Thus, 'structure thus arises from human motives.' In the words of Alan Howard, Goldman sees 'cultural forms in Polynesia as primarily resultant from the cumulative decisions of chiefs engaged strategically and tactically in a continual game of honour and power.'
The book received mixed reviews. F.T.Legg found it to be 'a work of very high merit and considerable scholarship.' Alan Howard was generally dismissive of this the ambitious work as symptomatic of a long Western armchair theorist obsession with the idea that l'homme naturel could somehow be discovered in the Pacific, though he admitted that the book's strength, brilliance and acuity lay in Goldman's analysis of the political dynamics of traditional Polynesian societies. As with other specialists, the main charge laid against his interpretation was that his schematic reconstructions smacked of as 'thinly veiled monism
' where a constant, namely status rivalry, is made to account for variability.
had never published, on the Kwakiutl
with his book, The Mouth of Heaven. Goldman set himself the formidable task of reconstructing from the mass of these relatively unexplored materials the religious thought of the Kwakiutl. This was one of the legs of his growing interest in the formation of early aristocratic societies, which he believed to be intimately tied to religious systems. Extending his ideas, he thought that tribal elites, especially hereditary ones, reflect a religious idea. He sets forth his view of the priority of religion in his opening remark that:
The thesis that emerged, according to which all aspects of Kwakiutl culture, and especially the key ceremony of the much-studied potlatch
, hitherto studied as a classic example of materialist interests underlying ritual organizations, were coterminous with religion, and religion in term was grounded in the way nature is perceived, proved controversial among area specialists- As an anti-functionalist
, he was opposed to cultural materialism
. Bill Holm
was sceptical, noting that Goldman lacked adequate familiarity with the Kwakiutl language
in which these primary texts were written. This same charge from area specialists had been made earlier against his work on Polynesia. This lack of intimate linguistic knowledge caused him to make many errors in his review of Kwakiutl texts, and Holm found Goldman's conclusions both unconvincing and disturbing. Philip Drucker
ended his review by challenging Goldman's insistence that all aspects of the Kwakiutl lifeway were expressive of religious belief, and judged this approach preconceived, extremist and not believable. For him, Goldman's argument was both monotonous and biased.
To those who criticized his reductionism
, which inverted the materialist or sociological reductionism of his times and discipline, he replied:-
view of the animal-human relationship in the following vivid metaphor
:-
Of anthropologists he said:
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
whose lives and thought he analysed in several major works, some now regarded as classics in the field of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
.
Life
Goldman was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
to Louis Goldman, an immigrant Russian carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, and his wife Golda, who died before he was six-years-old. Three elder brothers had died from a plague epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
before his parents took the step to emigrate
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
He intended to make a career in medicine, and graduated from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
as a pre-med student
Pre-medical
Pre-medical is a term used to describe a track an undergraduate student in the United States pursues prior to becoming a medical student...
in 1933, but quickly changed directions and went, as an 'eager but utterly unoriented student' to study under Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Under Boas's supervision, he completed his PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
, with a thesis on the Alkatcho Carrier Indians
Ulkatcho First Nation
The Ulkatcho First Nation is a Dakelh First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is a member of the Carrier Chilcotin Tribal Council, its offices are located in Anahim Lake, British Columbia at the western edge of the Chilcotin District...
of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, having done research among the Modoc Indians
Modoc
The Modoc are a Native American people who originally lived in the area which is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon. They are currently divided between Oregon and Oklahoma. The latter are a federally recognized tribe, the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the meantime (1934). His first major publication consisted of four chapters of a book co-authored with its by then famous editor Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
, namely, Cooperation and Competition Among Primitive Peoples, (1937).
When Boaz received a substantial grant
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
from the Social Science Research Council
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
, Goldman was the beneficiary, along with several of his colleagues, (Buell Quain
Buell Quain
Buell Halvor Quain was an American ethnologist who, after graduating from Columbia University, worked with native peoples in Fiji and Brazil...
, Jules Henry
Jules Henry
Jules Henry was a noted American anthropologist.After studies at the City College of New York, Henry earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University in 1935. His classmates included Irving Goldman, Ruth Landis and Edward Kennard...
, William Lipkind
William Lipkind
William Lipkind was an American author most famous for his picture book collaborations, under the pseudonym Will, with Nicholas Mordvinoff...
, Bernard Mishkin, Ruth Landes
Ruth Landes
Ruth Landes was an American cultural anthropologist best known for studies on Brazilian candomblé cults and her published study on the topic, City of Women...
, Morris Siegal, and Charles Wagley) to open up what was then a terra incognita
Terra incognita
Terra incognita or terra ignota is a term used in cartography for regions that have not been mapped or documented. The expression is believed to be first seen in Ptolemy’s Geography circa 150 CE...
for anthropology. Goldman himself was assigned to study Chibchan
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama...
-descended Páez
Paez people
The Paez, also known as the Nasa, are a Native American people who live in the Andes Mountains of Colombia.-Religion:In the early 1900s, Lazarists built missions among the Paez and began the work to convert them to Christianity. Jesuits had originally tried to convert the Paez, but failed. However,...
of the Central Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. However he defied his Department and on his own initiative decided to venture into the Vaupés for his fieldwork.
The result was ten months of fieldwork in 1939-1940, from September to June, in the southern region of Vaupés spent studying the Cubeo
Cubeo
The Cubeo are an ethnic group of the Colombian Amazon. Cubeo is a generic name that is used in local Spanish and appears in the literature in reference to a social and linguistic group. Although the term does not have any meaning in their language, the Cubeo refer to themselves by that name in...
people of the Cuduiarí, which at the time was an 'anthropological terra incognita
Terra incognita
Terra incognita or terra ignota is a term used in cartography for regions that have not been mapped or documented. The expression is believed to be first seen in Ptolemy’s Geography circa 150 CE...
'. The result was a monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
, The Cubeo: Indians of the Northwest Amazon, still regarded by specialists as 'the very best book on the Vaupés region'. His work on the Cubeo, the name being a europeanization of the Tukano jesting term Kebewá (meaning 'the people who are not') is still considered a classic in its field. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff was an anthropologist, known for his holistic approach and his in-depth fieldwork among tropical rainforest cultures .- Early life :...
called his structural analysis
Structural analysis
Structural analysis is the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their components. Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads, such as buildings, bridges, vehicles, machinery, furniture, attire, soil strata, prostheses and...
of Cuneo society 'among the best that have been written on the social organization of Amazonian Indians
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...
in general. His acute observations combined with meticulous scholarship make this a book of lasting value.'
The expertise he gained from his stint in the field in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
led to Goldman's recruitment as an analyst of the region. He worked in Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
's Bureau of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n Research. When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out, he was drafted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and assigned to do intelligence work
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
with Latin America as his area of analysis. Specdifically, he worked as a research analyst for the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs was a United States agency promoting inter-American cooperation during the 1940s, especially in commercial and economic areas...
from 1942-1943. He was reassigned, with the rank
Military rank
Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines. Usually, uniforms denote the bearer's rank by particular insignia affixed to the uniforms...
of 2nd Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
, to the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
until war's end. He was then transferred to the State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, as Chief of Branch for the Office of Research Analysis, until he was released in July 1947 as a security risk
Security risk
Security Risk describes employing the concept of risk to the security risk management paradigm to make a particular determination of security orientated events.According to CNSS Instruction No...
. Ruth Benedict
Ruth Benedict
Ruth Benedict was an American anthropologist, cultural relativist, and folklorist....
managed to secure him an appointment to Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
, in Yonkers, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He was subsequently interviewed, in 1953, by the McCarthyist
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
Jenner Committee
William E. Jenner
William Ezra Jenner was a U.S. Republican Indiana State and U.S. Senator.Jenner was born in Marengo, Crawford County, Indiana. He graduated with a Law degree from Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington in 1930, and set up practice in Paoli, Indiana...
. part of the Senate Judiciary Committee but, while answering all questions regarding himself, he refused to divulge the names of other members of the Communist Party of the United States
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, citing his rights under the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
, a risky tactic at the time, in the face of threats that he would be cited for contempt
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
. He had joined the American Communist Party in 1936, but left it in 1942. His individual moral position was supported by Sarah Lawrence College and he was able to continue teaching there until his retirement in 1980.
In the postwar period, he conducted fieldwork among the Tzotzil of Chamula
Chamula
San Juan Chamula is a municipio and township in the Mexican state of Chiapas, with over 50,000 inhabitants. It is situated some 10 km from San Cristóbal de las Casas....
Indians in Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. He returned for two stints of field research among the Cuneo in 1968-1970, and 1979 From 1980, he taught at the New School for Social Research until his full retirement in 1987.
After his fundamental work on the Cubeo Goldman went on to publish monumental, if controversial, studies on two other classic areas of anthropological interest, on Polynesian societies, and on the Kwakiutl
Kwakiutl
The term Kwakiutl, historically applied to the entire Kwakwaka'wakw ethno-linguistic group of originally 28 tribes, comes from one of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, the Kwagu'ł or Kwagyeulth, at Fort Rupert, with whom Franz Boas did most of his anthropological work and whose Indian Act Band government...
of North America. For him, the development of the discipline of anthropology best progressed, in his view, by a dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
al 'interplay between field and armchair
Armchair theorizing
Armchair theorizing is an unofficial term for the approach which economists are perceived to mostly use for coming up with a new economic theory....
', which he proceeded to undertake by advancing general interpretations.
He died in 2002 at the age of 90.
Polynesian Society
He turned his eyes to what he regarded as the twin features of early societies, religious worldviews and aristocracyAristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
. Both of these latter two societies he regarded as examples of a primitive 'aristocracy'. In Goldman's view, 'civilizations are the product of developing aristocracy', and their impact operates predominantly through the medium of status
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
-rivalry, status being analysed in 18 Polynesian societies in terms of mana
Mana
Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
, Tohunga
Tohunga
In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, religious or otherwise. Tohunga may include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teachers and advisors. The equivalent term in Hawaiian culture is kahuna...
(expertise) and Toa (military prowess). Though the evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary reconstruction was dubious, the analysis of status and power gained acclamation. The thesis behind his great work on Polynesia is contained in its keynote
Keynote
A keynote in literature, music, or public speaking establishes the principal underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address...
frontispiece
Book frontispiece
A frontispiece is a decorative illustration facing a book's title page. The frontispiece is the verso opposite the recto title page. Elaborate engraved frontispieces were in frequent use, especially in Bibles and in scholarly books, and many are masterpieces of engraving...
quotation from Balzac:
'The noble of every age has done his best to invent a life which he, and he only, can live.'
At stake were three issues. One was historical: the nature of Polynesian societies before contact with the West irremediably altered them (2) How did existing socio-political systems function?, and (3) what were the underlying dynamics that accounted for the differentiation of social forms? In Howard's view, given the virtual absence of reliable and detailed accounts of traditional Polynesian social systems
Social systems
Social system is a central term in sociological systems theory. The term draws a line to ecosystem, biological organisms, psychical systems and technical systems. They all form the environment of social systems. Minimum requirements for a social system is interaction of at least two personal...
, any attempt to reconstruct the ancient society was doomed to remain speculative, and yield only a theoretical sandcastle. He compared Goldman's work to that of his comprehensive predecessors, Robert W. Williamson and the latter's editor Ralph Piddington, whose wariness about the possibility of working out a system of kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
structures from the large confusion of primary sources from dubious hands stood in marked contrast to Goldman's ambitious overview. Marshall Sahlins
Marshall Sahlins
Marshall David Sahlins is a prominent American anthropologist. He received both a Bachelors and Masters degree at the University of Michigan where he studied with Leslie White, and earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1954 where his main intellectual influences included Karl Polanyi and...
, in a critique of an earlier version of Goldman's theory, had implied that 'status rivalry', if not the operation of a type of political system, looks in Goldman's approach to be some 'disembodied value' or 'attribute of the Polynesian psyche'
He proposed three evolutionary historic phases: Traditional (seniority
Seniority
Seniority is the concept of a person or group of people being in charge or in command of another person or group. This control is often granted to the senior person due to experience or length of service in a given position, but it is not uncommon for a senior person to have less experience or...
of descent
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
determines the way authority
Authority
The word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...
and power are allocated, is religious and headed by a sacred chieftain
Chieftain
Chieftain may refer to:The leader or head of a group:* a tribal chief or a village head.* a member of the 'House of chiefs'.* a captain, to which 'chieftain' is etymologically related.* Clan chief, the head of a Scottish clan....
); Open (where the traditional system undergoes modification to allow secular military and political power to operate, sharpening status differences), and Stratified (where a clear-cut break in status emerges, which is both economic and political) in Polynesian cultural development, with each phase having its own characteristic forms of kinship, authority, rites, and beliefs.
The status lineage
Lineage
Lineage may refer to:- Science :* Lineage or kinship, descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of decent from an ancestor....
in Polynesia differed from the conventional form in its lack of exogamy
Exogamy
Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...
. For Goldman, descent is not really a means to status, it is the heart of status', and descent is rooted in the overriding principle of honour
Honour
Honour or honor is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation...
, and thus a certain logistical freedom exists for commoners to manoeuver'. Thus, 'structure thus arises from human motives.' In the words of Alan Howard, Goldman sees 'cultural forms in Polynesia as primarily resultant from the cumulative decisions of chiefs engaged strategically and tactically in a continual game of honour and power.'
The book received mixed reviews. F.T.Legg found it to be 'a work of very high merit and considerable scholarship.' Alan Howard was generally dismissive of this the ambitious work as symptomatic of a long Western armchair theorist obsession with the idea that l'homme naturel could somehow be discovered in the Pacific, though he admitted that the book's strength, brilliance and acuity lay in Goldman's analysis of the political dynamics of traditional Polynesian societies. As with other specialists, the main charge laid against his interpretation was that his schematic reconstructions smacked of as 'thinly veiled monism
Monism
Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...
' where a constant, namely status rivalry, is made to account for variability.
Kwakiutl
He then completed his major study, long in the making, and based on many manuscripts, some 17 volumes, which Boas and his native informants such as George HuntGeorge Hunt (ethnologist)
George Hunt was a Tlingit consultant to the anthropologist Franz Boas who through his contributions is considered a linguist and ethnologist in his own right...
had never published, on the Kwakiutl
Kwakiutl
The term Kwakiutl, historically applied to the entire Kwakwaka'wakw ethno-linguistic group of originally 28 tribes, comes from one of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, the Kwagu'ł or Kwagyeulth, at Fort Rupert, with whom Franz Boas did most of his anthropological work and whose Indian Act Band government...
with his book, The Mouth of Heaven. Goldman set himself the formidable task of reconstructing from the mass of these relatively unexplored materials the religious thought of the Kwakiutl. This was one of the legs of his growing interest in the formation of early aristocratic societies, which he believed to be intimately tied to religious systems. Extending his ideas, he thought that tribal elites, especially hereditary ones, reflect a religious idea. He sets forth his view of the priority of religion in his opening remark that:
If a culture can be said to exist as a coherent system of thought, the source of coherence is in its religion... religion as an integrative system of thought identifies all fundamental concepts. The religious structures arises out of [observations of nature], out of comprehension of natural principles. Ultimately, then, it is perceived natural principles that integrate a society and govern its structure.'
The thesis that emerged, according to which all aspects of Kwakiutl culture, and especially the key ceremony of the much-studied potlatch
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...
, hitherto studied as a classic example of materialist interests underlying ritual organizations, were coterminous with religion, and religion in term was grounded in the way nature is perceived, proved controversial among area specialists- As an anti-functionalist
Structural functionalism
Structural functionalism is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions...
, he was opposed to cultural materialism
Cultural materialism (anthropology)
Cultural materialism is an anthropological research orientation first introduced by Marvin Harris in his 1968 book The Rise of Anthropological Theory, as a theoretical paradigm and research strategy. Indeed it is said to be the most enduring achievement of that work. Harris subsequently developed a...
. Bill Holm
Bill Holm (art historian)
Bill Holm is a U.S. artist, author and art historian specializing in the visual arts of Northwest Coast Native Americans as well as a practitioner and teacher of the Northwest Coast art style...
was sceptical, noting that Goldman lacked adequate familiarity with the Kwakiutl language
Kwak'wala
Kwak'wala is the Indigenous language spoken by the Kwakwaka'wakw. It belongs to the Wakashan language family. There are about 250 Kwak'wala speakers today, which amounts to 5% of the Kwakwaka'wakw population...
in which these primary texts were written. This same charge from area specialists had been made earlier against his work on Polynesia. This lack of intimate linguistic knowledge caused him to make many errors in his review of Kwakiutl texts, and Holm found Goldman's conclusions both unconvincing and disturbing. Philip Drucker
Philip Drucker
Philip Drucker was an American anthropologist who specialized in Native American peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America.In the 1940s he worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology in Washington, D.C.-Bibliography:...
ended his review by challenging Goldman's insistence that all aspects of the Kwakiutl lifeway were expressive of religious belief, and judged this approach preconceived, extremist and not believable. For him, Goldman's argument was both monotonous and biased.
To those who criticized his reductionism
Reductionism
Reductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
, which inverted the materialist or sociological reductionism of his times and discipline, he replied:-
'anthropologists belittle their own subject matter and the human beings who have produced it by arguing eternally like Durkheimeans
Émile DurkheimDavid Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
that natural taxaTaxonomyTaxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
derive from social categories. The savage is smitten with himself-an original narcissistNarcissismNarcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
-and sees only himself in nature. We will not have a grown-up anthropology until we grant to the "noble savageNoble savageThe term noble savage , expresses the concept an idealized indigene, outsider , and refers to the literary stock character of the same...
" parallel powers of reasoning, and qualities of curiosity and of close observation. I say that we should leave the fascinating questions of chickens and their eggs to coffee-klatschGossipGossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others, It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts and views, but also has a reputation for the introduction of errors and variations into the information transmitted...
metaphysiciansMetaphysicsMetaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
!'
Notable remarks
Goldman characterized the KwakiutlKwakiutl
The term Kwakiutl, historically applied to the entire Kwakwaka'wakw ethno-linguistic group of originally 28 tribes, comes from one of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, the Kwagu'ł or Kwagyeulth, at Fort Rupert, with whom Franz Boas did most of his anthropological work and whose Indian Act Band government...
view of the animal-human relationship in the following vivid metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
:-
'The relations between men and animals may be visualized as two strands, coiled helix-wise around each other, touching at some point, separating at others, but always symmetrically positioned. When they touch, they exchange powers; when they are separate, they reflect each other -humans appear as animals, and animals as humans.'
Of anthropologists he said:
'The Western ethnoigrapher will have to recognize that "natives£ think and reason philosophically and scientifically. Inj any case, the anthropological interest must move in this Boasian direction. It must shift from the solipsistic
SolipsismSolipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
fascination with one's own ratiocinations to a serious interest in what the native savantSavantSavant may refer to:* An expert or wise person* Savant syndrome* Marilyn vos Savant* Savant publications* Doug SavantIn popular culture:* Characters in the Noble Warriors Trilogy...
s have to say.'
Works
- 'The IfugaoIgorotCordillerans are the people of the Cordillera region, in the Philippines island of Luzon. The word, Igorot is a misnomer term invented by the Spaniards in mockery against the Nortnern Luzon tribes. The word ‘Igorot’ also as coined and applied by the Spaniards means a savage, head-hunting and...
of the Philippine Islands,'in M. Mead (1937) ch.5, pp. 153ff. - 'The Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island,' in M. Mead (1937) ch.6, pp180ff.
- 'The Zuni Indians of New Mexico', in M. Mead (1937) ch.10, pp313ff.
- 'The BathongaTonga people of Zambia and ZimbabweThe Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe are a Bantu ethnic group of southern Zambia and neighbouring northern Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent, in Mozambique. They are related to the Batoka who are part of the Tokaleya people in the same area, and also to the Tonga people of Malawi...
of South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
,' in M. Mead (1937) ch.11, pp. 354ff. - 'The Alkatcho Carrier of British Columbia,' in Ralph LintonRalph LintonRalph Linton was a respected American anthropologist of the mid-twentieth century, particularly remembered for his texts The Study of Man and The Tree of Culture...
(ed.) Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes, D.Appleton-Century, New York, 1940 pp. 333–385. - 'The Alkatcho Carrier: Historical Background of Crest Prerogatives,' in American AnthropologistAmerican AnthropologistAmerican Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association . It is known for publishing a wide range of work in anthropology, including articles on cultural, biological and linguistic anthropology and archeology...
, July–September, 1941, Vol. 43 (3), pp. 396–418. - 'Status Rivalry and Cultural Evolution in Polynesia,' in American Anthropologist 1955 (Vol. 57) pp. 680–697.
- The Cubeo: Indians of the Northwest Amazon, University of Illinois Press, 1963
- Ancient Polynesian Society, University of Chicago Press, 1970
- The Mouth of Heaven, John Wiley and Sons, 1975,
- Cubeo Hehénewa religious thought: metaphysics of a northwestern Amazonian people, (ed. Peter J. Wilson) Columbia University Press, 2004