September 25, 2025
Zoom link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF2XQaG25TA
Dr. Murray J. Leaf – The University of Texas, Dallas
Talk summary:
An empirical theory of social organization must be grounded in an empirical theory of ideas, i.e., an empirical epistemology. Empirical epistemology was developed during the Enlightenment, and to a large extent, it was the enlightenment. It freed all philosophy–all thought carried out only for its own sake–from any sort of supernatural or unempirical postulations or assumptions. On the other hand, Philosophical Positivism was not part of this; it was a reaction against it
In recent times, there has been a radical transformation of ethnology. As Herb Lewis says, “This practice and this mindset are not universal, but they do pervade the work of many contemporary anthropologists and have come to characterize the field at its commanding heights. Whereas until the mid-1960s American anthropology—the four-field variety—was conceived of as an “objective” (“positivistic”) science, since anthropology’s newest revolution the very notions of positivism, objectivity, and science it-self are not only questioned but are—in some quarters—considered im- possibilities at best, lies and tools of hegemonic domination at worst. (Lewis 2009:201)”
In this Thursday Chat presentation, I will try to, first, describe the enlightenment analyses that ethnologists have lost sight of, and, second, illustrate the kind of fieldwork that re-incorporates it We will consider one key quotation from David Hume and several from Immanuel Kant. Then, third, I will show how these analyses apply to, and are validated by, the cultural frame analysis of kinship terminologies.
The transformation in ethnology had had two main components. One is the shift from science to moralizing, as Lewis describes. The other is the abandonment of kinship and social organization as a central topic – one that Lewis does not call attention to. The key to the connection between them is Lewis’ equation of “objective” with “positivistic.” This is a fundamental epistemological mistake. My main purpose in this chat is to show why that is the case.
While the postmodernists seem to be commanding, few are obeying. The AAA has 40 sections. All but three represent “specializations” that their members define as scientific–not postmodernist. The Society for Applied Anthropology is also untransformed. The topics the various empirical specializations focus on are related to each other through the members’ activities in organizations. The only thing that can pull the specializations together as a coherent science is a theory of social organizations.
Our predecessors were right to focus on social organization through extended participant observation. They were right to recognize that they had to understand organizations through the ideas of those in the community. But they were wrong to accept positivist claims that at some point they had to abandon indigenous explanations and substitute their own to be more “objective.” They knew no alternative. Yet there was one…
The alternative is to pursue the indigenous ideas to their fundamentals. Find their most basic assumptions; find their organizing and generative principles. Create a systemic analysis that lets the indigenous system stand on its own for us just as it does for those whose system it is. In this Chat, I hope to open a dialogue with the audience for re-centering and empirical epistemology in anthropology.
Bio:
Dr. Murray J Leaf is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Political Economy at The University of Texas, Dallas. Dr. Leaf is a social-cultural anthropologist, holding a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Chicago and a BA in philosophy from Reed College. When asked what his “specialty” is, he responds that he is a symbolic anthropologist, an applied anthropologist, an interpretative anthropologist, an economic anthropologist, a political anthropologist, a legal anthropologist, but maybe not? He says his basic interest is in how people think and in what the fact that we think has to do with the fact that we (human beings) have multiple social organizations, never just one. His basic conviction is that to understand this, we must look at all kinds of thought: economic, symbolic, and so on, not just one, and we have to see how they are related to one another. His basic philosophical orientation, he says, is skeptical and pragmatic. Correspondingly, he says his methodological orientation is what William James called radical empiricism. Observation must be separated from imputing. Observation requires closely disciplined restraint. This is especially difficult when what we are observing is ideas and their uses, he says. We understand what other people think by letting them tell us and following it out to the last implication while working as hard as we possibly can to avoid imposing our own preconceptions.
Dr. Leaf has served as Senior Social Scientist on the Irrigation and Water Management and Training Project, in India (1987–89), Senior Socio-Economist for the Bangladesh Flood Response Study (1990–93), and as a consultant to the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan (1991–95). He has served on the editorial board of Regional Development Dialogue, the journal of the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, and the online anthropological journal Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory. He was President of the Culture and Agriculture section and the Society for Anthropological Sciences. After receiving his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1966, Dr. Leaf began his teaching at Pomona College and then spent some years teaching at UCLA before settling in at The University of Texas, Dallas in 1975, where he spent the majority of his academic career. He has published numerous books and articles including his 2021 book (with Dwight Read) entitled An Introduction to the Science of Kinship and two volumes on world religions: Anthropology of Western Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies, and Anthropology of Eastern Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies, all published by Lexington Books.
