Product Description

The Culture Cult is an acerbic critique of that longing widespread in society today to retreat from civilization. From Rousseau and the Noble Savage to modern defenders of ethnicity such as Isaiah Berlin and Karl Polanyi, a prominent intellectual tradition has over-romanticized the virtues of tribal life. In contrast, another tradition, represented by Karl Popper, Michael Polanyi, and Ernest Gellner, defends modern values and civil society. The Culture Cult discusses both sides of this divide between "culture" and "civilization," and between "closed" and "open" societies. The romantic insistence on the superiority of the primitive is increasingly grounded in a fictionalized picture of the past-a picture often created with the aid of well-meaning but misguided anthropologists. Such idealizations work to the detriment of the very people they are meant to help, for they isolate minorities from such undeniable benefits of modern society as literacy and health care, and discourage them from participating in modern life. Few will find comfort in The Culture Cult, but many will recognize a valuable criticism of currently popular social politics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #886134 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

What a breath of fresh air...
... in a subject filled with half-baked sociological arguments about cultures and cultural relativism. At last someone is prepared to say, for example, that original Maori culture was warlike and unfriendly to the environment. That modern Aboriginal culture has invented an apparently wonderful past that never existed. That primitive cultures were exactly that: primitive. That there was little respect for law and liberty. And so on... In fact, just about every positive aspect of much criticised western culture was missing from primitive culture.

To read this book is to realise just how false the sterotypical image of the noble savage actually is, and how much it still pervades the modern world. Primitive culture was in fact usually very primitive indeed and often cruel to women and children. Myths have been created to make such cultures appear like a lost golden age. In fact, to adopt the values of these old, uncivilised, cultures would be to lose our modern-day golden age.

If nothing else, this books makes it respectable to use the word 'uncivilised' again. A must-get present for any well-meaning but woolly thinking Guardian readers that you know: they might hate it, but will not be able to dispute the facts it contains. And neither you nor they can hate the honest debate this excellent book generates.

Important for anthropologists
This book should be in every curriculum for anthropology around the globe. I was so fed up with my studies until this book came and set the world (somewhat) straight again. Maybe someday we will find that middleground in a realization of every human beings common sentiments.
But Sandall - after having read deeper into the subject and studied some philosophy, I think the problem you are trying to unravel is not just a pshycological one, regarding ressentiments, but also a general paradox in modern societies. I do not feel ressentiments toward civilization as such. But I also have that longing towards simplicity and nature. So maybe it's a more general feeling, than you make it out to be...

kind regards and thanks
Marianne Berg