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"He's Too Cold!" Children and the Limits of Culture on a Greek Island
Author(s) -
Sutton David
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1525/ahu.1998.23.2.127
Subject(s) - curiosity , ethnography , cultural relativism , value (mathematics) , relativism , sociology , field (mathematics) , anthropology , gender studies , epistemology , psychology , social psychology , political science , law , philosophy , mathematics , machine learning , pure mathematics , computer science , human rights
This article explores how the presence of my son in the field led me to challenge some of my most basic assumptions about the nature of culture, the workings of cultural relativism, and the value of representing other peoples as bearers of cultural difference. During fieldwork on the Greek island ofKalymnos I found that the islanders had an 'anthropological" tolerance and curiosity concerning cultural and religious differences but did not extend such tolerance to practices of child rearing. And, strangely, 1 found myself sharing their intolerance. This article explores the limits of "culture,' both for anthropologists and for their ethnographic subjects.