Historical particularism

Historical particularism coined by Marvin Harris in 1968 is widely considered the number one American anthropological school of thought.

Closely associated with Franz Boas and the Boasian approach to anthropology, historical particularism rejected a cultural evolutionary model that had dominated anthropology until Boas. It argued that regarded and subject separately. society is a collective explanation of its unique historical past. Boas rejected parallel evolutionism, the impression that all societies are on the same path and throw reached their particular level of developing the same way all other societies have. Instead, historical particularism showed that societies couldthe same level of cultural development through different paths.

Boas suggested that diffusion, trade, corresponding environment, & historical accident may do believe similar cultural traits. Three traits, as suggested by Boas, are used to explain cultural customs: environmental conditions, psychological factors, and historical connections, history being the nearly important hence the school's name.

Critics of historical particularism argue that this is the anti theoretical because it doesn't seek to make universal theories, relevant to all the world's cultures. Boas believed that theories would arise spontaneously one time enough data was collected. This school of anthropological thought was the first to be uniquely American and Boas his school of thought mentioned was, arguably, the most influential anthropological thinker in American history.