Understand culture (from the perspective of anthropology and social theory)

Author: (American) Robert C. Yulun, translated by 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 Yulun's exceptional ability to cut to the chase from a pile of complex and diverse thoughts with a discerning attitude, his relentless efforts to consolidate anthropological analysis and its corresponding philosophical and epistemological foundations, his extraordinary talent for clearly articulating problems, and his enthusiastic mind and imagination, which made this daunting 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 United States and the United Kingdom 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 main theoretical issues of cross-cultural interpretation. It introduces the intellectual exchanges among anthropological predecessors in the Anglo-American world from 1970 to 1990 before the widespread evaluation. During the debate, there were two models: the scientific model of understanding human behavior and the pragmatic model of symbolic behavior, which were in opposition and formed a self-explanatory framework. Understanding Culture has generated great interest. The second edition adds two chapters and concludes 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 the overall discussion of anthropological rational debates, fieldwork, and cross-cultural interpretation.