“The Superorganic,” or Kroeber’s hidden agenda.
Kroeber’s “The Superorganic” (1917) stands as the first extreme statement of cultural holism. Some have compared it to Durkheim, the majority to Boas; some have denied any evolutionary message, others read in it a theory of “emergent evolution” arising from his transcendental holism. What was it, exactly? When understood as part of a trilogy comprising two other articles (one from 1915, the other from 1919), it emerged that his extreme brand of cultural holism was a necessary tool to carry out a relatively hidden evolutionary agenda. This led me to rethink his evolutionism, to deny that he was a cultural determinist, to understand this part of his anthropology in terms of “epistemological obstacles” (Bachelard 1938), and show that it reemerges in Appadurai’s understanding of globalization (1996).
Verdon
Michel
M
Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
D000883:Anthropology / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D005075:Biological Evolution; D049673:History, 20th Century; D040821:Human Characteristics; D019359:Knowledge; D008091:Literature / Q000266:history; D012922:Social Change / Q000266:history