There are rich ethnological and sociological heritages in China's vast historical documents, and many people who can be called ancient ethnologists and sociologists in today's terminology have appeared in the past dynasties. However, as independent modern disciplines, ethnology and sociology both came from the west in the early 20th century. After the 1920s, some missionary universities in China and universities with more contacts with the West first set up ethnology and sociology majors. Such as yenching university, Tsinghua University, Jinling University, Huaxi University, Lingnan University, Fu Jen Catholic University, Sino-French University, etc. Among the universities in China, Peking University, Nanjing University and Sun Yat-sen University set up this major earlier. Anthropology is divided into two parts: physical anthropology and cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology in the United States, Britain and other countries is called ethnology in Germany, France and other countries on the European continent. Although their origins are different, their connotations are the same.
At that time, the courses of ethnology and anthropology were mostly located in the sociology department. Most of the earliest scholars who offered these courses came back from studying in the West. Pan Guangdan, Wu Wenzao, Yang Chengzhi and others are sociologists and anthropologists (ethnologists) who returned from the West earlier (1920s).
In the 1920s, the theories of historical school, evolutionary school, especially functional school appeared in western ethnology and sociology, and these China scholars who studied in the west basically became followers of these schools. However, when they returned to China and studied China society with these theories, they gradually developed some local characteristics of China in terms of discipline theory and methods.
When studying in the graduate school of Columbia University, Pan Guangdan studied under the master of history school boas, and was greatly influenced by L.H.Morgan, a famous ethnologist of evolutionary school. During Wu Wenzao's study in the Anthropology Department of Columbia University, the anthropology department of the school concentrated almost the most famous anthropology and sociology elites in the United States at that time. For example, boas, the founder of the historical school, and R.F.Benediet and margaret mead. , are famous masters in the field of international anthropology. Yang Chengzhi received his Ph.D. in Ethnology from the University of Paris and accepted the functionalist theory.
Pan Guangdan, Wu Wenzao, Yang Chengzhi and others have mastered the most advanced theories and methods of western anthropology and sociology. Wu Wenzao's doctoral thesis also won the Best Foreign Student Award of Columbia University in recent ten years. After returning home, they taught in Tsinghua, Yanjing and Sun Yat-sen University respectively, and trained a group of scholars who will become famous anthropologists (ethnology) and sociologists in the future. Such as Fei Xiaotong, Lin, etc.
(b) Practical schools and community studies
In the 1920s, Wu Wenzao served as the head of the Department of Sociology in yenching university shortly after returning to China. The students in this department are Fei Xiaotong, Lin, Li, Li and others. At that time, ethnology and sociology in China were still in the stage of copying and imitating the West. Mr. Wu Wenzao first put forward the teaching reform plan for China. His view of China includes three aspects: first, to determine an effective theoretical framework; Second, use this theory to guide China's research practice; Third, further cultivate talents who can engage in research independently.
In the theoretical framework, he chose the British functional school. He said: "Functionalism is the most advanced school in social anthropology and the most powerful school in today's academic circles." (The Origin and Present Situation of Functionalist Social Anthropology, Social Studies11,1 12, 1936) In the research practice of China society, he put forward a community research method combining sociology with ethnology. These two points run through decades of research by him and his students. Up to now, the method of closely combining sociology and ethnology is still the most distinctive tradition of our college. In order to cultivate more talents, Mr. Wu Wenzao sent students Fei Xiaotong and Lin to study in London University and Harvard University in the United States in 1937 respectively.
When Fei Xiaotong was in the School of Economics of University of London, his tutor was Malinowski, the founder of functional school. Lin's teachers are Hutton and others from Harvard University. After they returned to China, they successively taught in the Sociology Department of yenching university, where Wu Wenzao was the dean, and in the Sociology Department of Tsinghua University, where Pan Guangdan was the dean.
(c) Border and minority studies
1937, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression broke out in an all-round way, and the Japanese planned to encourage Manchu and Mongolian independence, which led to the border crisis in China. Mr. Wu Wenzao assessed the situation, and proposed that the study of frontier and ethnic minorities should be the focus of sociology and ethnology. To this end, he sent students, Lin, Fei Xiaotong, to Tibet, Liangshan in Sichuan, Dayaoshan in Guangxi and Xinjiang for inspection. Since then, Li Youyi has become one of the main pioneers of Tibetan studies in China. Lin's Liangshan Yi Family and Fei Xiaotong's Hualanyao Social Organization have both become classics of ethnology research. Mr. Wang has been engaged in ethnic studies in Xinjiang for decades. In the future, when these scholars are concentrated in the research department of the Central University for Nationalities, they will continue their research tradition, which has contributed to the concern of China ethnology circles about the characteristics of the frontier and ethnic minorities. This tradition continues to this day.
(D) Three generations of teachers and students gathered in the Research Department
The academic origins of the School of Ethnology and Sociology are mainly inherited from scholars engaged in ethnology, sociology and anthropology in the Research Department of the Central University for Nationalities. In 1950s and 1960s, they were a group of top figures who stood at the forefront of ethnology, sociology and anthropology in China. Most of these scholars come from sociology departments and ethnology departments in yenching university and Tsinghua University (yenching university Sociology Department is divided into ethnology department and labor department in 195 1). In the early 1950s, three generations of scholars came to the Scientific Research Department of the Central University for Nationalities. The following is the relationship between their mentoring sequence and academic inheritance:
The first generation: Pan Guangdan, Wu Wenzao.
The second generation: Fei Xiaotong, Lin,,.
The third generation:, Song Shuhua, Shi, Chen Fengxian, Wang Furen,,, Huang Shuping.
From 1950s to 1990s, they were the leading figures in ethnology and sociology in China.
In the1940s, Mr. Yang Chengzhi and Mr. Wu Wenzao, the heads of anthropology departments of Sun Yat-sen University, called China anthropology and sociology "South Yang and North Wu". At this time, he also came to the research department as a first-generation scholar.
(5) handed down from generation to generation
From the Research Department in the early 1950s to the Institute of Ethnology and Sociology today, it has experienced ups and downs for half a century, and the academic tradition gradually formed as early as the 1930s and 1940s is still continuing and developing. These traditions are: first, combine the theories and methods of ethnology and sociology in teaching and research, and advocate empirical community research; Second, the frontier and ethnic minority areas are the focus of research; Thirdly, considering the national conditions of China, we should attach importance to the historical perspective in the research.
On the theory of research, in June 5438+ 10, 2006, Professor Qiao Jian, a famous anthropologist, wrote that the historical functional school represented by Mr. Fei Xiaotong has formed in the ethnology, anthropology and sociology circles in China, which is the theoretical development of the functional school and an important contribution to the international ethnology and sociology theory. (On Fei Xiaotong's Historical Role, Journal of Minzu University of China,No. 1 2007).