Culture: The Anthropologists' AccountSuddenly culture seems to explain everything, from civil wars to financial crises and divorce rates. But when we speak of culture, what, precisely, do we mean? Adam Kuper pursues the concept of culture from the early twentieth century debates to its adoption by American social science under the tutelage of Talcott Parsons. What follows is the story of how the idea fared within American anthropology, the discipline that took on culture as its special subject. Here we see the influence of such prominent thinkers as Clifford Geertz, David Schneider, Marshall Sahlins, and their successors, who represent the mainstream of American cultural anthropology in the second half of the twentieth century--the leading tradition in world anthropology in our day. These anthropologists put the idea of culture to the ultimate test--in detailed, empirical ethnographic studies--and Kuper's account shows how the results raise more questions than they answer about the possibilities and validity of cultural analysis. Written with passion and wit, Culture clarifies a crucial chapter in recent intellectual history. Adam Kuper makes the case against cultural determinism and argues that political and economic forces, social institutions, and biological processes must take their place in any complete explanation of why people think and behave as they do. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Part One GENEALOGIES | 21 |
FRENCH GERMAN AND ENGLISH INTELLECTUALS 1930 | 23 |
TALCOTT PARSONS AND THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGISTS | 47 |
Part Two EXPERIMENTS | 73 |
CULTURE AS RELIGION AND AS GRAND OPERA | 75 |
BIOLOGY AS CULTURE | 122 |
Common terms and phrases
According action American analysis anthropology appeared argued argument authority believed biology called Cambridge Chicago chiefs civilization claim Clifford Geertz collective common conception construct Cook course critical Critique culture David defined definition described distinctive economic essay established ethnographer EXPERIMENTS expressed fact field first followed French German groups Hawaiian human ibid ideas identity individual insisted intellectual interest interpretation issue kinship Kluckhohn knowledge Kroeber later living London Lono Marxism material matter meaning myth native nature NOTES notion objective observed offered organization Parsons particular perhaps political practice Press progress published question reason refer relations relationship relatives religion religious remarked ritual Sahlins Schneider sense social social science society structure suggested symbolic theory thing tion tradition treated ture University University Press values whole writing York