Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was one of the first psychologists to break the barrier between anthropology and psychology. His best known anthropological work is Totem and Taboo. In his book, Freud provides an insightful description to taboos and their origination; yet his theory on the origin of totems is somewhat speculative. His main work on the origin of totemism, incest taboo, exogamy and the Oedipus complex, is well known, for he argued the existence of a primal horde, the leader of which was the oldest male, who assumed exclusive sexual rights over all females in the group. Frustrated, the sons murdered and ate their father; but overcome by guilt afterwards, the sons decided to obey commands and abstain from sexual intercourse with their mothers and sisters. Selecting a totem animal as a symbolic father substitute, they declared that it must be protected during the year and consumed only on ritual occasions. These ritual totem meals thus reenacted their original deed and reinforced their self-imposed incest prohibitions. Freud thus, concluded that all cultures originate from this sacrificial meal.
Best known for his psychoanalysis, Freud saw the trauma of childhood reflected in the neuroses of adults. He established the Oedipus complex as a universal story in which the son, jealous of his father’s attentions on his mother, entertains hostility
towards the father and develops an erotic attachment to his mother. This desire is felt among all men; yet is buried by repression and then resurfaces in the actions of adulthood. Freud’s psychoanalysis was an attempt to uncover the repressed
childhood trauma through a series of word associations, dream analysis, and freeflow talking.
His Oedipus complex analysis (in which a son hates his father for his strict authority and is jealous of his sexual prerogatives over the mother, yet loves him for strength and protection) among all societies.
Criticism
- Malinowski, who tested this hypothesis among the matrilineal Trobriand society (1922), rejected Freud’s views on the universality of the Oedipus complex.
- Franz Boas (1858- 1942), though he was not interested in psychology, reacted to Freud’s analysis and said that his method was one sided and could do nothing to advance understanding of cultural development.
- Kroeber (1876-1960) rejected Freud’s conjectures by the phrase “bewilderingly fertile imagination”. At the same time Kroeber, realised the importance of the psychological dimension of culture, which he felt should not be ignored.
However, This Freudian hypothesis influenced early anthropological research on culture and personality giving birth to what is known as Psychological Anthropology.