Cultural Theory

Judging taste and creating value. The cultural consecration of Australian wines

by John Germov

Michael Patrick Allen & John Germov
Journal of Sociology, 47 35-51, 2011

Fingerprint, Bellwether, Model Event: Climate Change as Anthropology per se

by Jerome Whitington

This paper discusses three figures of climate anticipation in order to show that climate change poses the problem of... more This paper discusses three figures of climate anticipation in order to show that climate change poses the problem of anthropology per se, that is, the planet with respect to anthropos.

Epigenetic mechanism mediating the impact of child adversity on life-long adverse behavior

by Andrés Ginestet

Although epidemiological data provide evidence that early life experience plays a critical role in human development,... more Although epidemiological data provide evidence that early life experience plays a critical role in human development, the mechanism of how this works remains in question. Recent data from human and animal literature suggest that epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation, are involved not only in cellular differentiation, but also in the modulation of genome function in response to early life experience affecting gene
function and the phenotype. Such modulations may serve as a mechanism for life-long genome adaptation.
These changes seem to be widely distributed across the genome and to involve central and peripheral systems. Examining the environmental circumstances associated with the onset and reversal of DNA methylation will be critical for understanding risk and resiliency.

How to Become an Iconic Social Thinker: The Intellectual Pursuits of Malinowski and Foucault

by Dominik Bartmanski

Published in European Journal of Social Theory

The present article develops a new approach to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge. Its point of departure... more The present article develops a new approach to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge. Its point of departure is to investigate the conditions under which social thinkers assume the iconic reputation. What does it take to become ‘a founding father’ of a humanistic discipline? How do social thinkers achieve the status of a trans-disciplinary star? Why some intellectuals attract tremendous attention and ‘go down in history’ despite personal and professional failures, while others enjoy only limited recognition or simply sink into oblivion, even if they have met all the standards of their day? Quite a few sociologists have tackled this elusive issue. Pierre Bourdieu, Michele Lamont and Randall Collins are among those who fleshed out strong explanatory frameworks. This project adds to this body of knowledge by emphasizing cultural factors that these authors downplayed in their seminal accounts, despite being aware of their significance. By showing why these underdeveloped aspects of their works need to be incorporated into the debate and how this can be achieved, this article introduces a new theorization of the iconic, lasting intellectual reputation substantiated by evidence from the lifeworks of Bronislaw Malinowski and Michel Foucault. As such, it aims, minimally, to make sociology of knowledge decisively ‘cultural’. Maximally, it seeks to demonstrate that the iconic success of intellectual intervention in social theory depends on carefully performed and contingently mediated engagement with the binary systems of symbolic classification.

Materiality and Meaning in Social Life: Toward an Iconic Turn in Cultural Sociology

by Dominik Bartmanski

Introduction to the book "Iconic Power" co-authored with Jeffrey C. Alexander

With this volume, we push the study of culture into the material realm, not to make cultural sociology materialistic... more With this volume, we push the study of culture into the material realm, not to make cultural sociology materialistic but to make the study of material life more cultural. We introduce the concept of iconicity, and alongside it the idea of iconic power. Objects become icons when they have not only material force but also symbolic power. Actors have iconic consciousness when they experience material objects, not only understanding them cognitively or evaluating them morally but also feeling their sensual, aesthetic force.

Another look at kinship: Reasons why a paradigm shift is needed

by Dwight Read

Published in Algebra Rodtsva 12:42-69.(in English and Russian), 2009

The ontological relationship between a genealogical space determined through genealogical tracing of links connecting... more The ontological relationship between a genealogical space determined through genealogical tracing of links connecting individuals and kin relations as they are identified through the use of kin terms can be clarified by uncovering the underlying logic of a kinship terminology through which the kin terms form a computational system with reference to a genealogical space. Then we need to consider how the ontological connection between the computational system for genealogical relations and the computational system for kin term relations are connected together to form a conceptual system for identifying and constructing kin relations. Finally, we need to show that delineation of the logic underlying the structure of the kinship terminology leads to new insights into the properties of kinship systems and differences among kinship systems.

What is Kinship?

by Dwight Read

published in 'The Cultural Analysis of Kinship: The Legacy of David Schneider and Its Implications for Anthropological Relativism,' R. Feinberg and M. Ottenheimer eds. University of Illinois Press,

I hypothesize that the terminological space provides a framework for defining the world of kin without presupposing... more I hypothesize that the terminological space provides a framework for defining the world of kin without presupposing that the kinship world is genealogical. Cultural rules of instantiation give kin terms genealogical reference and thereby the problem of presuming parenthood defined via reproduction as a universal basis for kinship is circumvented. The terminological space is constrained by general, structural properties that make it a “kinship space” and structural equations that give it its particular form. A mapping from the terminological space to the genealogical grid can be constructed under a straightforward mapping of the generating symbols of the terminological structure onto the primary kin types. This implies that it will always be possible to provide a genealogical “meaning” of the kin terms. Whether the genealogical “meaning” so constructed has cultural salience is at the heart of Schneider’s critique of kinship based on a presumed universal genealogical grid.

From Behavior to Culture: An Assessment of Cultural Evolution and a New Synthesis

by Dwight Read

published in 'Complexity,' 2003

Three approaches to cultural evolution—sociobiology, dual inheritance, and memes—are reviewed and it is shown that... more Three approaches to cultural evolution—sociobiology, dual inheritance, and memes—are reviewed and it is shown that each makes use of an incomplete notion of what constitutes culture.

A Formal Explanation of Formal Explanation

by Dwight Read

Structure and Dynamics: eJournal of Anthropological and Related Sciences: Vol. 3: No. 2, Article 4. http://repositories.cdlib.org/imbs/socdyn/sdeas/vol3/iss2/art4

Two kinds of formal models need to be distinguished: data models derived from patterned observations and theory models... more Two kinds of formal models need to be distinguished: data models derived from patterned observations and theory models derived from theories about processes that produce the patterned observations. These correspond to the difference between the phenomenal domain of observations and the ideational domain of theories. Explanation can be characterized by isomorphism between data models and theory models. The physical, biological and cultural domains differ by what constitute the relevant structuring processes for each of these domains. The cultural domain associated with human societies is far more complex than the other two because the domain of observation must include cultural idea systems. One of the primary roles of formal models for cultural idea systems is to determine the necessary consequences (through mathematical reasoning) of processes hypothesized to provide their internal coherency.

Mathematical Representation of Cultural Constructs

by Dwight Read

Published in A Companion to Cognitive Anthropology, First Edition. Edited By David B. Kronenfeld, Giovanni Bennardo, Victor C. de Munck, and Michael D. Fischer. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2011 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Mathematical representations need to delineate the “principles that may be presumed to be at work at their source”... more Mathematical representations need to delineate the “principles that may be presumed to be at work at their source” (Lounsbury 1964:351) in the form of “ generative models which reproduce … the logic” (Bourdieu 1990[1980]:92) that accounts for “how the cultural constructs are generated” (Schneider 1968:7), and thereby enables us to “uncover the conceptual structures that inform our subjects’ acts” (Geertz 1973:27). Mathematical representations of cultural constructs can provide the analytical means to achieve these goals for the analysis of cultural phenomena precisely because of what constitutes mathematical reasoning.

Mathematics in Structural Theory

by Dwight Read

Tongan Kinship Terminology: Insights from an Algebraic Analysis

by Dwight Read

Formal analysis of kinship terminologies and its relationship to what constitutes kinship (complete text)

by Dwight Read

Published in Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory: An International Journal Vol 1 No. 1

The goal of this paper is to relate formal analysis of kinship terminologies to a better understanding of who,... more The goal of this paper is to relate formal analysis of kinship terminologies to a better understanding of who, culturally, are defined as our kin. Part I of the paper begins with a brief discussion as to why neither of the two claims: (1) kinship terminologies primarily have to do with social categories and (2) kinship terminologies are based on classification of genealogically specified relationships traced through genitor and genetrix, is adequate as a basis for a formal analysis of a kinship
terminology.

The social category argument is insufficient as it does not
account for the logic uncovered through the formalism of rewrite rule analysis regarding the distribution of kin types over kin terms when kin terms are mapped onto a genealogical grid. Any ormal account must be able to account at least for the results obtained through rewrite rule analysis. Though rewrite rule analysis has made the logic of kinship terminologies more evident, the second claim must also be rejected for both theoretical and empirical reasons. Empirically, ethnographic evidence does not provide a consistent view of how genitors and genetrixes should be defined and even the existence of culturally recognized genitors is debatable for some groups. In addition, kinship relations for many groups are reckoned through a kind of kin term calculus independent of genealogical connections. Theoretically, rewrite rule formalism is descriptive and not explanatory of kinship terminology features. Four substantive
problems with rewrite rule formalism are identified and illustrated with an example based on the concepts, Friend and Enemy. In Part II these problems are resolved when a kinship terminology
is viewed from the perspective of a structured, symbolic system in which there is both a symbol calculus and a set of rules of instantiation giving the symbols empirical content.

The Word/Image Dualism Revisited: Towards an Iconic Conception of Visual Culture

by Dominik Bartmanski

published in Journal of Sociology, 2012

Is there any difference between the widely discussed ‘pictorial turn’ and the emerging ‘iconic turn’? If so, does it... more Is there any difference between the widely discussed ‘pictorial turn’ and the emerging ‘iconic turn’? If so, does it matter? The answers to these questions are positive if we look at the problem from a cultural sociological point of view. It has been observed that the concept of the ‘iconic turn’, coined by a German philosopher Gottfried Boehm, may capture more effectively the sense of life attributed to visual objects than W.J.T. Mitchell’s famous ‘pictorial turn’. This article endorses this conjecture and provides a theoretical context for its justification. It thus contributes to the emerging debate about the paradigm shift in studies of visual culture.

Del imperialismo político al neocolonialismo cultural: El mito de la Madre Patria y sus proyecciones mediáticas.

by Santiago Juan-Navarro

Published in Arte y Cultura en la Globalización. Ed. Carlos Borro. Buenos Aires: Editorial La Bohemia, 2008.

Kinship theory: A paradigm shift

by Dwight Read

Published in 'Ethnology', 2007

The received view regarding the centrality of kinship terminologies in kinship systems assumes that terminologies are... more The received view regarding the centrality of kinship terminologies in kinship systems assumes that terminologies are genealogically constrained. This assumption ignores the generative logic of kinship terminologies, hence the need for a new paradigm. It is argued that kinship systems are based on two conceptual systems: the logic of genealogical tracing and the logic of kin term products. Structural implications of the generative logic of terminological structures are discussed, including the logical basis for the difference between descriptive and classificatory terminologies and transformations that may be made between different kinship terminologies through simple changes in structural equations. Connection between ethnographic observations and structural properties are identified. (Cultural anthropology, kinship, formal models, genealogy)

Formal analysis of kinship terminologies and its relationship to what constitutes kinship

by Dwight Read

Occupy Movement and politics of educated hope

by Henry Giroux

An Algebraic Account of the American Kinship Terminology

by Dwight Read

Published in Current Anthropology, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Aug. - Oct., 1984), pp. 417-449

To be demonstrated in this article is the manner in which the AKT is structured as being generatable from a few, basic... more To be demonstrated in this article is the manner in which the AKT is structured as being generatable from a few, basic prin- ciples. The minimum goal is to demonstrate explicitly that the set of terms for the AKT is inherently structured as a system of objects (= kin terms), operations (= kin term products), and equations (e.g., Parent of Child as a consanguineal relation equals Self) and that the whole terminology can be mapped isomorphically onto an appropriately defined algebraic struc- ture. In turn, through this isomorphism, the machinery used in the study of algebraic structures can be invoked to examine the structural properties of the AKT as engendered by the set of objects, operations, and equations.

Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES): A Software Implementation of a Cultural Theory

by Dwight Read

Published in Social Science Computer Review 2006 24: 43

The computer program Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES) provides a graphically based framework for constructing, if... more The computer program Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES) provides a graphically based framework for constructing, if possible, a generative algebraic model for the structure of a kinship terminology (the terms used to refer to one’s kin). The algebraic modeling is based on a theory of kinship terminologies elaborated through writing the software program. The theory
relates the properties and structure of kinship terminologies to an underlying logic that the KAES program helps uncover and model as a generative structure. The program then relates the
structural logic of a kinship terminology modeled by the KAES program to a genealogical space based on genealogical tracing of kin relations. The KAES program demonstrates the surprisingly logical character of kinship terminologies and challenges the received viewof the primacy of genealogical relations in defining cultural kinship through showing how genealogical definitions of kin terms can be accurately predicted in the terminologies considered to date.