engleski

Cultures, Traditions and Radical Humanism

In this paper I review debates concerning the analytic use and ethnographic prevalence of the culture concept in social anthropology with specific focus on Anglo-American and South-East European anthropological traditions. I draw specific attention to the highly problematic use and prevalence of the culture concept amongst people with whom I spoke whilst conducting fieldwork in Belgrade and Zagreb. The paper begins with a discussion of problems concerning the idea of culture and how the term is used. It then moves to consider debates surrounding culture with particular emphasis on its use amongst the academic Left. Writing from an antinational, radical humanist perspective, I argue that the insistence on strong versions of cultural difference and the definition of culture as a bounded whole resonates with a mainstream Western tradition that anthropological writing on the Balkans would do well to avoid. The paper concludes with a discussion surrounding the possibility of acknowledging the importance and reclaiming the concept of tradition as an alternative for 'culture talk', which is rejected for its insistence on radical cultural difference and uncomfortable tendency to reify social wholes.

culture; anthropology; Marxism; nationalism; difference; tradition

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