Workshop 10
The Benefits of
‘Culture‘
Convenor:
Christoph Brumann,
University of Cologne
christoph.brumann@uni-koeln.de
In recent years, the status
of “culture“ - as a term, a concept,
and an empirical reality -
has been intensely debated within
our discipline. While
numerous anthropologists are worried
about the essentialising
and reifying implications they see in its
definition and usage, the
general public, not rarely including our
informants, take it up
readily, applying it to all sorts of phenomena
even if in questionable
ways. Some have suggested avoiding
“culture“ or
replacing it with another, less misleading term/
concept, but it is doubtful
whether any candidate captures all its
nuances. Others have
recommended capitalising on the prestige
“culture“ has
gained in neighbouring disciplines and outside
academia, converting it
into a foothold for spreading our insights
more effectively. Whether
“culture“ is still ours at all appears
questionable, however, now
that so many other disciplines use it
or even name themselves
after it. Contributions should address
the quandary of
“culture“ from a variety of angles: theoretical
arguments and strategies
for dealing with “culture“ or for getting
rid of it; historical
reflections on the intellectual paths “culture“
has taken; methodological
ideas on how to responsibly and
persuasively describe,
delimit, measure, and explain the culture/s
there are in empirical
reality; and ethnographic analyses of what
popular, political, and
informant uses and abuses of “culture“
entail could all help to
clarify what anthropology stands to gain
or lose on account of
“culture“.
Challenging New
Frontiers
Máiréad Nic
Craith, University of Ulster
The Political Use of the
Anthropological Concept of “Culture“
Montserrat Clua
Fainé, Autonomous University of Barcelona
Identity, Culturality and
Politics
Hendrik Pinxten, University
of Ghent
Kultur contra Culture? The Shaping of a Central Concept by
Central Europeans, from
Herder to Malinowski
Chris Hann, Max Planck
Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale
Why Culture Is More than
Symbols, Sharing, Tradition, or
Identity
Christoph Brumann,
University of Cologne