ANTH 1a Lecture 2: Culture and Power
10 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
A causal agent, but rather a context in which people live their lives. Cannot be forced into being more concrete than it actually is as an abstract. Cannot be reduced to a nation or group. Culture and power: the meaning of symbols is shaped by systems of authority. Binaries and ordering) aren"t neutral and as a result, are the basis of inequality. Contestation of categories is a mode of resistance. Example: feminist movement and anti-colonial struggles include cultural resignification. Ability to control content of culture and power. Geertz: fabric of belief is shaped by power. Cultural evolutionism: nonlinear path to civilization and assumption that colonialism is cause. Ethnohistory of haitian revolution (clr james): forerunner of anti- colonial movements = struggle over power and symbols. Silence from the west about issues of slavery during a time of democratic revolutions that clr james discussed. Cultural relativism: links to edic and emic. Research methodology: must violate canons of traditional, positivist research.
