Toward a Cultural Anthropology of the World?

Abstract

The traditional domain of anthropological inquiry was human communities uncontaminated by Western influence. A wide range of socialization practices and structures in these communities could not be explained through Western common sense accounts. The discovery of local cultures became an imperative, and the successful anthropological enterprise was an impressive depiction of the myths and rituals of the everyday lives of non-Western peoples. These myths and rituals were central in making everyday life meaningful, and cultural meaningfulness was a core feature of the local orders examined. Cultural meaningfulness was first and foremost a matter of shared recipes or blueprints, a broadly cognitive rather than a narrowly normative matter. All sorts of disputes and conflicts took place, but even these were better understood if one grasped the common frames of reference or interpretation that prevailed in the local community. Local knowledge was the key to understanding local structures and practices, and as the latter varied enormously, so did the content of local knowledge. Local knowledge was at the heart of local culture.