In the beginning...
characterizing a moment in human history, comparatively (culture? America?)
- de Tocqueville (vs. old Europe)
- Weber (vs. the Catholics, India, China, etc.)
- Myrdal (vs. itself)
The turn to ethnography as a way of knowing, and to particular settings in the United States
first in sociology
Chicago
Indiana
and then everywhere else
and then in anthropology
starting in Massachusetts
and then Illinois and the Middle West
and then everywhere else
as well as in political science, etc.
and with particular emphases on the perennial political issues of the day
on race and poverty
on integration, assimilation, socialization, and ethnicity
on gender, disability, abortion, medicine, etc.
- Ginsburg (abortion)
- Holland & Eisenhart (gender)
- Rapp (techniques of the body)
- Weston (gay and lesbian families)
Meanwhile ... the continued search for characterization
in the social sciences in general
and anthropology in particular
the first generation
- Gorer
- Henry
- Hsu
- Kluckhohn & Strodbeck
- Mead
and ongoing