Seeing culture everywhere: From genocide to consumer habits

Abstract

Joana Breidenbach, an independent anthropologist, journalist, and social entrepreneur who lives in Berlin, is author of Tanz der Kulturen (The dance of cultures) and coeditor (with Nyiri) of China Inside Out. Pal Nyiri is professor of history from an anth Publication Year: 2011 This engagingly written, jargon-free challenge to the misguided and dangerous global obsession with cultural difference critiques the popular notion that world affairs are determined by civilizations with immutable and conflicting cultures. Culture is too often understood as a straightjacket of values that make people act in a certain way. A more accurate and constructive approach is to see culture as a changing system of meaning, which individuals deploy selectively to make sense of the world. © 2009 by the University of Washington Press. All rights reserved.