Anthropology Beyond Culture

by Fox, Richard G.; King, Barbara J.

• ISBN13: 9781859735244
• ISBN10: 185973524X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

Culture is a vexed concept within anthropology. From their earliest studies, anthropologists have often noted the emotional attachment of people to their customs, even in cases where this loyalty can make for problems. Do anthropologists now suffer the same kind of disability with respect to their continuing emotional attachment to the concept of culture? This book considers the state of the culture concept in anthropology and finds fault with a ls"love it or leave itrs" attitude. Rather than pledging undying allegiance or summarily dismissing it, the volume argues that anthropology can continue with or without a concept of culture, depending on the research questions being asked, and, furthermore, that when culture is retained, no single definition of it is practical or necessary. Offering sensible solutions to a topic of hot debate, this book will be essential reading for anyone seeking to learn what a concept of culture can offer anthropology, and what anthropology can offer the concept of culture.

Author Biography

Edited by Richard G. Fox, President, Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York and Barbara J. King, Professor for Teaching Excellence, College of William and Mary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
List of Figures	xi
Participants at the 2000 Wenner-Gren Symposium	xiii
Foreword	xv
Sydel Silverman
Introduction: Beyond Culture Worry	1	(22)
Richard G. Fox
Barbara J. King
Part 1: Leaving Culture Worry Behind
Toward a Richer Description and Analysis of Cultural Phenomena	23	(14)
Fredrik Barth
Adieu, Culture: A New Duty Arises	37	(24)
Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Culture and Anthropology in Ethnographic Modernity	61	(22)
Yoshinobu Ota
Part 2: Emergent Sociality
On Patterned Interactions and Culture in Great Apes	83	(22)
Barbara J. King
Anthropology as the Whole Science of What It Is to Be Human	105	(20)
Christina Toren
The Broader Implications of Borderline Areas of Language Research	125	(22)
Stuart Shanker
Part 3: Patterns and Continuities
Archaeology and Culture: Sites of Power and Process	147	(22)
Rita P. Wright
Language as a Model for Culture: Lessons from the Cognitive Sciences	169	(24)
Penelope Brown
Cultural Variation in Time and Space: The Case for a Populational Theory of Culture	193	(16)
William H. Durham
Part 4: The Politics of Culture
The Politics of Culture in Post-apartheid South Africa	209	(26)
Richard A. Wilson
``Culture'' as Stereotype: Public Uses in Ecuador	235	(24)
Xavier Andrade
All Kulturvolker Now? Social Anthropological Reflections on the German-American Tradition	259	(18)
Christopher M. Hann
References	277	(30)
Index	307