Post-Modernism (& Culture)

Question 1

What is Culture (Geertz’s conceptualisation)?

Answer 1

• system of inherited conceptions
• expressed in symbolic forms
• how people develop their knowledge & attitudes

• Geertz outlined culture as “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.”*

Question 2

How or why is Culture (Geertz’s conceptualisation) used?

Answer 2

• by Geertz
• provide social sciences with “thick description”
• explains behaviour and its context and makes it meaningful to an outsider

• Geertz was one of the earliest scholars to see that the insights provided by common language, philosophy and literary analysis could have major explanatory force in the social sciences. Geertz aimed to provide the social sciences with an understanding and appreciation of “thick description” i.e a description that explains not just the behaviour, but its context as well, such that the behaviour becomes meaningful to an outsider.*

Question 3

Where was Culture (Geertz’s conceptualisation) first cited?

Answer 3

Geertz

1973

The Interpretation of Cultures

Question 4

What are the problems/limitations of Culture (Geertz’s conceptualisation)?

Answer 4

• Critics - Talal Asad - attacked the dualism
• Does not provide a bridge between external symbols and internal dispositions
• Needs a more nuanced approach toward the historical background of certain concepts

• Talal Asad attacked the dualism in Geertzian theory by saying the theory does not provide a bridge between external symbols and internal dispositions. Asad also pointed out the need for a more nuanced approach toward the historical background of certain concepts. Criticising Geertz’s theory of religion in general he pointed out a gap between ‘cultural system’ and ‘social reality’ when attempting to define the concept of religion in universal terms.*

Question 5

What is Interpretive Approach (Hermeneutics)?

Answer 5

Hermeneutics is the interpretation and understanding of social events through analysis of their meanings for the human participants in the events.

Question 6

How or why is the Interpretive Approach (Hermeneutics) used?

Answer 6

• by Geertz
• close distance between ethnographer & culture

• The Hermeneutic approach allows Geertz to close the distance between an ethnographer and a given culture - similar to reader and text relationship. The reader reads a text and generates his/her own meaning. Instead of imposing concepts to represent reality, ethnographers should read the culture and interpret the multiplicities of meaning expressed or hidden in the society.*

Question 7

Where was Interpretive Approach (Hermeneutics) first cited?

Answer 7

Geertz

1973

Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture

Question 8

What is Postcolonialism?

Answer 8

• Discourses on cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism
• Human consequences
• Economic explotation of native people and their land

• Postcolonialism or postcolonial studies is an academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyse, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism, to the human consequences of controlling a country and establishing settlers for the economic exploitation of the native people and their land.*

Question 9

How or why is Postcolonialism used?

Answer 9

• Analyses politics of knowledge
• Analyses functional relations of social and political power that sustain colonialism

• Drawing from postmodern schools of thought, postcolonial studies analyse the politics of knowledge (creation, control, and distribution) by analysing the functional relations of social and political power that sustain colonialism and neocolonialism—the how and the why of an imperial regime’s representations (social, political, cultural) of the imperial coloniser and of the colonised people.*

Question 10

Where was Postcolonialism first cited?

Answer 10

Said

1978

Orientalism

Question 11

What is Postmodern theory?

Answer 11

• Originated in 1960s alongside literary postmodern movement
• Seek to dissect, interpret and write cultural critiques

• Postmodern theory in anthropology originated in the 1960s along with the literary postmodern movement in general. Anthropologists working in this vein of inquiry seek to dissect, interpret and write cultural critiques.*

Question 12

How or why is Postmodern theory used?

Answer 12

• to reject grand, universal schemes or theories which explain other cultures
• emphasis on opinions
• relativism
• rejection of science

• Major tenets of postmodernist anthropology are: 1. An emphasis on including the opinions of the people being studied 2. A sense of relativism for the practices of other cultures 3. Rejection of science 4. Rejection of grand, universal schemes or theories which explain other cultures*

Question 13

What are the problems/limitations of Postmodern theory?

Answer 13

• It is meaningless and promotes obscurantism
• It adds nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge (Chomsky)

• Criticisms of postmodernism are intellectually diverse, including the assertions that postmodernism is meaningless and promotes obscurantism (deliberately preventing the facts from being known). For example, Noam Chomsky has argued that postmodernism is meaningless because it adds nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge.*

Question 14

Where was Postmodern theory first cited?

Answer 14

Geertz

1973

The Interpretation of Cultures