Interdisciplinary Approaches to Culture Theory

2017

The first chapter highlights the confusing plurality of meanings attached to the notion of culture. While it is used in increasingly many contexts, giving rise to the idea of an ongoing ‘culturalisation’, a range of new materialists and antihermeneutic posthumanists have sought to undermine the centrality of culture, meaning, interpretation and mediation. The book structure is explained: Chapters 2– 5 in Part I summarising the main concepts of culture, presenting their meanings, uses and limitations; Chapters 6– 8 in Part II scrutinising the contestations in structuralism, science and technology studies and media archaeology; and Chapters 9– 11 in Part III reconstructing sustainable foundations for a ‘post-antihermeneutic’ concept of culture, defending the idea of meaning-making practices of communication and mediation, while attentively learning from the critiques.

This essay seeks to offer some reflections on the use of the concept of ‘culture' in archaeology. It will be argued that the concept of culture is closely linked to the nationalist ideologies which emerged during the last two centuries, and ultimately to conceptions of otherness which have dominated Western thought since Classical times. The use of the concept of culture illustrates the influence which contemporary concerns have had on the analysis of past societies, as well as the parallel ethnocentricity which characterises studies of existing non-Western societies

Engaging with ... 'Engaging with ... ' is a series of big, multi-contributed volumes with between 25 and 40 contributOrs and up to 350,000 words in length. These volumes are typically broken into three pans, Concepts, Key Terms/Methodologies and Case Studies, and they are designed co provide a reference work for researchers and students for exciting new copies. Books in this series cover the key concepts of the field or approach being studied, and conwn analysis of the signi.ficant tenus being used, as well as providing case studies of research currently being done. They are the perfect opportunity to bring together the work of established academics, early career academics and postgraduate students. In chis series: Engaging Transcultu.rality Concepts, Key T enns, Case Studies Edited by Laila Abu-Er-R'lb, Christialle Brosius, Sebastian MeHrer, Diamamis Panagiotopou/os and Susan Ridner

J. Clarke (ed.) Archaeological perspectives in the transmission and …, 2005

In this paper I try to explore the concept of culture - how much or how little it has changed compared with its 19th century roots. I also introduce the idea (from Uzzell) of hot and cold interpretations and speculate on how this may be utilized to reflect on culture in terms of people's experiences.

Based on this account, trends toward trans-disciplinary and trans-cultural theories of culture are presented and discussed. For this purpose a meta-theoretical position is necessary, discussing the epistemological foundations and problems of Cultural Studies. A methodological discussion follows suit.

Abstract for the panel "Héritage religieux et patrimoine culturel religieux. Différences et affordances"

Ethnologia Europea (also printed as a monography by Museum Tusculanum Press), 2005

We gathered twenty scholars from different fields (European ethnology, anthropology, sociology and archaeology) for a workshop in December 2004 and asked them to invent (or re invent) an interesting cultural process, a fresh perspective for analyzing some kind of cultural dynamic. After the workshop we expanded the group and here is the result, 25 essays experimenting with very different approaches and reflecting on overlooked or understudied perspectives. Our aim is not to force 25 new concepts onto the world, but rather illustrate how different perspectives may enrich cultural analysis and allow a bit of playfulness and experimentation into the process. We are peeking into blind spots, peering around corners, looking under the furniture, and trying to understand how some kinds of social life become visible, while so many others remain unseen. The participants were sent out to invent a process, but luckily (and predictably) their quests took on very different forms. Our project became an experiment in finding different styles of cultural analysis.

The author advocates the use of the phrase “intangible culture” instead of “intangible cultural heritage”. The word “heritage” implies a certain fixity and immutability, and assumes that authorities have identified and proclaimed heritage. Dealing with intangible culture would provide the opportunity for the deflection of the UNESCO model of preserving intangible cultural phenomena, whose application has brought some problems. The author illustrates this in practice with the example of bell-ringers, who are included on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Comparative Education, 2012

This essay argues against a simple, reified view of culture as a set of ideas and norms belonging to a group or nation and considers implications of a more complicated concept for discussion of world culture and the global/local nexus. Most anthropologists define culture as the making of meaning, with an emphasis on the process itself as contested. It follows that world culture is locally produced in social interaction, and that meaning are then reconstructed in the global/local nexus. Power matters, particularly the hidden power to make resources for meaning making widely available, and to make them attractive and scientifically persuasive. How actors succeed in claiming particular ideas as global and how the locals strategically respond are questions where anthropologists can contribute to understanding the global/local nexus and the exercise of power within the world polity.