The Anthropological Concept of Culture

Recent years have seen a lively debate in anthropology in which prominent voices have argued for restraint in using the concept of culture or for total abolition. In several publications, I have argued for retaining culture with a clear conscience, given that much of the criticism is unwarranted and that it is strategically unwise to discard a concept at the very moment other disciplines and the public start to embrace it on our terms. In doing so, however, we need to emphasize that contrary to widespread misconceptions, culture is not reproduced unproblematically, has its limits in the individual and the universal, and should not be confused with ethnicity and identity. In an effort to provide methodological grounding for this position, I have used a modified variant of Romney, Weller and Batchelder's Cultural Consensus Analysis on the architectural preferences of Kyoto informants. I have also written on anthropological globalisation studies and commented on the trends of global cultural evolution identified in these.

Related publications

2007
Stamm – Volk – Ethnizität – Kultur: Die aktuelle Diskussion. In: Sabine Rieckhoff & Ulrike Sommer (eds.) Auf der Suche nach Identitäten: Volk - Stamm - Kultur – Ethnos. Internationale Tagung der Universität Leipzig vom 8.-9. Dezember 2000, pp. 31-53. Oxford: Archaeopress.

2006
Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded. In: Robert L. Welsch & Kirk M. Endicott (eds.) Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Cultural Anthropology. (Second ed.), pp. 58-66. New York: McGraw-Hill. (Reprint of 1999 Current Anthropology article.)

2006
Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded. In: Adam Muller (ed.) Concepts of Culture: Arts, Politics, and Society, pp. 43-77. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. (Reprint of 1999 Current Anthropology article.)

2004
CA Comment on: James P. Boggs, Anthropological Culture Theory as Theory, in Context. Current Anthropology 45:199.

2002
On Culture and Symbols. Current Anthropology 43:509-510.

1999
Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded. (With CA Comment). Current Anthropology 40, Supplement:1-27.

1998
The Anthropological Study of Globalization: Themes and Issues for the Second Phase. Anthropos 93:495-506.