Cultural Islands
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Description: An essay by Thomas Hylland Eriksen that critically examines the metaphors which have underlied anthropological theory and research.
This essay critically examines the island metaphors which have underlied anthropological theorising and research - metaphors which in the heyday of functionalism and cultural relativism produced strong images of isolated and self-sustaining societies, but which have today been dismissed as misleading and potentially harmful by many anthropologists. Drawing on empirical material from the literal island society of Mauritius, it is suggested that these criticisms must be well-founded since Mauritius, although isolated, has since its inception as a society been crucially dependent on the outside world - it is everything but isolated. A modified diffusionism, therefore, ought perhaps to be revived. It is further argued, still drawing on Mauritian material, that island metaphors may still be useful, but that they should now denote aspects of intersubjective meaning and the conscious erection of social and cultural boundaries, rather than "objective" properties of societies.
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| Page title: | Cultural islands |
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| Date | Created: 1999-11-15 Created: 2010-10-01 Last updated: 2013-11-16 Last updated: 2010-10-01 |