1 Ergis Sefa Essay in Socio-Cultural Anthropology

The Introduction of the Concept of Culture in Anthropology A brief description

Nowadays the concept of culture in anthropology and sociology is regarded as a fundamental element in the humanities. (Chase, 1948: 59; cited in Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007: The culture concept in anthropology) Today culture is one of the most discussed concepts all around the world. It has a crucial role in human relations. Its understanding is the kernel of the new multiculturalism policy of different countries around the globe. And in this understanding the social sciences has a very crucial and important role. Anthropology is the most noted among them. But how did the conceptualizations of culture enter in the humanities? And especially how did it became a part of anthropology? Has it always been present or there is a point in history that it emerged at the core of social science? The purpose of this short essay is to show shortly how the culture concept made its journey through science during the late twentieth century. I will try to do that in a diachronicallydescriptive method, showing what the roots of the concept were, how it entered anthropology, and made its way through it. I will refer principally to anthropology because it is maybe the social science that mostly studied man and its habitat in many dimensions. And is also the social science that studied the culture concept thoroughly. The first steps were made in the ancient world. The first to raise issues about this concept were Hippocrates, Homers and Plato (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 13). But it was with Descartes that the culture concept began its real way through the academic world.

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Descartes shows at his Meditations his view about the tradition, customs, norms and values, of the people he encountered during his expeditions. In a certain way he did what Franz Boas would do after centuries with the Native Americans in Canada. Or, as Descartes himself states, that during my journeys I understood that those who had different attitudes and conducts from us, not for this reason were barbarians or savage people but at least as reasonable as us, if not more understanding how much different would a person raised among the Francs or Germans would e if raised between the Chinese or cannibals I begin to understand how difficult it is for me to see the world from their point of view. (Descartes, 46) In the anthropological sense it was Tylor in 1871 that used first the term culture. In fact he was talking about civilization and was borrowing a term from the German tradition1 to describe it. Tylor used this term to describe the consequences that civilization left on

individuals. According to him culture was the reflection of civilization seen within the individual person. He didnt realize that he was dealing with a brand new concept. But even though the term culture was first used in Europe it did not make it through the evolutionist barriers of the French and English traditional schools. This situation was partly because of the good relationship between evolutionary anthropology and colonialist politics (Said, 1978: 32). Another important factor was the strong social stigma that made everything originating from Germany not to be well accepted from the French and British intellectual class. What do we understand by culture? Etymologically speaking, the term originates from the German language. It rapidly gained recognition and acceptance and usage in Spain, Italy and the United States of America. The Slavic and Scandinavian languages also followed this trend in including this concept, this term, in their usage. Only among the French and British it was encountering resistance (Jan Huizinga, 1936: 39-40; cited in Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007: The culture concept in anthropology)

The term is from Immanuel Kant whom used in its studies the term die Kultur.

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Up until the Second World War the different schools of anthropology around the world had their main concern the evolution of the different societies and races of the world. This gave raise to the scientific supported theories and programs for colonization and centralizedimperialistic policy of many European powers (Said, 1978: 12). The main idea was that societies had come a long way throughout centuries from barbarism to civilization. And, the most important point, not all the societies had achieved the same state of civilization. Some were more civilized than others, and some races were in a higher step of evolutionary scale than others. This was the predominant idea among the British and French school of anthropology at the beginning of the twentieth century but inasmuch that these were the most influential schools around the world, this idea was widespread. On the historic-political level this was something that was in line with the colonization programs of France and Britain at the time. If some races and societies were more evolved and civilized than others than the more civilized should dominate the less civilized for the own good of the last. As Karl Marx wrote, they cannot represent themselves; they should be represented (Said, 1978: 3). Culture was a concept not taken into account because it was not worthy studying it. The evolutionary scaling of societies made it clear why people had different approaches to life, to the surrounding habitat, to each other. The evolutionary scale even told us the steps the less evolved had to make to get more evolved. Culture had nothing to do with the ways man lived his life in different modes around the world, evolution did it. Meanwhile in the United States anthropology was taking a brand new direction. To us this seems obvious because today we recognize that the United States is made of a wide range of sub-cultural forms, ethnic and religious groups and even different races in the anthropological sense, but at the time this was something new and scary for the old continent2.

This is the most well-known nickname for Europe.

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It was Franz Boas whom first took seriously into account and studied this concept thoroughly. We must not forget that at the beginning of the last century within the United States the problems of racist discrimination were present. We can only imagine what new horizons of conceptuality did open this idea that Boas promoted. In his article, "Mythology and folk-tales of the North American Indians.", he showed to the anthropological world that within the same race, generation after generation, we can see radical differences and changes. It was not evolution that determined why people behaved and conducted their life in a certain way, but culture was responsible for that. He found that from generation to generation the within the same ethnic group changes so bi happen that seem to reverse the evolutionary way of continuous progress to vice-versa. The new generations can make their own new habits, customs, norms and values totally unknown to the previous one. So different that on an evolutionary points of view it may seem that they became less civilized or evolved that their predecessors. Than it ought to be something else that was the driving force of the societal organizations around the world. It was something that influenced the lives of people and was influenced by their interactions too. This was culture. (Boas, 1914: 374-410) From this time and now on the culture concept became the single major concept of anthropology. During the next decades after the publishing of the book there were many anthropologists interested at this concept. More and more studies came to light. In 1930 the Social Sciences Encyclopedia states that, the most important theoretical position of the twentieth century was the glorification of culture anthropologists became biographers and anatomists of culture. (29) At the time we were having a turning point in the history of anthropology3. From race and evolution attention was turning to culture and diversity as something not hierarchical4. But Europe was still the strong hole of racism-based anthropology.

And I would say in the history of the world also because the 30 so the rise of the racist-based state (NaziGermany, Fascist-Italy) and the 40 its fall. 4 Diversity doesnt make me higher or lower than you.

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This was undoubtedly because of the reciprocal help that evolutionary anthropology and the new fascist states gave each other (Said, 1978: 50). But after the end of World War II many studies were made on culture and it becomes the dominant concept in anthropology and through all the social sciences. After Boas it was his students Kroeber, Murdock, etc. who continued his work. Even in the old continent the culture concept made its way through the traditional barriers. This is understood better if we read the statement made by Bronislaw Malinowski that, culture is the most important concept for all of the social sciences today. (1939: 588; cited in Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007: The culture concept in anthropology). So large is the body of studies made on this concept that today we have more than 360 definitions of culture. There is no single clear definition of what culture is. It is not the topic of this short essay to make a count of them all but having all of these definitions now is creating a problem for the basis of social science (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007: The culture concept in anthropology). We are now entering a new era where many authors are rejecting the culture concept as the basis for social science. For them it is too un-fundamental. How can anthropology, sociology, ethnology, etc. be regarded as science and have their basic building block concept without clear foundation?! According to them this is the main reason that we have to move on from the culture concept if we want to regard the social sciences as real science. You have to have a basic building block in order to build all the body of theory and practice afterwards and you cannot do that with the culture concept at the base of social science. This is the last frontier for this concept. New ideas and conceptions are coming to light so let see what the future will reserve us.

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Conclusions In conclusion I want to say that the road made by the culture concept in anthropology was hard. All researchers agree that it made a revolution in this science. Some say it revolutionized all of the social sciences. It sure helped to overcome the racist conception of evolutionary anthropology that peoples differences are the basis for domination and oppression. Now let us see what new frontiers the criticism of this concept with bring us. Just like the bringing to discussion of the culture concept made a revolution in the social sciences now it may be the turn that its omission will start a new revolution in social science. But this will require a new Boas, a new entrepreneur of social science, whom will take over his shoulders to the top of the mountain the stone of science just like Prometheus did. The world is waiting and we are waiting too.

7 Works Cited

Boas, Franz. "Mythology and folk-tales of the North American Indians." Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 27, No. 106, Oct.-Dec. 1914. Kroeber, A. L. & Cluckhohn, Clyde. Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. New York: Vintage Books. 1952.

Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite

. The culture concept in anthropology.

Chicago: The Encyclopedia Britannica Publishing House. 2007.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books. 1978. Murdock, G. P. "The Science of Culture". American Anthropologist vol. 34, 1932.