{"id":964,"date":"2008-08-27T03:11:27","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T07:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=964"},"modified":"2018-08-12T23:09:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T03:09:00","slug":"16422-%c2%a0-eric-l-jones-cultures-merging-%e2%80%95%c2%a0-a-historical-and-economic-critique-of-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=964","title":{"rendered":"16422. (Eric L. Jones) Cultures Merging \u2015 A Historical and Economic Critique of Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Cul\u00adture\u201d is a slip\u00adpery con\u00adcept, used in many dif\u00adfer\u00adent ways by his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans, anthro\u00adpol\u00ado\u00adgists and econ\u00ado\u00admists. Jones\u2019 book is more a sur\u00advey than the cri\u00adtique implied by the title, but it is an extreme\u00adly use\u00adful and well-pre\u00adsent\u00aded sur\u00advey. I pre\u00adfer this, since it is best to start off with some idea of who has thought and said what about the sub\u00adject before plung\u00ading into debates. Pre\u00adsump\u00adtions about cul\u00adture, espe\u00adcially about whether it deter\u00admines how peo\u00adple act eco\u00adnom\u00adi\u00adcally, or mere\u00adly shapes itself on the basis of how peo\u00adple must<\/em> act eco\u00adnom\u00adi\u00adcally, under\u00adlie all sorts of the\u00ado\u00adries and descrip\u00adtions in the three fields. Usu\u00adally these pre\u00adsump\u00adtions are shared by some group of thinkers with\u00adout them being explic\u00aditly stat\u00aded. Argu\u00adments between dif\u00adfer\u00adent groups, with dif\u00adfer\u00adent pre\u00adsump\u00adtions, usu\u00adally result in con\u00adfu\u00adsion. But a num\u00adber of works, in all three dis\u00adci\u00adplines, either illus\u00adtrate or make explic\u00adit par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar ideas of culture\u2019s rela\u00adtion to behav\u00adiour and economies. Schol\u00adars have tak\u00aden their cues from these sem\u00adi\u00adnal works, and pol\u00adi\u00adcy-mak\u00aders adhered to any of sev\u00aderal con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adtory atti\u00adtudes gen\u00ader\u00adated by them. Some have been down\u00adright sil\u00adly (such as \u201cthe end of his\u00adtory\u201d and \u201cclash of civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d tom-fool\u00adery). Jones presents most of them fair\u00adly dis\u00adpas\u00adsion\u00adately, but he is obvi\u00adously impa\u00adtient with the stu\u00adpider ones, and does not hide it. Of spe\u00adcial inter\u00adest to me is his sen\u00adsi\u00adble dis\u00adcus\u00adsion of the \u201cAsian Val\u00adues\u201d mys\u00adtique, pro\u00admoted by many East Asian econ\u00ado\u00admists and politi\u00adcians, and often uncrit\u00adi\u00adcally accept\u00aded else\u00adwhere. (He cites Steve Muhlberg\u00ader and myself in this dis\u00adcus\u00adsion, so I could hard\u00adly fail to find it inter\u00adest\u00ading.) On the whole, Jones gets the horse in front of the cart rather than the oth\u00ader way round. He plumps for com\u00admon-sense cau\u00adsa\u00adtion when it is pos\u00adsi\u00adble, and holds back his con\u00adclu\u00adsions when cau\u00adsa\u00adtion can\u00adnot be dis\u00adcerned, rather than appeal to enig\u00admatic col\u00adlec\u00adtive properties.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Cul\u00adture\u201d is a slip\u00adpery con\u00adcept, used in many dif\u00adfer\u00adent ways by his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans, anthro\u00adpol\u00ado\u00adgists and econ\u00ado\u00admists. Jones\u2019 book is more a sur\u00advey than the cri\u00adtique implied by the title, but it is an extreme\u00adly use\u00adful and well-pre\u00adsen\u00adt\u00aded sur\u00advey. I pre\u00adfer this, \u2026<\/p>\n

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