Culture Term Paper

SAMPLE EXCERPT . . .
"other" peoples. It may, as seen earlier in this synopsis, be the feminists vs. other individuals. But what really defines what culture is? Is it the traits and features that define the actions, behaviors, and traditions of a certain people? Does it have anything to do with heritages, science and genetics? Or as Ortner states, does it have anything to do with power relationships among a people?

The relationship between "agency and power" is complicated and there is often an "invisible nature of class" that influences cultural identity. It is virtually impossible at times, to fully understand and define culture, according to Ortner, because human beings themselves are constantly working to identify and define the self, and if humans cannot define the self, the concept of culture will always be just that…a concept, one that anthropologists are constantly aspiring to define. It may perhaps always be something that is nebulous in nature, something that is theoretical, but not something that will every fully be concrete.

References:

"A working definition of culture." Canadian Commission for Unesco. Pp.78-83.

Fox, R.G. 1991. Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the present. School of American

Research Press, Santa Fe: New Mexico.

Moore, J.D. 2008. Visions of culture: An introduction to anthropological theories and theorists.

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Term Paper on Culture and the Many Ways Assignment

Ortner, S.G. 2006. Anthropology and social theory: Culture, power, and the acting subject. Duke Williams, R. 1989a. Culture is ordinary,…

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