Anthropology Quote by Lily King
““Anthropology at that time was in transition, moving from the study of men dead and gone to the study of living people, and slowly letting go of the rigid belief that the natural and inevitable culmination of every society is the Western model.””
About This Quote
Source Anthropology Textbook: Cultural Evolution, 1990s
Anthropology shifted from studying dead societies to focusing on living peoples, moving away from the assumption that Western culture is the inevitable endpoint for all societies.
In simple terms: Anthropology now studies living cultures.
Key Takeaway
Embrace cultural diversity.
Themes
anthropology
culture
evolution
diversity
ethnocentrism
Mood
thoughtful
critical
Type
academic
reflective
When to use this quote
- fieldwork
- teaching
- policy making
- museum curation
Key Concepts
cultural relativism
post‑colonial theory
globalization
Questions to Reflect On
- How does this shift affect modern anthropology?
- What challenges remain in avoiding ethnocentrism?
A Different Perspective
Western bias still influences some research.
![“Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… [The anthropologist] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg)
