Culture & Ethnology — Background and Themes

From General Principles to Specific Evidence

The first four chapters address broad determinants of culture: psychology, race, environment, and what Lowie calls “the determinants of culture.” These lectures were designed for intelligent laymen and emphasize principles over description. The opening chapter draws an analogy between culture and consciousness, suggesting that both are understood only through accumulated particular analyses. Lowie does not dismiss race or environment outright but positions them as secondary to historical and social factors. Readers should note how each chapter builds a case for culture as an autonomous field of study, distinct from biology or geography.

The Shift to Kinship as a Test Case

The fifth chapter, “Terms of Relationship,” is markedly more technical and data-driven. Lowie explains that he chose this topic because it offers a concrete demonstration of ethnological method. He warns that kinship “systems” vary in how they classify relatives, and that the same society may use contradictory principles. For example, the Masai of East Africa employ a descriptive principle for non-vocative terms—combining stems like baba (father) and alasche (brother)—but in direct address they use classificatory terms or even gift-based vocatives such as b-ainoni (from oinoni, bull). This coexistence of principles complicates any attempt to define a single system type.

Geographical Distribution and Historical Connection

Lowie emphasizes that kinship features are not random but cluster in continuous areas. The descriptive principle, for instance, flourishes among East African tribes like the Shilluk and Dinka, and where Arabic influence extends. Among the Baganda and most Bantu Negroes, descriptive terms are lacking; instead, a relative like the mother’s brother’s son is classed with the brother. The Masai, surrounded by Bantu tribes, show a mixed pattern: descriptive for non-vocative usage, partly classificatory for vocatives. Lowie treats this as “almost quantitative proof” that kinship terminology depends on historical connection and geographical proximity, not on universal psychological or racial factors.

Reading the Book as a Lay Audience Would

Lowie explicitly addresses his lectures to “an audience of intelligent laymen,” and the book retains that tone in the first four chapters. Technical terms are introduced gradually, and the kinship chapter includes explanations of “descriptive” and “classificatory” principles. Readers unfamiliar with ethnology will benefit from noting how Lowie moves from abstract claims to concrete examples—for instance, the Masai case illustrates how multiple principles can coexist. The final chapter is more demanding, but Lowie argues that Morgan’s earlier work on kinship had already interested hundreds of non-specialists. The book thus serves as both an introduction to ethnological thinking and a demonstration of how field data can test theoretical claims.

Lowie’s lectures reward a reader who pays attention to how he builds an argument from definition to evidence. The kinship chapter, though technical, is the key to understanding his method: he does not simply assert that culture shapes social organization, but shows how geographical distribution and historical contact produce specific patterns. A first reading might focus on the interplay between the general chapters and the case study, noting how Lowie’s claims about culture’s autonomy are tested against the messy reality of Masai terminology.

That afternoon, rain drummed softly against the glass while Lowie’s careful dismantling of race left me oddly weightless. His kinship charts felt like quiet maps of human connection, worn by generations. Later, restless, I stumbled upon a memoir about Gypsy families, their own webs of naming and belonging, and it struck me—the same delicate threads, just spun elsewhere. I closed one book and opened Romany Life Experienced and Observed during many Years of Friendly Intercourse with the Gypsies — Background and Themes, and the rain kept falling.