Page 35 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Unit 4: Approaches to the Study of Kinship: Historical and Evolutionary

for the study of those societies whose neither any written history is available nor any solid Notes
residue of culture.
4. Redcliff Brown had expressed following views in regard to evolutionary approach:
(a) This approach is quite unuseful for the study of those societies whose no written his-
tory exists such as – primitive societies, illiterate societies, etc.
(b) The study made through this remains limited to estimates only. In this approach any
type of test or inspection is not possible.
(c) In this approach, the gathered facts are not possible to be tested experimentally, the
test of authenticity of the work, reason, mutual relation is also not possible.
(d) Through this approach, scientists can only get knowledge of predictive periodic evo-
lution of historical events related to the society. Through this, scientists can’t get true,
authentic and reliable in relation to real stages and events.

Self Assessment
Choose right option:
4. First of all, who originated polythecism—
(a) Morgan (b) Durkheem (c) Toyler
5. Who saw the origin and development of marriage and family in human history—
(a) Durkheem (b) Morgan (c) Karl Marx
6. Who propounded the theory of organic evolution through evolutionary approach—
(a) Carl Marx (b) Toyler (c) Charles Darwin

4.3 Summary
• In 1859 A.D., Charles Darwin had written a book named “Origin of Species.”
• According to Herbert Spensor, “Evolution, is a co-ordination of element and a motion
related to it during which element changes from an indefinite-incongruous-similarity to
definite-congravous.”
• According to Morgan, there are three levels of the evolution of human society —(i) Man-
cultured Savagery Stage (ii) Barbarian Stage (iii) Civilized Stage

4.4 Keywords
1. Evolutionary Change: Regular and successive change in a definite direction is an illustra-
tion of evolutionary change.
2. Historical Approach: By serialising and arranging the social, cultural, economic, and politi-
cal events of the society through history, we can understand the regularity and main stream
of the social life.

4.5 Review Questions
1. Investigate the historical approach of kinship study.
2. Give a critical description of evolutionary approach of kinship study.

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