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historical study of the gradual evolution of marriage in institution. The influence of
biological principle of evolution on the same is clear.
Shrichakradhar.com
History is the study of the past and nobody can negate history. Boas was of the notion
that each and every culture has its own separate past and each culture is “one of a
kind”— that is, different from all others. Each society and culture have its own particular
set of circumstances such as geography, climate, resources and particular cultural
borrowing. Because each culture was affected by almost everything that had happened
to it in the past, and because different things had happened to different cultures, each
culture is unique. Evans Prichard has also emphasized on the importance historical
approach in anthropology. He argued that that functioning of society cannot be
understood without understanding its history. Hence, if anybody wants to study the
origin and development of society and culture and how its social institutions have
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evolved, a historical approach is the only option.
The influence of the philosophy of history and biological principle of evolution on the
authors, who have used this method in the field of anthropology, is very distinct. In this
the origins of social institutions, societies and cultures are discovered and the positions
of evolution are shown.
Many scholars have opposed this application of the principle of evolution in the field of
social events. According to them, all these works based on historical method were
merely historical descriptions. In the 18th and 19th centuries, due to the triumph of
evolutionism in scientific fields, it was used, even in defining sociological events.
In the early 20th CenturyAmerican historical approach, which was a reaction to the
deductive approach, began under the leadership of Franz Boas. According to Boas,
anthropology was on the wrong path. He was of the view that rather than dreaming of
large, all-encompassing theories to explain why particular societies are the way they are,
Boas want to put the discipline on a sound inductive footing; that is, Boas planned to
start by collecting specific data and then move on to develop general theories (Ferraro
and Andreatta, 2010).
In the modern period the use of historical method is made for the study of special
historical events in the field of anthropology, because it is clear that various social
events take place after their origin from different sources and following different lines of
evolution.
In this way in anthropological research deductive and inductive approach developed.
The main differences between the deductive and inductive approach are:

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