Comparative ethnography
vThe founders of the disciplines, such as Adolf
Bastian and Bernard Ankermann, thought that culture could be divided into
discrete traits and these could be mapped, a process which would reveal
‘cultural layers’. Such layers had an evolutionary subtext, in
that there were ‘primitive’ layers and more evolved ones and these
were reflected in the complexity of material culture.
vTo do these scholars justice, such labels were
sparingly applied and the concern was more to uncover a rich archaeology of
layers. It was believed that material culture, religious beliefs and social
organisation were associated in complexes and that detailed analysis would
allow a more complete characterisation of such complexes.