Essay about Two Views on Culture and Anthropology - 484 Words

Two Views on Culture and Anthropology The take on culture and anthropology can be dissected in many different ways. Horace M. Miner takes a look at his culture through a view of which an anthropologist from another culture would look at it. While Roy Wagner takes the anthropologist view and dissects it. Both writers use find culture through anthropology, while Miner concludes with a result in Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, Wagner dissects the process of which is being used, The Idea of Culture. Throughout the essay Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, Miner creates a definition of the American culture from an outsiders perspective. Miner himself was born and raised in the United States, but takes the approach of an†¦show more content†¦Though the actual anthropologic part was not ‘pieced’ together, it seemed as though the he was educated on the culture and did not build the puzzle by himself. The view he creates is weird, alienist, and seems as though it were written by someone who is outside of our culture. One of the main goals or concepts of the essay is to open the eyes of an American, in order to open up the acceptance of other cultures. This raises the question, is Miner’s ‘outsider’ anthropologist view of the American culture correct? Since he is has a valid argument of growing up in the culture he is critiquing. Roy Wagner’s The Idea of Culture plays around with the idea that the anthropologist way of coming to know what a ‘culture’ is, can actually be backed. He comes to the conclusion similar to the means that an anthropologist can only know as much about the people as he observes, or of the remains that he observes. Leading to a very wide spread area in which conclusions from the anthropologist can be drawn. He argues the fact that the anthropologist â€Å"invents† the culture based on what he is seeing. And since the anthropologist has never experienced this culture in â€Å"real† time he relates the objects of the culture. He or she invents a different culture that is different and visibly contrast to his or her own, naturally. And since an anthropologist or one acting as one might not have ever taken in account their own culture, the idea of something differentShow MoreRelatedA Culture As An Integrated Whole?1346 Words   |  6 Pagesis useful to look at a culture as an integrated whole? a. 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