Anthropology as Interpretive Quest [and Comments and Reply]

Fieldwork and Footnotes

“…Keeping in mind what was said earlier, we can see that this attitude is closely connected with the broadly formulated criticism of the concept of culture as 'shared knowledge' or 'public behaviour' (see, e.g., Keesing 1987), since it lays emphasis on the diversity, on the internal heterogeneity, or even on the 'competitiveness' of some forms of cultural knowledge-or, to quote Geertz's term again, on the 'localness' of cultural knowledge. The very notion of 'the culture of a community' is then in danger of being highly problematic, in that each concept, even in interpersonal communication between a researcher and a native, is subject to continuous change as far as creation of meaning is concerned.…”

Engineers Engaging with Community: Negotiating Cultural Difference on Mine Sites

“…From the 1950s onwards anthropologists began to pay attention to culture as a system that can embody the values of everyday life as well as ideologies that can empower some and subordinate others. Knowledge systems are not equally shared; these can be distributed or controlled according to one's age or gender (Keesing, 1987). Furthermore, cultures change; historical changes in population movements, technologies and subsistence all affect the way we view the world and each other.…”

La Formule de Mauss

“…Les deux principales critiques qui ont été faites à l'anthropologie interprétative -exclusivement interprétative -ont été, me semble-t-il, d'autonomiser l'interprétation, c'est-à-dire de la séparer de l'explication, et de réifier la culture, c'est-à-dire d'en faire un facteur causal ou explicatif dans les conduites humaines (voir par exemple Keesing 1987). Ces critiques me semblent tout à fait pertinentes et nécessaires, mais je me demande si elles ne se situent pas à un niveau trop abstrait.…”