Cultural Theory

Author: Cai Junsheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: The cultural theory content of this book can be divided into four points:
1. Re-defining the concept of culture, distinguishing the three concepts of human, society, and culture, thereby establishing a relatively clear object for cultural studies.
2. Reviewing the history of cultural anthropology as the theoretical origin of cultural.
3. When examining the relationship between the universality and individuality of human culture, the book deepens the study of the most common categories in cultural research—such as cultural selection, cultural creativity, cultural inheritance, cultural exchange, and acculturation—and thereby proposes several new theoretical categories, such as cultural forms, the necessity and naturalness of cultural selection, individual culture, and the cultural patterns of individual culture.
4. The final chapter of the book summarizes the entire theoretical framework from both scientific and value perspectives, thereby answering the question of the relationship between human culture as a scientific system and as a value system within the scope of what is possible.
Empirical cultural achievements are reflected in two aspects:
1. Given the space available, to illustrate the above theoretical system, the book cites a considerable amount of factual data from cultural anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, sociology, psychology, and history, providing a relatively complete presentation of Chinese, American, Japanese, and Indian cultures, enabling readers to make holistic comparisons of these individual cultures.
2. To better align with Chinese culture, the book dedicates three chapters to discussing ancient Chinese spiritual culture and modern Chinese technological culture.