The Invention of Culture

By Roy Wagner

Book Overview

The Invention of Culture, one of the most important works in symbolic anthropology in recent years, argues that culture is not a given that shapes the lives of the people who share it. Rather, it is people who shape their culture by constantly manipulating conventional symbols taken from a variety of everchanging codes to create new meanings. Wagner sees culture arising from the dialectic between the individual and the social world; his analysis is situated in the relation between invention and convention, innovation and control, meaning and context. Finally, the author points out that the symbolization processes that generate the construction of meaning in culture are the same as those that anthropologists use to "invent" the cultures they study.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226869342
• ISBN13: 9780226869346
• Release Date: March 1981
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 189 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Foundation of a good theory of culture

Full disclosure: I am a former student of Roy and a Ph.D.I think the first three chapters of this book are some of the most important writings on the theory of culture in anthropology, or any other discipline. It presents the proper starting-point for developing an understanding of how people live and how people think about themselves and other people, the way they live and just _are_. This is not an easy book, even for advanced students of anthropology. It is not for those looking for a quick intro to anthropology, either. However, if you have read some introductions to anthropology and find their thinking about people and cultures simplistic, then you shoud read this book.