Sciene of culture: a study of man and civilization
- New York Grove 1949
- 444p.
Culture became differentiated as soon as it appeared. Ever since the earliest days of human history local groups of people have been distinguished from one another by dif- ferences in speech, custom, belief, and costume, in so far as any was worn. We may believe, also, that man has always been aware of those differences that set his own group apart from others. Thus we might say that, in a sense, mankind has always been culture conscious. And, ever since the time of Herodotus at least there have been attempts to account for cultural variations among mankind. Some thinkers accounted for cultural differences in terms of environmental influence; one kind of habitat would produce one type of culture, another habitat a different type. Others were inclined to attribute cultural variation to innate mental or temperamental differences. In comparatively recent times the new sciences of sociology and social psychology worked out general principles of a science of social behavior, but these were assumed to be common to all mankind and so could not account for cultural differences among tribes and nations. Social interaction is a universal process; conflict, co-operation, accom- modation, the four wishes, etc., are worldwide; they might account for cultural uniformities, but not differences. True, these sciences did not address themselves to the problem of cultural variation; they were limited almost entirely to the framework of one culture, Western civilization.