This Gary
Larson comic strip titled “The Far Side” is a classic in anthropology.
It effectively conveys the history of the discipline of anthropology
spanning over the past 150 years. This field of study (anthropology)
originated from the endeavors of European colonialists and government
officials seeking to understand and document human change, traditions,
and cultures.Early anthropologists employed salvage ethnography to
gather as much information as possible from cultures worldwide that
were being profoundly impacted by colonialism, imperialism, and
globalization. Many of these cultures would soon vanish
entirely.Anthropologists wanted to understand others as they were
“before contact.” That's precisely why this comic depicts natives
running to hide various electronic devices, trying to show their true
selves to gullible anthropologists wearing peaked caps and khaki cargo
vests.In the late 19th century, cultural evolutionists like Lewis Henry
Morgan and Sir Edward B. Tylor theorized how cultures had evolved
univocally through time by using comparative methods to understand
contemporary “primitive” peoples.They viewed “primitive” groups as
static remnants of the past. However, this was refuted in the early
20th century by Franz Boas, the father of modern anthropology.
文化人類学人物群像 
