Theory in Anthropology: On the Demise of the Concept of Culture1

Abstract

Both Eric Wolf and Sherry Ortner note that a shared discourse in anthropology, which was the common link among anthropology's subdisciplines, no longer exists and that the growing intellectual fragmentation has not only lead to greater specialization of each field, but is also indicated in the specialized professional associations that fill the intellectual needs of the practitioner. The reasons for this acute division of the field are not simply a result of changing field work conditions or the fact that biological anthropologists now talk more to biologists and archaelogists view their field as more of a natural science. What is at stake is that culture as the subject matter, which was central to anthropology, has not only changed into what Ortner calls practice-actionpraxis, but that the very nature and language of our cherished concept is no longer either a point of departure or a point of convergence. Historically, culture was the most important concept that held American anthropology together, just as the concept of society was the underpinning of British social anthropology. From the era of Franz Boas onward, culture was both a guiding theoretical concept by which we understood our empirical evidence, and, at the same time, the plurality of cultures was the living