The Invention of Culture, one of the most important works in symbolic anthropology in recent years, argues that culture is not a given that shapes the lives of the people who share it. Rather, it is people who shape their culture by constantly manipulating conventional symbols taken from a variety of everchanging codes to create new meanings. Wagner sees culture arising from the dialectic between the individual and the social world; his analysis is situated in the relation between invention and convention, innovation and control, meaning and context. Finally, the author points out that the symbolization processes that generate the construction of meaning in culture are the same as those that anthropologists use to "invent" the cultures they study.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Foundation of a good theory of culture,
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This review is from: The Invention of Culture (Phoenix Book) (Paperback)
Full disclosure: I am a former student of Roy and a Ph.D.I think the first three chapters of this book are some of the most important writings on the theory of culture in anthropology, or any other discipline. It presents the proper starting-point for developing an understanding of how people live and how people think about themselves and other people, the way they live and just _are_. This is not an easy book, even for advanced students of anthropology. It is not for those looking for a quick intro to anthropology, either. However, if you have read some introductions to anthropology and find their thinking about people and cultures simplistic, then you shoud read this book.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
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good,
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This review is from: The Invention of Culture (Phoenix Book) (Paperback)
good book, arrived within the estimated period - a bit expensive though, considering it's an old edition.
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First Sentence:
Anthropology studies the phenomenon of man, not simply man's mind, his body, evolution, origins, tools, art, or groups alone, but as parts or aspects of a general pattern, or whole. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nonconventionalized contexts, collectivizing controls, conventionalized controls, interpretive culture, conventional contexts, conventional orientation, semantic anthropology, relative objectivity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Guinea, New York, Gregory Bateson New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Anthropology studies the phenomenon of man, not simply man's mind, his body, evolution, origins, tools, art, or groups alone, but as parts or aspects of a general pattern, or whole. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nonconventionalized contexts, collectivizing controls, conventionalized controls, interpretive culture, conventional contexts, conventional orientation, semantic anthropology, relative objectivity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Guinea, New York, Gregory Bateson New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 18
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
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- The Portable Nietzsche (Portable Library) by Friedrich Nietzsche on page 85
- Jamaa: A Charismatic Movement in Katanga by Johannes Fabian on page 119
- The Gay Science (Dover Philosophical Classics) by Friedrich Nietzsche on page 86
- Road Belong Cargo: A Study of the Cargo Movement in the Southern Madang District, New Guinea by Peter Lawrence on page 33
- The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim on page 40
See all 18 books this book cites
- Culture and Anomie: Ethnographic Imagination in the Nineteenth Century by Christopher Herbert on 4 pages
- Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket by Gordon Mathews on page 187, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket by Gordon Mathews on page 187, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Blood Narrative: Indigenous Identity in American Indian and Maori Literary and Activist Texts (New Americanists) by Chadwick Allen in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Performance, Culture, and Identity by Elizabeth C. Fine on page 244, and Back Matter
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