The Invention of Culture, 2nd Edition
The Invention of Culture, 2nd Edition by Roy Wagner
English | November 21, 2016 | ISBN: 022642328X | EPUB | 208 pages | 0.6 MB
English | November 21, 2016 | ISBN: 022642328X | EPUB | 208 pages | 0.6 MB
In the field of anthropology, few books manage to maintain both historical value and contemporary relevance. Roy Wagner's The Invention of Culture, originally published in 1975, is one that does. Wagner breaks new ground by arguing that culture arises from the dialectic between the individual and the social world. Rooting his analysis in the relationships between invention and convention, innovation and control, and meaning and context, he builds a theory that insists on the importance of creativity, placing people-as-inventors at the heart of the process that creates culture.
In an elegant twist, he also shows that this very process ultimately produces the discipline of anthropology itself. Tim Ingold’s foreword to the new edition captures the exhilaration of Wagner’s book while showing how the reader can journey through it and arrive safely—though transformed—on the other side.