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Definition
The subject moved from armchair unilinear evolution and colonial administration, through field ethnography and structural-functional analysis, to applied and reflexive anthropology.
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Example / case study
Formative phase (1774–1919): Risley’s People of India and Thurston’s Castes and Tribes of Southern India — survey anthropology for colonial rule. Constructive phase (1920–1949): Calcutta University department (1920); Majumdar on the Ho, Elwin in Bastar, Karve on caste and kinship.
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Thinkers
L.P. Vidyarthi — Formative, Constructive and Analytical phases of anthropology in India. E.B. Tylor — unilinear evolution (savagery–barbarism–civilisation) and the doctrine of survivals. Franz Boas — rejected universal stages; each culture has its own history (historical particularism).
Short notes for this Anthropology syllabus heading.