Kultur, Lebenswelt, und Verstehen: German for the Anthropologist [Updated]

If you haven't guessed it yet this post of article for our reading group is about "culture." I chose the german references to kultur (culture), lebenswelt (Shutz and Habermas' "lifeworld"), and verstehen (Weber's "understanding" or "interpretation") because since the time of Franz Boas and Max Weber american anthropology has been heavily influenced by german philosophy of the social sciences like no other tradition. Because of the prominence and trendiness of most french influences on anthropology, the german roots of cultural anthropology are often overlooked. Although this post isn't particularly about those germanic roots, any discussion of how we interpret the conceptual vocabulary of "culture" and its attendent ideas is essentially tied to a genealogy of how these terms were first utilized by some the founders of our discipline. For Joylin Namie's class The History of Anthropological Thought some of us read Adams' The Philosophical Roots of Anthropology which outlines the intellectual milieu that gave birth to anthropology. An even more in depth account of the birth of anthropology within the germanic philosophical tradition can be found in Kant, Herder, and the Birth of Anthropology. Many contemporary anthropologist, like Talal Asad, have called for greater reflexivity in looking at the historical development of anthropology as a colonial and enlightenment project. One avenue for examining the genealogies of anthropology is by critically investigating how the term "culture" came to be, how is its defined by various schools of thought, and how is it utilized to explain micro or macro social phenomenon.


The first three readings by Roger Keessing and David Schneider provide an introduction into how theories of "culture" operate and how they had been defined during the Seventies but through the Eighties. The second article by Keesing is kind of a reevaluation of his first article on culture. Written fifteen years later, he reconsiders the arguments presented in the original article and provides insights into more recent developments.

Jonathan Friedman's chapter on "The Emergence of the Culture Concept," is an excellent introduction to the genealogy of the term. His article could be considered as a short primer on how to think about culture without falling into the pitfalls of romantic german nationalism. Roy Wagner's The Invention of Culture is generally considered the primer treatment of the term and has remained so for several decades. I've provided long chapter excerpts from his book so the reading might be a little heavy, but it is worth it. By examining how the concept of "culture" operates within the anthropological tradition, Wagner gets to the heart of what it is that anthropologists do and why they are doing it.


Equally important to delineating the semantics behind "culture" is the attempt more narrowly define its parameters and how it can be identified by anthropologists.  Sahlins article "Two or Three Things I Know about Culture" is a very good example of such a discussion. He argues that when we are identifying "culture" we should paying attention to the structural composition of society. He also argues for that just because the traditions that make up a "culture" may be relatively recent "inventions" doesn't mean that they are any less authentic, for culture is in of itself inventive. Urban's article "A Method for Measuring the Movement of Culture" is very interesting and recent article on the movement of cultural artifacts that are produced and maintained through discourse practices. He proposes a theory for how such artifacts are given and produce meaning within the cultural realm.


One of the more recent developments in anthropology today has been the move away from the term "culture" towards a more philosophically defined term of "ontology." This may be considered ironic due to the long and complicated history that the "ontology" has experienced, particularly in the germanic philosophical tradition. However, the term has been used extensively as of late by anthropologist from Michael W. Scott to Michael Jackson. The series of debates that Manchester's Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory held on the topic, edited by Vankateson is an excellent introduction. Perhaps one of the most famous advocates for a "social ontology is John Searle. I first heard of John Searle when he came to UVSC several years ago. I was not impressed but his theories do command attention. Many, if not most, anthropologist would disagree immensely with his philosophy of society. However, Searle, has chosen to directly engage with anthropology by both critiquing its production of knowledge and incorporating some of its ideas into his own theory. You can listen to John Searle's podcast of his lectures at the University of California, Berkeley on Social Philosophy here. I have to warn you that I've listen to the whole class and he is quite dry and dogmatic. Still, I think that paying attention to his philosophy of society is well worth the effort because it fine tunes and brings into focus what exactly it is that we are doing and not doing as a discipline.

Introductions to Theories of Culture

Keesing, Roger M. (1974). Theories of Culture. Annual Review of Anthropology. 3: 73-97.

Keesing, Roger M. (1990). Theories of Culture Revisited. Canberra Anthropology. 13.2: 46-60.

Schneider, David (1976). "Notes toward a Theory of Culture." In Keith H. Basso & Henry A. Selby. Meaning in Anthropology. Albuquergue, NM: SAR & University of New Mexico Press, 197-220.

Genealogies of "Culture"

Friedman, Jonathan (1994). "The Emergence of the Culture Concept," Excerpt from Cultural Identity and Global Process. London, UK: Sage.

Wagner, Roy (1981). Excerpts from The Invention of Culture. Rev. ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.

How Culture Operates

Sahlins, Marshall (1999). Two or Three Things I know about Culture. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 5.3: 399-421.

Sahlins, Marshall (2000). "Sentimental Pessimism" and Ethnographic Experience; or, Why Culture Is Not a Disappearing Subject." In Lorraine Daston, ed. Biographies of Scientific Objects. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 158-202.

Urban, Greg (2010). A Method for Measuring the Motion of Culture. American Anthropologist. 112.1:122-139.

Is Ontology the New "Culture"

Venkatesan, Soumhya, et al. (2010). Ontology is Just Another Word for Culture. Critique of Anthropology. 30.2: 152-200.

Searle, John, et al. (2006) Social ontology: Some basic principles. Anthropological Theory. 6.1: 5-125.