Premium
A Scientific Concept of Culture
Author(s) -
WEISS GERALD
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1973.75.5.02a00130
Subject(s) - culmination , argument (complex analysis) , mysticism , epistemology , sociology , history , environmental ethics , aesthetics , anthropology , philosophy , medicine , theology , physics , astronomy
A century has passed since Tylor first traced for us the anthropological concept of culture. The subsequent history of the concept has been an unfortunate one, due to inadequate, unclear, nebulous, even mystical formulations. An attempt is made in this article to adjust the concept so that it will conform to a matter‐of‐fact reality. In so doing, the relationships between culture and society, culture and humanness, and culture and cultural systems, are discussed. A list of terms with strict definitions is provided as a culmination to the argument, and as an alternative to the formulations of the past.