2 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2019
    1. he term is used as a shorthand way of referring, as we shall see, to bundles of complicated cognitive and perceptual processes, and it is a series of short (cognitive) steps from shorthand to metonymy to reification. But we should be on guard, particularly since by reifying culture it is easy to overlook intracultural diversity

      This is true, though there is also the need to create a handle, or a way into understanding a culture even if it is on a superficial level, otherwise we might never attempt it.

    2. Culture is homogenous. This presumes that a (local) culture is free of internal paradoxes and contradictions such that (a) it provides clear and unambiguous behavioural “instructions” to individuals –a program for how to act –or (b) once grasped or learned by an outsider, it can be characterized in relatively straightforward ways (“the Dobuans are paranoid”). A homogenous view of culture makes the second inadequate idea easier to sustain, namely that

      Attempting to learn about the Central Australian Indigenous culture, reveals a myriad of ways of being within the language groups and within each community. The people themselves offer a solution in the form of a Malpa, a person from the community who provides cultural translation and keeps you culturally safe.