Parallels between the Development of the Culture-Area Concept and “Economic and Technical Areas” in the 1920s–1930s

Abstract

The article examines the development of the “culture area” concept in American cultural anthropology and that of “economic-cultural type” in Soviet ethnography in the 1920s–1930s. Three stages of development of the concepts have been outlined: 1) the 1890s–1910s, during which the concepts of areal/territorial studies received their initial design; the masterpiece of the period was “The American Indian” by C. Wissler (1917); 2) the 1920s, when the concepts were theoretically substantiated; 3) the 1930s, when discussion of the topic ceased in the USSR, while in the USA the concept of culture area was criticized by A. Kroeber for the lack of historicism. The article highlights the features of each national school: historicism in the USSR and consistent empiricism in the USA. It is also indicated that a number of provisions of the ECT/CA concepts in the pre-war period did not receive sufficient coverage: the relationship between environmental and cultural factors.