'Culture' (How to Think Like an Anthropologist)- Matthew Engelke

What are Engelke’s three main critiques of the traditional culture concept?

1. Culture is not bounded in place

2. Culture is not fixed in time

3. Culture is not coherent or unified

What does ‘culture is not bounded in place’ mean?

Cultures overlap, borrow, and flow through trade, migration, media, and globalisation. No culture exists in isolation.

Example of cultural interaction across space:

The Kula Ring in the Trobriand Islands- exchange networks connecting different groups. 

What does ‘culture is not fixed in time’ mean? 

Cultures change. Early anthropology often treated them as static ‘snapshots’, ignoring historical and colonial change 

Example of the ‘timeless native’ problem:

Victor Turner’s study of Ndembu rituals, which ignored colonial transformations around them.

What does ‘culture is not coherent or unified’ mean?

Cultures contain contradictions, disagreements, and inconsistencies. Not all members share identical beliefs.

What is essentialism in anthropology? 

The belief that a culture has an unchanging, inherent essence, often leading to stereotypes or racism. 

How can essentialism be politically dangerous?

It can justify inequity (e.g. apartheid in South Africa used ‘cultural difference’ as rationale for segregation)

What shift occurred in anthropology after the 1980s?

Many anthropologists rejected or redefined ‘culture’, focusing on power, discourse, and practice instead.

Which thinkers influenced this shift after the 1980s?

• Michel Foucault- power, discourse, subjectivity 

• Pierre Bourdieu- habitus (structured but flexible dispositions) 

• Arjun Appadurai- globalisation and cultural flows 

• Lila Abu-Lughod- ‘write against culture’ to avoid reification

What is habitus according to Bourdieu? 

‘Structured structures predisposed to function as structing structures’- learned ways of being that both reflect and shape society. 

How did Abu-Lughod suggest anthropologists approach culture?

Write against it- emphasising specific practices and power relations, not reified essences. W

What does Appadurai’s work highlight?

Culture as dynamic and global, emphasising flows, media, and imagination

How did US anthropology treat the culture concept? 

It remained central, especially in Boasian and interpretive traditions. e.g. Geertz. H

How did British anthropology differ?

It focused more on society and social structure rather than abstract ‘culture’

What did Firth argue about society and culture?

They overlap; neither can be fully understood without the other.

What did James Clifford say about culture? 

‘Culture is a deeply compromised idea I cannot yet do without’

How does Engelke interpret this?

We must use ‘culture’ critically, acknowledging its flaws, but recognising its value.

Why is culture still essential in anthropology?

It reminds us that human behaviour is historically and socially situated and prevents oversimplified universal claims. W

Why is culture still essential in anthropology? 

It reminds us that human behaviour is historically and socially situated and prevents oversimplified universal claims. 

What is the danger of discarding culture entirely?

Other disciplines (psychology, political science) risk ignoring context, and assuming uniform ‘human nature’