Didenko V. Cultural anthropology trends in historical scholarship in the United States in the late XX century - the beginning of the XXI century.

The bulk of the thesis is devoted to the evolution of cultural anthropology trends in the United States and to the review of current theoretical debates of this discipline. In anthropology, as in any discipline, there is a continual ebb and flow of ideas. One theoretical orientation will arise and may grow in popularity until another is proposed in opposition to it. In our survey of many of the orientations that have developed since the emergence of anthropology as a professional discipline, we follow an approximate historical sequence. Beginning with a summary of the methodological approaches, which had been marked the history of American cultural anthropology (historical particularism, neo-evolutionism, interpretive anthropology, postmodernism, and others), the author goes on to examine the works of such prominent scientists as F. Boas, L. White, M. Harris, C. Geertz, G. Marcus and others, those who have paved the way for the development of cultural anthropology in the late XX century - the beginning of the XXI century. Drawing on a wealth material of the sources, telling as the classical works of American cultural anthropology, as well as the critical reception of their theories in a more ancient and modern times, the author shows the relationship between the development of cultural anthropology and humanities in the XX-XXI centuries, explores the influence and conflicts within the discipline.