The invention of culture

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The invention of culture

Roy Wagner

University of Chicago Press, 1981

Rev. and expanded ed

  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA31124318
  • ISBN
    • 9780226869346
  • LCCN
    80025482
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Chicago
  • Pages/Volumes
    xx, 168 p.
  • Size
    23 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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