Compared toethnography, the study of single groups through direct contact with the culture, ethnology takes the research that ethnographers have compiled and then compares and contrasts different cultures.
The termethnologia (ethnology) is credited toAdam Franz Kollár (1718–1783) who used and defined it in hisHistoriae ivrisqve pvblici Regni Vngariae amoenitates published inVienna in 1783.[3] as: "the science of nations and peoples, or, that study of learned men in which they inquire into the origins, languages, customs, and institutions of various nations, and finally into the fatherland and ancient seats, in order to be able better to judge the nations and peoples in their own times."[4]
Kollár's interest in linguistic and cultural diversity was aroused by the situation in his native multi-ethnic and multilingualKingdom of Hungary and his roots among itsSlovaks, and by the shifts that began to emerge after the gradual retreat of theOttoman Empire in the more distantBalkans.[5]
Among the goals of ethnology have been the reconstruction ofhuman history, and the formulation ofculturalinvariants, such as theincest taboo and culture change, and the formulation of generalizations about "human nature", a concept which has been criticized since the 19th century by various philosophers (Hegel,Marx,structuralism, etc.). In some parts of the world, ethnology has developed along independent paths of investigation andpedagogical doctrine, withcultural anthropology becoming dominant especially in theUnited States, andsocial anthropology inGreat Britain. The distinction between the three terms is increasingly blurry. Ethnology has been considered an academic field since the late 18th century, especially in Europe and is sometimes conceived of as any comparative study of human groups.
The 15th-century exploration of America by European explorers had an important role in formulating new notions of the Occident (theWestern world), such as the notion of the "Other". This term was used in conjunction with "savages", which was either seen as a brutal barbarian, or alternatively, as the "noble savage". Thus,civilization was opposed in a dualist manner tobarbary, a classic opposition constitutive of the even more commonly sharedethnocentrism. The progress of ethnology, for example withClaude Lévi-Strauss'sstructural anthropology, led to the criticism of conceptions of a linearprogress, or the pseudo-opposition between "societies with histories" and "societies without histories", judged too dependent on a limited view ofhistory as constituted by accumulative growth.
Lévi-Strauss often referred toMontaigne'sessay oncannibalism as an early example of ethnology. Lévi-Strauss aimed, through a structural method, at discovering universal invariants in human society, chief among which he believed to be the incest taboo. However, the claims of such culturaluniversalism have been criticized by various 19th- and 20th-century social thinkers, including Marx,Nietzsche,Foucault,Derrida,Althusser, andDeleuze.
The French school of ethnology was particularly significant for the development of the discipline, since the early 1950s. Important figures in this movement have included Lévi-Strauss,Paul Rivet,Marcel Griaule,Germaine Dieterlen, andJean Rouch.
^"ethno-".Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived fromthe original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved21 March 2013.
^"ethnology".Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived fromthe original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved21 March 2013.
^Zmago Šmitek and Božidar Jezernik, "The anthropological tradition in Slovenia." In: Han F. Vermeulen and Arturo Alvarez Roldán, eds.Fieldwork and Footnotes: Studies in the History of European Anthropology. 1995.
^Kollár, Adam František − Historiae jurisque publici regni Ungariae amoenitates, I-II. Vienna., 1783
^Gheorghiţă Geană, "Discovering the whole of humankind: the genesis of anthropology through the Hegelian looking-glass." In: Han F. Vermeulen and Arturo Alvarez Roldán, eds.Fieldwork and Footnotes: Studies in the History of European Anthropology. 1995.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude.The Elementary Structures of Kinship, (1949),Structural Anthropology (1958)
Mauss, Marcel. originally published asEssai sur le don. Forme et raison de l'échange dans les sociétés archaïques in 1925, this classic text ongift economy appears in the English edition as The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies.
Maybury-Lewis, David.Akwe-Shavante society (1967),The Politics of Ethnicity: Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States (2003).
Languages describes the languages and ethnic groups found worldwide, grouped by host nation-state.
Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History – over 160,000 objects from Pacific, North American, African, Asian ethnographic collections with images and detailed description, linked to the original catalogue pages, field notebooks, and photographs are available online.
