La Antropología y el funcionalismo

Evans-Pritchard reminds us that men have always proposed theories about the nature of human society; hence it is difficult to establish a starting point for anthropological theory. However, it can be said that the most outstanding precursors are to be found, in the eighteenth century, in France (with authors ranging from Montesquieu, Comte, to Durkheim, passing through the Encyclopedists) and in England (with Hume, Smith, Reid, etc.) Both the French and the British deduced their approaches more from a priori reasoning than from empirical observations. Victorian anthropologists (MacLennan, Tylon, Margan) speculated, based more on similarities than on differences, constructing progressive stages. The 19th century was the century of the search for origins: "la hantise des origines" and interest in general laws.