Robert L. Carneiro

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Robert Leonard Carneiro (born June 4, 1927 in New York City - June 24, 2020 ) was an American anthropologist and ethnologist .

Life

Carneiro was the son of Portuguese immigrants to the USA. Carneiro studied political science and anthropology in Michigan.

In 1956 Carneiro was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . He was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.

Ethnological field research

Carneiro conducted research with the Kuikuro in central Brazil, with the Amahuaca in eastern Peru and with the Yanomami in southern Venezuela .

Carneiros state formation theory

In his essay "A theory of the Origin of the State", Carneiro developed a counter-model to the theory of conquest and submission : his theory of natural boundaries (Circumscription Theory) is based on the assumption that in the event of a conquest, the inferior will usually pass to another Flee place; he names the Amazon Indians as an example. Only when there are natural boundaries (desert, mountains, sea) will the inferior group remain at the place of defeat.

Under these conditions, according to Carneiro, the state emerges in such a way that when the population grows, there is a dispute over the scarce land and so a village tries to conquer and subjugate the neighboring village. This leads to the emergence of state rule; this was the case in Egypt, for example.

The main criticism of Carneiro's theory is that there is no scientific example that conquering peasant peoples have permanently subjugated other peasant peoples; rather, peasant peoples would kill the conquered and use the land for their own cultivation.

It is also objected that there are numerous examples in which narrow geographical boundaries have not led to the emergence of state rule. It is also questionable whether his starting point, according to which the Amazon Indians did not form a state because of the "geographical limitlessness", was not based on a later (observation) situation in which the population was strongly decimated by diseases and colonization - during For the previously more numerous population, geographical borders were definitely noticeable without the emergence of a state.

Work (selection)

  • A Theory of the Origin of the State , Science Vol. 169, Aug 21, 1970, pp. 733-738. ( Digitized 1977 ).
  • The Muse of History and the Science of Culture . New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, 2000.
  • Compilation of further works: Robert L. Carneiro - Biography. In: rlcarneiro.com. web.archive.org, 2016, archived from the original on April 6, 2016 .;

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert L. Carneiro. National Academy of Sciences, accessed June 25, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Robert L. Carneiro - Biography. In: rlcarneiro.com. web.archive.org, 2016, archived from the original on April 6, 2016 ; accessed on June 26, 2020 . .
  3. ^ AAS Fellows: Robert L. Carneiro. American Association for the Advancement of Science, accessed February 26, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter C. (PDF; 1.3 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed February 26, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ a b Beliaev / Bondarenko / Korotayev: Origins and Evolution of Chiefdoms , in: Reviews in Anthropology, Vol. 30 (2001), pp. 373-395 ( online version , accessed February 12, 2017).
  6. ↑ Max Weber , Economy and Society , Part III, Chap. III, § 2.
  7. ↑ Review: Stephen K. Sanderson: The Muse of History and the Science of Culture. Review of Robert L. Carneiro. In: socionauki.ru. Retrieved June 26, 2020 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Carneiro, Robert L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carneiro, Robert Leonard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American anthropologist and ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 2020