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class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.3</span> <span>Complexity</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Complexity-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Open_system_and_closed_system" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Open_system_and_closed_system"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.4</span> <span>Open system and closed system</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Open_system_and_closed_system-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Tracing_"systems_theory"_in_anthropology" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Tracing_"systems_theory"_in_anthropology"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Tracing "systems theory" in anthropology</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Tracing_"systems_theory"_in_anthropology-sublist" class="cdx-button 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class="vector-toc-link" href="#Structural_anthropology"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.3</span> <span>Structural anthropology</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Structural_anthropology-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Interpretive_anthropology" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Interpretive_anthropology"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.4</span> <span>Interpretive anthropology</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Interpretive_anthropology-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Practice_theory" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Practice_theory"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.5</span> <span>Practice theory</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Practice_theory-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-System_theory:_Gregory_Bateson" 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<li id="toc-Posthumanist_turn_and_ethnographic_writing" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Posthumanist_turn_and_ethnographic_writing"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4.2</span> <span>Posthumanist turn and ethnographic writing</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Posthumanist_turn_and_ethnographic_writing-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Further_reading" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Further_reading"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>Further reading</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Further_reading-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div 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screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:none!important}}</style><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of <a href="/wiki/Category:Anthropology" title="Category:Anthropology">a series</a> on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle" style="background:#efefef;"><a href="/wiki/Anthropology" title="Anthropology">Anthropology</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-image"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Queue.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Queue.svg/100px-Queue.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Queue.svg/150px-Queue.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Queue.svg/200px-Queue.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="100" data-file-height="100" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-above" style="border:none;padding-bottom:0.5em;"> <div class="hlist"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Outline_of_anthropology" title="Outline of anthropology">Outline</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/History_of_anthropology" title="History of anthropology">History</a></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)">Types</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.75em;padding-right:0.75em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Archaeology" title="Archaeology">Archaeological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Biological_anthropology" title="Biological anthropology">Biological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cultural_anthropology" title="Cultural anthropology">Cultural</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linguistic_anthropology" title="Linguistic anthropology">Linguistic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Social_anthropology" title="Social anthropology">Social</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Archaeology" title="Archaeology">Archaeological</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Aerial_archaeology" title="Aerial archaeology">Aerial</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aviation_archaeology" title="Aviation archaeology">Aviation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Battlefield_archaeology" title="Battlefield archaeology">Battlefield</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Biblical_archaeology" title="Biblical archaeology">Biblical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bioarchaeology" title="Bioarchaeology">Bioarchaeological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Environmental_archaeology" title="Environmental archaeology">Environmental</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnoarchaeology" title="Ethnoarchaeology">Ethnoarchaeological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Experimental_archaeology" title="Experimental archaeology">Experiential</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Feminist_archaeology" title="Feminist archaeology">Feminist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Forensic_anthropology" title="Forensic anthropology">Forensic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Maritime_archaeology" title="Maritime archaeology">Maritime</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Paleoethnobotany" title="Paleoethnobotany">Paleoethnobotanical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Zooarchaeology" title="Zooarchaeology">Zooarchaeological</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Biological_anthropology" title="Biological anthropology">Biological</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-right:0.5em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anthrozoology" title="Anthrozoology">Anthrozoological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Biocultural_anthropology" title="Biocultural anthropology">Biocultural</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evolutionary_anthropology" title="Evolutionary anthropology">Evolutionary</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Forensic_anthropology" title="Forensic anthropology">Forensic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Molecular_anthropology" title="Molecular anthropology">Molecular</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Neuroanthropology" title="Neuroanthropology"> Neurological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nutritional_anthropology" title="Nutritional anthropology">Nutritional</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Paleoanthropology" title="Paleoanthropology">Paleoanthropological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Primatology" title="Primatology">Primatological</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)"><div class="hlist"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Social_anthropology" title="Social anthropology">Social</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Cultural_anthropology" title="Cultural anthropology">Cultural</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Applied_anthropology" title="Applied anthropology">Applied</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropology_of_art" title="Anthropology of art">Art</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cognitive_anthropology" title="Cognitive anthropology">Cognitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cyborg_anthropology" title="Cyborg anthropology">Cyborg</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropology_of_development" title="Anthropology of development">Development</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Digital_anthropology" title="Digital anthropology">Digital</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ecological_anthropology" title="Ecological anthropology">Ecological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Environmental_anthropology" title="Environmental anthropology">Environmental</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Economic_anthropology" title="Economic anthropology">Economic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Political_economy_in_anthropology" title="Political economy in anthropology"><span class="wrap">Political economy</span></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Feminist_anthropology" title="Feminist anthropology">Feminist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropology_of_food" title="Anthropology of food">Food</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnohistory" title="Ethnohistory">Historical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropology_of_institutions" title="Anthropology of institutions">Institutional</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kinship" title="Kinship">Kinship</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Legal_anthropology" title="Legal anthropology">Legal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropology_of_media" title="Anthropology of media">Media</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Medical_anthropology" title="Medical anthropology">Medical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnomuseology" title="Ethnomuseology">Museums</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnomusicology" title="Ethnomusicology">Musical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Political_anthropology" title="Political anthropology">Political</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Psychological_anthropology" title="Psychological anthropology">Psychological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Public_anthropology" title="Public anthropology">Public</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropology_of_religion" title="Anthropology of religion">Religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symbolic_anthropology" title="Symbolic anthropology">Symbolic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transpersonal_anthropology" class="mw-redirect" title="Transpersonal anthropology">Transpersonal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Urban_anthropology" title="Urban anthropology">Urban</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Visual_anthropology" title="Visual anthropology">Visual</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Linguistic_anthropology" title="Linguistic anthropology">Linguistic</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anthropological_linguistics" title="Anthropological linguistics">Anthropological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linguistic_description" title="Linguistic description">Descriptive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnolinguistics" title="Ethnolinguistics">Ethnological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnopoetics" title="Ethnopoetics">Ethnopoetical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Historical_linguistics" title="Historical linguistics">Historical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Language_ideology" title="Language ideology">Ideology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semiotic_anthropology" title="Semiotic anthropology">Semiotic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sociolinguistics" title="Sociolinguistics">Sociological</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Cultural_anthropology#Methods" title="Cultural anthropology">Research framework</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anthropometry" title="Anthropometry">Anthropometry</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnography" title="Ethnography">Ethnography</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cyber-ethnography" class="mw-redirect" title="Cyber-ethnography">cyber</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnology" title="Ethnology">Ethnology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Standard_cross-cultural_sample" class="mw-redirect" title="Standard cross-cultural sample">Cross-cultural comparison</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Participant_observation" title="Participant observation">Participant observation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Holism_in_science" title="Holism in science">Holism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reflexivity_(social_theory)" title="Reflexivity (social theory)">Reflexivity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thick_description" title="Thick description">Thick description</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cultural_relativism" title="Cultural relativism">Cultural relativism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnocentrism" title="Ethnocentrism">Ethnocentrism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Emic_and_etic" title="Emic and etic">Emic and etic</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)">Key concepts</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Culture" title="Culture">Culture</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Development_anthropology" title="Development anthropology">Development</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethnicity" title="Ethnicity">Ethnicity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evolution" title="Evolution">Evolution</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sociocultural_evolution" title="Sociocultural evolution">sociocultural</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gender" title="Gender">Gender</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kinship" title="Kinship">Kinship and descent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Meme" title="Meme">Meme</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Prehistory" title="Prehistory">Prehistory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)" title="Race (human categorization)">Race</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Society" title="Society">Society</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthropological_theories_of_value" title="Anthropological theories of value">Value</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Colonialism" title="Colonialism">Colonialism</a> / <a href="/wiki/Postcolonialism" title="Postcolonialism">Postcolonialism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)">Key theories</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theory" title="Actor–network theory">Actor–network theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alliance_theory" title="Alliance theory">Alliance theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cross-cultural_studies" title="Cross-cultural studies">Cross-cultural studies</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cultural_materialism_(anthropology)" title="Cultural materialism (anthropology)">Cultural materialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Culture_theory" title="Culture theory">Culture theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Trans-cultural_diffusion" class="mw-redirect" title="Trans-cultural diffusion">Diffusionism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Feminist_anthropology" title="Feminist anthropology">Feminism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Historical_particularism" title="Historical particularism">Historical particularism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boasian_anthropology" title="Boasian anthropology">Boasian anthropology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Structural_functionalism" title="Structural functionalism">Functionalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symbolic_anthropology" title="Symbolic anthropology">Interpretive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Performance_studies" title="Performance studies">Performance studies</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Political_economy_in_anthropology" title="Political economy in anthropology">Political economy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Practice_theory" title="Practice theory">Practice theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Structural_anthropology" title="Structural anthropology">Structuralism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Post-structuralism" title="Post-structuralism">Post-structuralism</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Systems theory</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#efefef;text-align:left;;color: var(--color-base)">Lists</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Anthropologists_by_nationality" title="Category:Anthropologists by nationality">Anthropologists by nationality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_years_in_anthropology" title="List of years in anthropology">Anthropology by year</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bibliography_of_anthropology" title="Bibliography of anthropology">Bibliography</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_anthropology_journals" title="List of anthropology journals">Journals</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_indigenous_peoples" class="mw-redirect" title="List of indigenous peoples">List of indigenous peoples</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Category:Anthropology_organizations" title="Category:Anthropology organizations">Organizations</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Anthropology" title="Template:Anthropology"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Anthropology" title="Template talk:Anthropology"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Anthropology" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Anthropology"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Systems theory in anthropology</b> is an interdisciplinary, non-representative, non-referential, and non-Cartesian approach that brings together natural and social sciences to understand society in its <a href="/wiki/Complexity" title="Complexity">complexity</a>. The basic idea of a <a href="/wiki/System_theory" class="mw-redirect" title="System theory">system theory</a> in <a href="/wiki/Social_science" title="Social science">social science</a> is to solve the classical problem of duality; mind-body, subject-object, form-content, signifier-signified, and structure-agency. Systems theory suggests <sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (May 2022)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> that instead of creating closed categories into binaries (subject-object), the system should stay open so as to allow free flow of process and interactions. In this way the binaries are dissolved. </p><p><a href="/wiki/Complex_system" title="Complex system">Complex systems</a> in nature involve a dynamic interaction of many variables (e.g. animals, plants, insects and bacteria; predators and prey; climate, the seasons and the weather, etc.) These interactions can adapt to changing conditions but maintain a balance both between the various parts and as a whole; this balance is maintained through <a href="/wiki/Homeostasis" title="Homeostasis">homeostasis</a>. Human societies are also complex systems. Work to define complex systems scientifically arose first in math in the late 19th century, and was later applied to biology in the 1920s to explain ecosystems, then later to social sciences. </p><p>Anthropologist <a href="/wiki/Gregory_Bateson" title="Gregory Bateson">Gregory Bateson</a> is the most influential and earliest propagator of systems theory in social sciences. In the 1940s, as a result of the <a href="/wiki/Macy_conferences" title="Macy conferences">Macy conferences</a>, he immediately recognized its application to human societies with their many variables and the flexible but sustainable balance that they maintain. Bateson describes system as "any unit containing feedback structure and therefore competent to process information."<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Thus an open system allows interaction between concepts and materiality or subject and the environment or abstract and real. In natural science, systems theory has been a widely used approach. Austrian biologist, <a href="/wiki/Karl_Ludwig_von_Bertalanffy" class="mw-redirect" title="Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy">Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy</a>, developed the idea of the <a href="/wiki/General_systems_theory" class="mw-redirect" title="General systems theory">general systems theory</a> (GST). The GST is a multidisciplinary approach of system analysis. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Main_concepts_in_systems_theory">Main concepts in systems theory</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Main concepts in systems theory"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Non-representational_and_non-referential">Non-representational and non-referential</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Non-representational and non-referential"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>One of the central elements of the systems theory is to move away from the representational system to the non-representation of things. What it means is that instead of imposing mental concepts, which reduce complexity of a materiality by limiting the variations or malleability onto the objects, one should trace the network of things. According to Gregory Bateson, "ethos, eidos, sociology, economics, cultural structure, social structure, and all the rest of these words refer only to scientists' ways of putting the jigsaw puzzle."<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The tracing rather than projecting mental images bring in sight material reality that has been obscured under the universalizing concepts. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Non-Cartesian">Non-Cartesian</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Non-Cartesian"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Since the European <a href="/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment" title="Age of Enlightenment">Enlightenment</a>, the Western philosophy has placed the individual, as an indispensable category, at the center of the universe. <a href="/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes" title="René Descartes">René Descartes</a>' famous aphorism, 'I think therefore I am' proves that a person is a rational subject whose feature of thinking brings the human into existence. The Cartesian subject, therefore, is a scientific individual who imposes mental concepts on things in order to control the nature or simply what exists outside his mind. This subject-centered view of the universe has reduced the complex nature of the universe. One of the biggest challenges for system theory is thus to displace or de-center the Cartesian subject as a center of a universe and as a rational being. The idea is to make human beings not a supreme entity but rather to situate them as any other being in the universe. The humans are not thinking Cartesian subject but they dwell alongside nature. This brings back the human to its original place and introduces nature in the equation. The systems theory, therefore, encourages a non-unitary subject in opposition to a Cartesian subject. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Complexity">Complexity</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Complexity"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Once the Cartesian individual is dissolved, the social sciences will move away from a subject-centered view of the world. The challenge is then how to non-represent empirical reality without reducing the complexity of a system. To put it simply, instead of representing things by us let the things speak through us. These questions led materialists philosophers such as Deleuze and Guattari to develop a "science" for understanding reality without imposing our mental projections. The way they encourage is instead of throwing conceptual ideas we should do tracing. Tracing requires one to connect disparate assemblages or appendages not into a unified center but rather into a <a href="/wiki/Rhizome" title="Rhizome">rhizome</a> or an open system.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Open_system_and_closed_system">Open system and closed system</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Open system and closed system"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Ludwig Bertalanffy describes two types of systems: <a href="/wiki/Open_system_(systems_theory)" title="Open system (systems theory)">open system</a> and <a href="/wiki/Closed_system" title="Closed system">closed system</a>. The open systems are systems that allow interactions between its internal elements and the environment. An open system is defined as a "system in exchange of matter with its environment, presenting import and export, building-up and breaking-down of its material components."<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, living organism. Closed systems, on the other hand, are considered to be isolated from their environment. For instance, thermodynamics that applies to closed systems. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Tracing_"systems_theory"_in_anthropology"><span id="Tracing_.22systems_theory.22_in_anthropology"></span>Tracing "systems theory" in anthropology</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Tracing "systems theory" in anthropology"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Marx–Weber_debates"><span id="Marx.E2.80.93Weber_debates"></span>Marx–Weber debates</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Marx–Weber debates"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Although the term 'system theory' is never mentioned in the work of <a href="/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a> and <a href="/wiki/Max_Weber" title="Max Weber">Max Weber</a>, the fundamental idea behind systems theory does penetrate deeply in to their understanding of social reality. One can easily see the challenges that both Marx and Weber faced in their work. Breaking away from Hegelian speculative philosophy, Marx developed a social theory based on <a href="/wiki/Historical_materialism" title="Historical materialism">historical materialism</a>, arguing that it is not consciousness that determines being, but in fact, it is social being that determines consciousness.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> More specifically, it is human beings' social activity, labor, that causes, shapes, and informs human thinking. Based on labor, Marx develops his entire social theory that specifically questions reified, bourgeois capitalism. Labor, class conflict, commodity, value, surplus-value, bourgeoisie, and proletariat are thus central concepts in Marxian social theory. In contrast to the Cartesian "pure and rational subjectivity," Marx introduced social activity as the force that produces rationality. He was interested in finding sophisticated, scientific universal laws of society, though contrary to positivist mechanistic approaches which take facts as given, and then develop causal relationship out of them. </p><p>Max Weber found Marxist ideas useful, however, limited in explaining complex societal practices and activities. Drawing on <a href="/wiki/Hermeneutics" title="Hermeneutics">hermeneutic</a> tradition, Weber introduced multiple rationalities in the modern schema of thinking and used interpretive approach in understanding the meaning of a phenomenon placed in the webs of significance. Contrary to Marx, who was searching for the universal laws of the society, Weber attempts an interpretive understanding of social action in order to arrive at a "causal explanation of its course and effects."<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Here the word course signifies Weber's non-deterministic approach to a phenomenon. The social actions have subjective meanings that should be understood in its given context. Weber's interpretive approach in understanding the meaning of an action in relation to its environment delineated a contextualized social framework for cultural relativism. </p><p>Since we exist in webs of significance and the objective analysis would detach us from a concrete reality which we are all part of it, Weber suggested ideal-types; an analytical and conceptual construct "formed by the accentuation of one or more points of view and by the synthesis of a great many diffuse, discrete, more or less present, and occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena, which are arranged according to those one-sidedly emphasized viewpoints into a unified analytical construct."<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Although they are analytical concepts, they serve as reference points in interpreting the meaning of society's heterogeneous and polymorphous activities. In other words, ideal-types are simplified and typified empirical reality, but they are not reality in themselves. Bureaucracy, authority, religion, etc. are all ideal-types, according to Weber, and do not exist in the real world. They assist social scientists in selecting culturally significant elements of a larger whole which can be contrasted with each other to demonstrate their interrelationship, patterns of formation, and similar societal functions. Weber's selected ideal-types – bureaucracy, religion, and capitalism – are culturally significant variables through which he demonstrated show multiple functionalities of social behavior. </p><p>Similarly, Weber emphasizes that Marxist laws are also ideal-types. The concept of class, economy, capitalism, proletariat and bourgeoisie, revolution and state, along with other Marxian models are heuristic tools for understanding a society in its context. Thus, according to Weber, Marxist ideal-types could prove fruitful only if used to access a given society. However, Weber warns of dangerousness or perniciousness in relation to Marxist ideal-types when seen as empirical reality. The reason is that Marxist practitioners have imposed analytical concepts as ahistorical and universal categories to reduce concrete-process and activities from the polymorphous actions into a simplified phenomenon. This renders social phenomena not only ahistorical but also devoid of spatio-temporal rigour, decontextualized, and categorizes chaos and ruptures under the general label of bourgeoisie exploitation. In fact, history emerged as a metanarrative of a class struggle, moving in a chronological order, and future anticipated as a revolutionary overthrow of state apparatuses by the workers. For instance, the state as an ideal-type imported to the physical world has deceived and diverted political activism away from the real sites of power such as corporations and discourses. </p><p>Similarly class as an ideal-type, projected to a society, which is an ensemble of population, becomes dangerous because it marginalizes and undermines organic linkages of kinship, language, race, and ethnicity. This is a significant point because society is not composed of two conflicting classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat, and does not just have vicissitudes along economic lines. It does not exist in binaries, as Marxist ideal-types would suppose. In fact, it is a reality in which people of various denominations – class backgrounds, religious affiliations, kinship and family ties, gender, and ethnic and linguistic differences – do not only experience conflict, but also practice cooperation in everyday life. Thus when one inserts ideal-types into this concrete dynamic process one does categorical violence to multifariousness of the population and similarly reduces feeling, emotions, non-economic social standing such as honor, and status, as Weber describes, to <a href="/wiki/Economism" title="Economism">economism</a>. Moreover, the ideal-types should also be treated relevant to a context that defines and delimits the former's parameters. </p><p>Weber's intervention came at the right moment when Marxism – particularly vulgar Marxism – reduced "non-economic" practices and beliefs, the superstructure, to a determined base, the mode of production. Similarly, speculative philosophy imposed its own metaphysical categories on diverse concrete realities thus making a particular instance ahistorical. Weber approaches both the methods, materialist and purely idealist, as "equally possible, but each, of it does not serve as the preparation, but as the conclusion of an investigation."<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> To prove this point, Weber demonstrated how ethics and morality played a significant role in the rise of modern capitalism. The Protestant work ethic, for instance, functioned as sophisticated mechanism that encouraged population to "care for the self", which served as an underpinning social activity for bourgeois capitalism. Of course, work ethics was not the only element, utilitarian philosophy equally contributed in forming a bureaucratic work culture whose side-effects are all too well known to the modern world. </p><p>In response to the reductive approach of economism or <a href="/wiki/Vulgar_Marxism" title="Vulgar Marxism">vulgar Marxism</a>, as it is also known, <a href="/wiki/Louis_Althusser" title="Louis Althusser">Louis Althusser</a> and <a href="/wiki/Raymond_Williams" title="Raymond Williams">Raymond Williams</a> introduced new understanding to Marxist thought. Althusser and Williams introduced politics and culture as new entry points alongside the mode of production in Marxist methodology. However, there is a sharp contrast between the scholars' arguments. Taking Williams as our point of discussion, he criticizes the mechanistic approach to Marxism that encourages a close reading of Marxian concepts. Concepts such as being, consciousness, class, capital, labor, labor power, commodity, economy, politics, etc. are not closed categories but rather interactive, engaging, and open practices or praxis.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Althusser, on the other hand, proposes ‘overdetermination' as multiple forces rather than isolated single force or modes of production. However, he argues that the economy is "determinant in the last instance."<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Closed_systems">Closed systems</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Closed systems"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In anthropology, the term 'system' is used widely for describing socio-cultural phenomena of a given society in a <a href="/wiki/Holistic" class="mw-redirect" title="Holistic">holistic</a> way. For instance, kinship system, marriage system, cultural system, religious system, totemic system, etc. This systemic approach to a society shows the anxieties of the earliest anthropologists to capture the reality without reducing the complexity of a given community. In their quest of searching the underline pattern of a reality, they "discovered" the kinship system as a fundamental structure of the natives. However, their systems are closed systems because they reduce the complexity and fluidity by imposing anthropological concepts such as <a href="/wiki/Genealogy" title="Genealogy">genealogy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Kinship" title="Kinship">kinship</a>, heredity, marriage. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Cultural_relativism">Cultural relativism</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Cultural relativism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Franz_Boas" title="Franz Boas">Franz Boas</a> was the first anthropologist to problematize the notion of culture. Challenging the modern hegemony of culture, Boas introduced the idea of cultural relativism (understanding culture in its context). Drawing on his extensive fieldwork in the northwestern United States and British Columbia, Boas discusses culture separate from physical environment, biology, and most importantly discarded evolutionary models that represent civilization as a progressive entity following chronological development. Moreover, cultural boundaries, according to Boas, are not barriers to intermixing and should not be seen as obstacle to multiculturalism. In fact, boundaries must be seen as "porous and permeable," and "pluralized."<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> His critique on the concept of modern race and culture had political implications in the racial politics of the United States in the 1920s. In his chapter, "The Race Problem in Modern Society," one can feel Boas' intellectual effort toward separating the natural from the social sciences and setting up the space for genuine political solutions for race relations. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Structural-functionalism">Structural-functionalism</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Structural-functionalism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Structural_functionalism" title="Structural functionalism">Structural functionalism</a></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Alfred_Radcliffe-Brown" title="Alfred Radcliffe-Brown">A. R. Radcliffe-Brown</a> developed a structural functionalism approach in anthropology. He believed that concrete reality is "not any sort of entity but a process, the process of social life."<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Radcliffe-Brown emphasized on learning the social form especially a kinship system of primitive societies. The way in which one can study the pattern of life is by conceptually delineating a relation determined by a kinship or marriage, "and that we can give a general analytical description of them as constituting a system."<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The systems consist of structure which is referred to "some sort of ordered arrangement of parts or components."<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The intervening variable between the processes and structure is a function. The three concepts of process, structure, and function are thus "components of a single theory as a scheme of interpretation of human social systems."<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Most importantly, function "is the part it plays in, the contribution it makes to, the life of the organism as a whole."<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Thus the functionality of each part in the system works together to maintain a harmony or internal consistency. </p><p>British anthropologist, <a href="/wiki/E._R._Leach" class="mw-redirect" title="E. R. Leach">E. R. Leach</a>, went beyond the instrumentalist argument of Radcliffe-Brown's structural-functionalism, which approached social norms, kinship, etc. in functionalist terms rather than as social fields, or arenas of contestation. According to Leach, "the nicely ordered ranking of lineage seniority conceals a vicious element of competition."<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In fact, Leach was sensitive to "the essential difference between the ritual description of structural relations and the anthropologist's scientific description."<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For instance, in his book, Leach argues, "the question that whether a particular community is gumlao, or gumsa, or Shan is not necessarily ascertainable in the realm of empirical facts; it is a question, in part at any rate, of the attitudes and ideas of particular individuals at a particular time."<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Thus, Leach separated conceptual categories from empirical realities. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Structural_anthropology">Structural anthropology</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: Structural anthropology"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Langue_and_parole" title="Langue and parole">Langue and parole</a></div> <p>Swiss linguist <a href="/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure" title="Ferdinand de Saussure">Ferdinand de Saussure</a>, in search of discovering universal laws of language, formulated a general science of linguistic by bifurcating language into <i>langue</i>, abstract system of language, and <i>parole</i>, utterance or speech. The phonemes, fundamental unit of sound, are the basic structure of a language. The linguistic community gives a social dimension to a language. Moreover, linguistic signs are arbitrary and change only comes with time and not by individual will. Drawing on structural linguistics, <a href="/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss" title="Claude Lévi-Strauss">Claude Lévi-Strauss</a> transforms the world into a text and thus subjected social phenomena to linguistic laws as formulated by Saussure. For instance, the "primitive systems" such as kinship, magic, mythologies, and rituals are scrutinized under the similar linguistic dichotomies of abstract normative system (objective) and utterance (subjective). The division did not only split social actions, but it also conditioned them to the categories of abstract systems that are made up of deep structures. For example, Lévi-Strauss suggests, "Kinship phenomena are of the same type as linguistic phenomena."<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> As Saussure discovered phonemes as the basic structures of language, Lévi-Strauss identified (1) consanguinity, (2) affinity, and (3) descent as the deep structures of kinship. These "microsociological" levels serve "to discover the most general structural laws."<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The deep structures acquire meanings only with respect to the system they constitute. "Like phonemes, kinship terms are elements of meaning; like phonemes, they acquire meaning only if they are integrated into systems."<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Like the langue and parole distinctions of language, kinship system consists of (1) system of terminology (vocabulary), through which relationships are expressed and (2) system of attitudes (psychological or social) functions for social cohesion. To elaborate the dynamic interdependence between systems of terminology and attitudes, Lévi-Strauss rejected Radcliffe-Brown's idea that a system of attitudes is merely the manifestation of a system of terminology on the affective level. He turned to the concept of the avunculate as a part of a whole, which consists of three types of relationship consanguinity, affinity, and descent. Thus, Lévi-Strauss identified complex avuncular relationships, contrary to atomism and simplified labels of avunculate associated with matrilineal descent. Furthermore, he suggested that kinship systems "exist only in human consciousness; it is an arbitrary system of representations, not the spontaneous development of a real situation."<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The meaning of an element (avunculate) exists only in relation to a kinship structure. </p><p>Lévi-Strauss elaborates the meaning and structure point further in his essay titled "The Sorcerer and His Magic." The sorcerer, patient, and group, according to Lévi-Strauss, comprise a shaman complex, which makes social consensus an underlying pattern for understanding. The work of a sorcerer is to reintegrate divergent expressions or feelings of patients into "patterns present in the group's culture. The assimilation of such patterns is the only means of objectivizing subjective states, of formulating inexpressible feelings, and of integrating inarticulated experiences into a system."<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The three examples that Lévi-Strauss mentions relate to magic, a practice reached as a social consensus, by a group of people including sorcerer and patient. It seems that people make sense of certain activities through beliefs, created by social consensus, and not by the effectiveness of magical practices. The community's belief in social consensus thus determines social roles and sets rules and categories for attitudes. Perhaps, in this essay, magic is system of terminology, a langue, whereas, individual behavior is a system of attitude, parole. Attitudes make sense or acquire meaning through magic. Here, magic is a language. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Interpretive_anthropology">Interpretive anthropology</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Interpretive anthropology"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Influenced by <a href="/wiki/Hermeneutic" class="mw-redirect" title="Hermeneutic">Hermeneutic</a> tradition, <a href="/wiki/Clifford_Geertz" title="Clifford Geertz">Clifford Geertz</a> developed an <a href="/wiki/Interpretive_anthropology" class="mw-redirect" title="Interpretive anthropology">interpretive anthropology</a> of understanding the meaning of the society. The hermeneutic approach allows Geertz to close the distance between an ethnographer and a given culture similar to reader and text relationship. The reader reads a text and generates his/her own meaning. Instead of imposing concepts to represent reality, ethnographers should read the culture and interpret the multiplicities of meaning expressed or hidden in the society. In his influential essay, Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture, Geertz argues that "man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun."<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Practice_theory">Practice theory</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: Practice theory"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Practice_theory" title="Practice theory">Practice theory</a></div> <p>French sociologist, <a href="/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieu" title="Pierre Bourdieu">Pierre Bourdieu</a> challenges the same duality of phenomenology (subjective) and structuralism (objective) through his <a href="/wiki/Practice_theory" title="Practice theory">Practice theory</a>. This idea precisely challenges the reductive approach of economism that places symbolic interest in opposition to economic interests. Similarly, it also rejects subjected-centered view of the world. Bourdieu attempts to close this gap by developing the concept of symbolic capital, for instance, a prestige, as readily convertible back into economic capital and hence, is ‘the most valuable form of accumulation.' Therefore, economic and symbolic both works together and should be studied as a general science of the economy of practices.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="System_theory:_Gregory_Bateson">System theory: Gregory Bateson</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: System theory: Gregory Bateson"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>British anthropologist, <a href="/wiki/Gregory_Bateson" title="Gregory Bateson">Gregory Bateson</a>, is the most influential and one of the earliest founders of System Theory in anthropology. He developed an interdisciplinary approach that included communication theory, cybernetics, and mathematical logic. In his collection of essays, <i>The Sacred Unity</i>, Bateson argues that there are "ecological systems, social systems, and the individual organism plus the environment with which it interacts is itself a system in this technical sense."<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> By adding environment with systems, Bateson closes the gap between the dualities such as subject and object. "Playing upon the differences between formalization and process, or crystallization and randomness, Bateson sought to transcend other dualisms–mind versus nature, organism versus environment, concept versus context, and subject versus object."<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Bateson set out the general rule of systems theory. He says: </p> <blockquote> <p>The basic rule of systems theory is that, if you want to understand some phenomenon or appearance, you must consider that phenomenon within the context of all completed circuits which are relevant to it. The emphasis is on the concept of the completed communicational circuit and implicit in the theory is the expectation that all units containing completed circuits will show mental characteristics. The mind, in other words, is immanent in the circuitry. We are accustomed to thinking of the mind as somehow contained within the skin of an organism, but the circuitry is not contained within the skin.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> </blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Poststructuralist_influence"><span class="anchor" id="Influences_on_poststructuralism"></span> Poststructuralist influence</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: Poststructuralist influence"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Bateson's work influenced major poststructuralist scholars especially Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In fact, the very word 'plateau' in Deleuze and Guattari's magnum opus, <i><a href="/wiki/A_Thousand_Plateaus" title="A Thousand Plateaus">A Thousand Plateaus</a></i>, came from Bateson's work on Balinese culture. They wrote: "Gregory Bateson uses the word plateau to designate something very special: a continuous, self-vibrating region of intensities whose development avoids any orientation toward a culmination point or external end."<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Bateson pioneered an interdisciplinary approach in anthropology. He coined the term "ecology of mind" to demonstrate that what "goes on in one's head and in one's behavior" is interlocked and constitutes a network.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Guattari wrote: </p> <blockquote> <p>Gregory Bateson has clearly shown that what he calls the "ecology of ideas" cannot be contained within the domain of the psychology of the individual, but organizes itself into systems or "minds", the boundaries of which no longer coincide with the participant individuals.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> </blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Posthumanist_turn_and_ethnographic_writing">Posthumanist turn and ethnographic writing</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: Posthumanist turn and ethnographic writing"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In anthropology, the task of representing a native point of view has been a challenging one. The idea behind the ethnographic writing is to understand a complexity of an everyday life of the people without undermining or reducing the native account. Historically, as mentioned above, ethnographers insert raw data, collected in the fieldwork, into the writing "machine". The output is usually the neat categories of ethnicity, identity, classes, kinship, genealogy, religion, culture, violence, and numerous other. With the posthumanist turn, however, the art of ethnographic writing has suffered serious challenges. Anthropologists are now thinking of experimenting with new style of writing. For instance, writing with natives or multiple authorship. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=17" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Complex_systems" class="mw-redirect" title="Complex systems">Complex systems</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Social_systems" class="mw-redirect" title="Social systems">Social systems</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_science" title="Systems science">Systems science</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_theory" title="Systems theory">Systems theory</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=18" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gregory Bateson, A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind, 260.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">G. Bateson and R. E. Donaldson, <i>A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind</i> (Cornelia & Michael Bessie Book, 1991), 50.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus,</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">L. Bertalanffy, General system theory (G. Braziller New York, 1988). 141.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Karl Marx. (1970[1946]). <i>The German Ideology.</i> Ed. C. J. Arthur. New York: International Publishers Co.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Max Weber, Sociological Writing, 228.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=o-g_H6BYMfcC&dq=%22%22An+ideal+type+is+formed+by+the+one-sided+accentuation+of+one+or+more+points+of+view+and+by+the+synthesis+of+a+great+many+diffuse%22&pg=PA211"><i>The methodology of the social sciences</i></a> (Edward A. Shils & Henry A. Finch, Trans. & Eds.; foreword by Shils). New York: Free Press, 1997 (1903-1917). p.88.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Max Weber. (1978). <i>Max Weber: Selections.</i> Trans. Eric Matthews. Ed. W. G. Runciman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 172.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Raymond Williams. (1972). <i>Marxism and Literature.</i> Oxford: Oxford University Press.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Louis Althusser. (2005 [1965]). <i>For Marx.</i> Trans. Ben Brewster. New York: Verso Books.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Ira Bashkow, "A Neo-Boasian Conception of Cultural Boundaries," 137</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, <i>Structure and Function in <a href="/wiki/Urgesellschaft" title="Urgesellschaft">primitive society</a></i>, Free Press, 1952. 4</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, <i>Structure and Function in Primitive Society</i>. Free Press, 1952, 6</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, <i>Structure and Function in Primitive Society</i>. Free Press, 1952, 9</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, <i>Structure and Function in Primitive Society</i>. Free Press, 1952, 12</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, <i>Structure and Function in Primitive Society</i>. Free Press, 1952, 179</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">E. R. Leach, <i>Political Systems of Highland Burma</i>, 194.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">E. R. Leach, <i>Political System of Highland Burma</i>,</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">E. R. Leach, <i>Political System of Highland Burma</i>, 286</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Claude Lévi-Strauss, <i>Structural Anthropology</i>, Basic Books, 1974, 34</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Claude Lévi-Strauss, <i>Structural Anthropology</i>, Basic Books, 1974, 35</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Claude Lévi-Strauss, <i>Structural Anthropology</i>, Basic Books, 1974, 34</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Claude Lévi-Strauss, <i>Structural Anthropology</i>, Basic Books, 1974, 50</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Claude Lévi-Strauss, <i>Structural Anthropology</i>, Basic Books, 1974, 166</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Clifford Geertz, <i>Interpretation of Culture</i>, 5.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-26">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of a Practice, Cambridge University Press, 179</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gregory Bateson, <i>A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind</i>, 260</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">John Tresch, Heredity is an Open System: Gregory Bateson as Descendant and Ancestor, <i>Anthropology Today</i>, Vol. 14, No. 6 (Dec., 1998), pp. 3.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gregory Bateson, <i>A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind</i>, 260</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, <i>A Thousand Plateaus</i>, 22</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-31">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gregory Bateson, <i>A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind</i>, 265</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Dana Arnold, Joanna R. <i>Biographies and Space</i>, 18.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=19" title="Edit section: Further reading"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gregory_Bateson" title="Gregory Bateson">Gregory Bateson</a>, <i>A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind</i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ludwig_von_Bertalanffy" title="Ludwig von Bertalanffy">Ludwig von Bertalanffy</a>. <i>General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications</i>. Revised edition. New York: George Braziller. <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8076-0453-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8076-0453-3">978-0-8076-0453-3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rosi_Braidotti" title="Rosi Braidotti">Rosi Braidotti</a>. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia UP 1994. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-231-08235-5" title="Special:BookSources/0-231-08235-5">0-231-08235-5</a></li> <li>---. <i>Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics</i>. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity, 2006. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7456-3596-5" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-7456-3596-5">978-0-7456-3596-5</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Georges_Canguilhem" title="Georges Canguilhem">Georges Canguilhem</a>. <i>The Normal and the Pathological</i>. Trans. Carolyn R. Fawcett. New York: Zone, 1991. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-942299-59-5" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-942299-59-5">978-0-942299-59-5</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lilie_Chouliaraki" title="Lilie Chouliaraki">Lilie Chouliaraki</a> and <a href="/wiki/Norman_Fairclough" title="Norman Fairclough">Norman Fairclough</a>. <i>Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis</i>. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2000. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7486-1082-2" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-7486-1082-2">978-0-7486-1082-2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Manuel_De_Landa" class="mw-redirect" title="Manuel De Landa">Manuel De Landa</a>, <i>A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History</i>. New York: Zone Books. 1997. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-942299-32-9" title="Special:BookSources/0-942299-32-9">0-942299-32-9</a></li> <li>---. <i>A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity</i>. New York: Continuum, 2006. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8264-9169-5" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8264-9169-5">978-0-8264-9169-5</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze" title="Gilles Deleuze">Gilles Deleuze</a> and <a href="/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Guattari" title="Félix Guattari">Félix Guattari</a>. <i>Anti-Œdipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia</i>. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1987. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8166-1402-8" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8166-1402-8">978-0-8166-1402-8</a></li> <li>---. <i>Thousand Plateaus</i>. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1987. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8166-1402-8" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8166-1402-8">978-0-8166-1402-8</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas" title="Jürgen Habermas">Jürgen Habermas</a>. <i>Theory of Communicative Action</i>, Vol. 1. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon, 1985. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8070-1507-0" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8070-1507-0">978-0-8070-1507-0</a></li> <li>---. <i>Theory of Communicative Action</i>, Vol. 2. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon, 1985. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8070-1401-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8070-1401-1">978-0-8070-1401-1</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stuart_Hall_(cultural_theorist)" title="Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)">Stuart Hall</a>, ed. <i>Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices</i>. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7619-5432-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-7619-5432-3">978-0-7619-5432-3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Donna_Haraway" title="Donna Haraway">Donna Haraway</a>. "A Cyborg Manifesto." <i>Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature</i>. New York: Routledte, 1991. 149-181</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Julia_Kristeva" title="Julia Kristeva">Julia Kristeva</a>. "The System and the Speaking Subject." <i>The Kristeva Reader</i>. Ed. <a href="/wiki/Toril_Moi" title="Toril Moi">Toril Moi</a>. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. 24–33. (see also <<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.kristeva.fr/">http://www.kristeva.fr/</a>> & <<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.phillwebb.net/History/TwentiethCentury/continental/(post)structuralisms/StructuralistPsychoanalysis/Kristeva/Kristeva.htm">http://www.phillwebb.net/History/TwentiethCentury/continental/(post)structuralisms/StructuralistPsychoanalysis/Kristeva/Kristeva.htm</a>>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ervin_Laszlo" class="mw-redirect" title="Ervin Laszlo">Ervin Laszlo</a>. <i>The Systems View of the World: A Holistic Vision for Our Time</i>. New York: Hampton Press, 1996. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-57273-053-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-57273-053-3">978-1-57273-053-3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bruno_Latour" title="Bruno Latour">Bruno Latour</a>. <i>Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory</i>. New York: Oxford UP, 2007 <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-925605-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-925605-1">978-0-19-925605-1</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann" title="Niklas Luhmann">Niklas Luhmann</a>. <i>Art as a Social System</i>. Trans. Eva M. Knodt. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2000. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8047-3907-8" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8047-3907-8">978-0-8047-3907-8</a></li> <li>---. <i>Social Systems</i>. Stanford, CA: Trans. John Bednarz, Jr., with Dirk Baecker. Stanford UP, 1996. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8047-2625-2" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8047-2625-2">978-0-8047-2625-2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nina_Lykke" title="Nina Lykke">Nina Lykke</a> and Rosi Braidotti, eds. <i>Monsters, Goddesses and Cyborgs: Feminist Confrontations with Science, Medicine and Cyberspace</i>. London: Zed Books, 1996. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-85649-382-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-85649-382-6">978-1-85649-382-6</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Humberto_Maturana" title="Humberto Maturana">Humberto Maturana</a> and <a href="/wiki/Bernhard_P%C3%B6rksen" title="Bernhard Pörksen">Bernhard Pörksen</a>. <i>From Being to Doing: The Origins of the Biology of Cognition</i>. Trans. Wolfram Karl Koeck and Alison Rosemary Koeck. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer Verlag, 2004. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-89670-448-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-89670-448-1">978-3-89670-448-1</a></li> <li>Humberto Maturana and <a href="/wiki/F._J._Varela" class="mw-redirect" title="F. J. Varela">F. J. Varela</a>. <i>Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living</i>. New York: Springer, 1991. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-90-277-1016-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-90-277-1016-1">978-90-277-1016-1</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Franco_Moretti" title="Franco Moretti">Moretti, Franco</a>. <i>Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History</i>. London, New York: Verso, 2005.</li> <li>Paul R. Samson and David Pitt, eds. <i>The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader: Global Environment, Society and Change</i>. London, New York: Routledge, 2002 [1999]. 0-415-16645-4 EBOOK online from UT library</li> <li>John Tresch (1998). "Heredity is an Open System: Gregory Bateson as Descendant and Ancestor". In: <i>Anthropology Today</i>, Vol. 14, No. 6 (Dec., 1998), pp. 3–6.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vladimir_I._Vernadsky" class="mw-redirect" title="Vladimir I. Vernadsky">Vladimir I. Vernadsky</a>. <i>The Biosphere</i>. Trans. David B. Langmuir. New York: Copernicus/Springer Verlag, 1997.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Systems_theory_in_anthropology&action=edit&section=20" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.necsi.edu/">New England Complex System Institute</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.csiro.au/science/ComplexSystemsScience.html">Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)</a></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid 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title="Information system">Information</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Multi-agent_system" title="Multi-agent system">Multi-agent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nervous_system" title="Nervous system">Nervous</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Recommender_system" title="Recommender system">Recommender</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Social_system" title="Social system">Social</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Concepts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Doubling_time" title="Doubling time">Doubling time</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twelve_leverage_points" title="Twelve leverage points">Leverage points</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Limiting_factor" title="Limiting factor">Limiting factor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Negative_feedback" title="Negative feedback">Negative feedback</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Positive_feedback" title="Positive feedback">Positive feedback</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Theoretical<br />fields</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Control_theory" title="Control theory">Control theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cybernetics" title="Cybernetics">Cybernetics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Earth_system_science" title="Earth system science">Earth system science</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Living_systems" title="Living systems">Living systems</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sociotechnical_system" title="Sociotechnical system">Sociotechnical system</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systemics" title="Systemics">Systemics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Urban_metabolism" title="Urban metabolism">Urban metabolism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/World-systems_theory" title="World-systems theory">World-systems theory</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Systems_analysis" title="Systems analysis">Analysis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_biology" title="Systems biology">Biology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/System_dynamics" title="System dynamics">Dynamics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_ecology" title="Systems ecology">Ecology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_engineering" title="Systems engineering">Engineering</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_neuroscience" title="Systems neuroscience">Neuroscience</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_pharmacology" title="Systems pharmacology">Pharmacology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_philosophy" title="Systems philosophy">Philosophy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_psychology" title="Systems psychology">Psychology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_theory" title="Systems theory">Theory</a> (<a href="/wiki/Systems_thinking" title="Systems thinking">Systems thinking</a>)</li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_systems_scientists" title="List of systems scientists">Scientists</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Russell_L._Ackoff" title="Russell L. Ackoff">Russell L. Ackoff</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Victor_Aladjev" title="Victor Aladjev">Victor Aladjev</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Ross_Ashby" class="mw-redirect" title="William Ross Ashby">William Ross Ashby</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ruzena_Bajcsy" title="Ruzena Bajcsy">Ruzena Bajcsy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/B%C3%A9la_H._B%C3%A1n%C3%A1thy" title="Béla H. Bánáthy">Béla H. Bánáthy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gregory_Bateson" title="Gregory Bateson">Gregory Bateson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthony_Stafford_Beer" class="mw-redirect" title="Anthony Stafford Beer">Anthony Stafford Beer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_E._Bellman" title="Richard E. Bellman">Richard E. Bellman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ludwig_von_Bertalanffy" title="Ludwig von Bertalanffy">Ludwig von Bertalanffy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Margaret_Boden" title="Margaret Boden">Margaret Boden</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov" title="Alexander Bogdanov">Alexander Bogdanov</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kenneth_E._Boulding" title="Kenneth E. Boulding">Kenneth E. Boulding</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Murray_Bowen" title="Murray Bowen">Murray Bowen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kathleen_Carley" title="Kathleen Carley">Kathleen Carley</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mary_Cartwright" title="Mary Cartwright">Mary Cartwright</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C._West_Churchman" title="C. West Churchman">C. West Churchman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Manfred_Clynes" title="Manfred Clynes">Manfred Clynes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_Dantzig" title="George Dantzig">George Dantzig</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra" title="Edsger W. Dijkstra">Edsger W. Dijkstra</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fred_Emery" title="Fred Emery">Fred Emery</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Heinz_von_Foerster" title="Heinz von Foerster">Heinz von Foerster</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stephanie_Forrest" title="Stephanie Forrest">Stephanie Forrest</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forrester" title="Jay Wright Forrester">Jay Wright Forrester</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Barbara_J._Grosz" title="Barbara J. Grosz">Barbara Grosz</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Charles_A._S._Hall" title="Charles A. S. Hall">Charles A. S. Hall</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mike_Jackson_(systems_scientist)" title="Mike Jackson (systems scientist)">Mike Jackson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lydia_Kavraki" title="Lydia Kavraki">Lydia Kavraki</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/James_J._Kay" title="James J. Kay">James J. Kay</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faina_Mihajlovna_Kirillova" class="mw-redirect" title="Faina Mihajlovna Kirillova">Faina M. Kirillova</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_Klir" title="George Klir">George Klir</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Allenna_Leonard" title="Allenna Leonard">Allenna Leonard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Edward_Norton_Lorenz" title="Edward Norton Lorenz">Edward Norton Lorenz</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann" title="Niklas Luhmann">Niklas Luhmann</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Humberto_Maturana" title="Humberto Maturana">Humberto Maturana</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Margaret_Mead" title="Margaret Mead">Margaret Mead</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Donella_Meadows" title="Donella Meadows">Donella Meadows</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mihajlo_D._Mesarovic" title="Mihajlo D. Mesarovic">Mihajlo D. Mesarovic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/James_Grier_Miller" title="James Grier Miller">James Grier Miller</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Radhika_Nagpal" title="Radhika Nagpal">Radhika Nagpal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Howard_T._Odum" title="Howard T. Odum">Howard T. Odum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Talcott_Parsons" title="Talcott Parsons">Talcott Parsons</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine" title="Ilya Prigogine">Ilya Prigogine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Qian_Xuesen" title="Qian Xuesen">Qian Xuesen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anatol_Rapoport" title="Anatol Rapoport">Anatol Rapoport</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Seddon" title="John Seddon">John Seddon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Peter_Senge" title="Peter Senge">Peter Senge</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Claude_Shannon" title="Claude Shannon">Claude Shannon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Katia_Sycara" title="Katia Sycara">Katia Sycara</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eric_Trist" title="Eric Trist">Eric Trist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Francisco_Varela" title="Francisco Varela">Francisco Varela</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Manuela_M._Veloso" title="Manuela M. Veloso">Manuela M. Veloso</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kevin_Warwick" title="Kevin Warwick">Kevin Warwick</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Norbert_Wiener" title="Norbert Wiener">Norbert Wiener</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jennifer_Wilby" title="Jennifer Wilby">Jennifer Wilby</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthony_Wilden" title="Anthony Wilden">Anthony Wilden</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Applications</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Systems theory in anthropology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_theory_in_archaeology" title="Systems theory in archaeology">Systems theory in archaeology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Systems_theory_in_political_science" title="Systems theory in political science">Systems theory in political science</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Organizations</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_systems_sciences_organizations" title="List of systems sciences organizations">List</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Principia_Cybernetica" title="Principia Cybernetica">Principia Cybernetica</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Category"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/23px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/31px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" /></span></span> <b><a href="/wiki/Category:Systems_science" title="Category:Systems science">Category</a></b></li> <li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Symbol_portal_class.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Portal"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Symbol_portal_class.svg/16px-Symbol_portal_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Symbol_portal_class.svg/23px-Symbol_portal_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Symbol_portal_class.svg/31px-Symbol_portal_class.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" /></a></span> <b><a href="/wiki/Portal:Systems_science" title="Portal:Systems science">Portal</a></b></li> <li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Commons page"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/12px-Commons-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/18px-Commons-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/24px-Commons-logo.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1024" data-file-height="1376" /></span></span> <b><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Systems_theory" class="extiw" title="commons:Category:Systems theory">Commons</a></b></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; 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