AAA2000 - Uses of Culture session: introductory comments

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

I can think of any number of reasons for anthropologists NOT to use the concept of culture anymore. In no special order:

the concept of "a" culture substantializes something that is precisely NOT a "thing";
most common sense uses of "culture" (as in "what is your cultural background?") refers to a psychological property of individuals when we all know that we wish to talk about collective processes;
other common sense uses make of "culture" something only others have at their most lovable, or something we have, but only at special times and for special purposes;
others use the concept for ....

I could go on for quite a while about any number of mis-uses of culture in anthropology in general, and in anthropology of education in particular. What we want to do here is both

to remind ourselves of the dangers of using culture by pointing at various kinds of dangerous usages
to illustrate why some of us might still want to work with the concept and how this might get done without falling into the dangers we are now aware of.

I have been developing two web sites that develop these issues: the first on my approaches to culture and the other that will become an opinionated review of work in anthropology and education. Both are in construction.

October 14, 2000