Anthropology and Cultural Studies: Difference,Ethnography and Theory

This paper critiques the theorisation of culture as difference that dominates Australian cultural studies and cultural anthropology. It argues that a perspective on culture that gets beyond current preoccupations with difference has more to be said for it than practitioners in either discipline have hitherto recognised. Ethnography has long been recognised as crucial to the study of culture—which suggests that we might best appreciate what it is that is being ignored and neglected (not to say demeaned) in contemporary studies of culture if we turn our attention to the way we study it. This paper reconsiders what we mean by the assertion that ethnography constitutes an experiential mode of knowledge which constitutes the most sustained and rigorous application of the principle of verstehen available. In contesting the stress on difference that now dominates the study of culture, a case is made for cultures conceived of as ensembles of mystery and meaning. Whether born into a culture or researching it, as observers and participants we struggle to make sense of what the world is about. As ethnographers, we seek to do this empathically; this paper argues that to do it effectively we must fashion a sensibility adequate to it. An appreciation of the significance of sensibility, it is suggested, provides a much needed alternative to the reduction of culture to difference.     

Book Reviews: Social/Cultural Anthropology

Book reviewed in this article:
Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California . James Diego Vigil
Chicano Ethnicity . Susan E. Keefe and Amado M. Padilla