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Man, Energy, and Anthropology: I Can Feel the Heat, But Where's the Light?
Author(s) -
Adams Richard Newbold
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1978.80.2.02a00030
Subject(s) - ilya , materialism , holism , dissipative system , epistemology , sociology , creatures , energy (signal processing) , field (mathematics) , destiny (iss module) , philosophy , physics , thermodynamics , mathematics , history , linguistics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , astronomy , natural (archaeology) , pure mathematics
Anthropology should deal with man holistically, but has failed to do so. The field is unfortunately split between mentalistic and materialistic schools and has not developed a theory to cope with the complexity of large contemporary societies. Energy similarly has been little studied by anthropology because there has been no theory sufficient for the purpose. The thermodynamics of structures far from equilibrium and the dissipative structure model of Ilya Prigogine offer a method for both studying energy in society and dealing with society as a whole. Anthropologists are urged to pursue study of this area because it is critical for an understanding of human destiny . [energy, holism, materialism‐mentalism, dissipative structures, complex societies]