Understanding Culture: From an Anthropological and Sociological Theoretical Perspective

Author: (USA) Robert C. Yulín and He Guoqiang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Understanding Culture is an outstanding achievement in anthropological theory, and it is also a good book suitable for thinking, teaching, writing, and reading. The reason this book has become a good one lies in Robert Yulín's exceptional ability to cut to the heart of the matter with a discerning attitude from a complex and multifaceted array of thoughts, his relentless efforts to consolidate anthropological analysis and its corresponding philosophical and epistemological foundations, his extraordinary talent for clearly articulating issues, and his passionate intellect and imagination, which made this formidable task possible. After careful revision and updating, the new edition of this book is even more outstanding than the previous edition.—John Connerroff, Understanding Culture: From an Anthropological and Sociological Theoretical Perspective
The first edition of Understanding Culture was published in English in the USA and UK in 1984 and was translated into Spanish. The English edition of Understanding Culture was reprinted after revision in 2001, and the second edition was simultaneously translated into Chinese and Spanish. This book explores the major theoretical issues in cross-cultural interpretation. It introduces the intellectual exchanges among anthropological predecessors in the UK and US from the 1970s to the early 1990s before the widespread evaluation of the time. During the debate, there were two models: the scientific model of understanding human behavior and the symbolic model of pragmatic behavior, which were in opposition and formed a self-explanatory framework. Understanding Culture has generated great interest. The second edition added two chapters and concluded with a new chapter titled "Globalization and Cultural Displacement," which challenges the traditional concepts of cultural boundaries and self-boundaries and has had a significant impact on anthropological rational debates, fieldwork, and the overall discussion of cross-cultural interpretation.