The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism And Other EssaysThe Culture Cultis an acerbic critique of that longing widespread in society today to ?retreat from civilization.? From Rousseau and the Noble Savage to modern defenders of ethnicity such as Isaiah Berlin and Karl Polanyi, a prominent intellectual tradition has over-romanticized the virtues of tribal life. In contrast, another tradition, represented by Karl Popper, Michael Polanyi, and Ernest Gellner, defends modern values and civil society. The Culture Cult discusses both sides of this divide between "culture" and "civilization," and between "closed" and "open" societies. The romantic insistence on the superiority of the primitive is increasingly grounded in a fictionalized picture of the past-a picture often created with the aid of well-meaning but misguided anthropologists. Such idealizations work to the detriment of the very people they are meant to help, for they isolate minorities from such undeniable benefits of modern society as literacy and health care, and discourage them from participating in modern life. Few will find comfort in The Culture Cult, but many will recognize a valuable criticism of currently popular social politics. |
Contents
Designer Tribalism | |
Enter the Noble Savage | |
The Triumph of the Litterateur | |
What Karl Polanyi Found in Dahomey | |
The Book of Isaiah | |
Karl Popper in New Zealand | |
Why Cultures Succeed or Fail | |
Civilization and Its Malcontents | |
The Four Stages of Noble Savagery | |
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Aboriginal academic achieved admired American anthropology assimilation Australia believed Benedict Big Ditch bohemian bourgeois century chapter Civil Society claims communal conception Culture Cult Dahomey David Landes described Discourse on Inequality economic Eliot England Ernest Gellner essay Europe European fact freedom Graña Hayek Herder human Ibid idea ideal Indian intellectuals Isaiah Berlin Karl Polanyi Karl Popper Kuper liberty literary living London look Maori Margaret Mead means Michael Polanyi mind modern moral nature never Noyes Oneida Open Society peasant philosophy political Polynesian Poverty of Nations Powelson primitive primitivism primitivist problems Raymond Williams religious resentment Richard Pipes romantic primitivism romanticism Rousseau Russian Samoa sexual social solidarity Sutherland T. S. Eliot taboos tells things thought trade traditional tribal world tribe University Press values Western Wittgenstein women writes wrote York Zealand Zuni