Description
In anthropology, a field that moves quickly from one ?cutting-edge” to another, there are few books that are as important for their historical value as their contemporary relevance; The Invention of Culture by Roy Wagner is one. Wagner’s profound meditations on the dialectic between the individual and the social world bring to the fore questions of invention and convention, innovation and control, meaning and context. Throughout, Wagner’s insistence on the importance of creativity results in a theory that places people-as-inventors at the heart of the symbolization processes that produce what we call ?culture.” In an elegant twist, Wagner shows how these processes have produced the discipline of anthropology itself. This is a classic text (with a new foreword by the brilliant Tim Ingold) that deserves to be recognized as such.
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In anthropology, a field that is known for its critical edge and intellectual agility, few books manage to maintain both historical value and contemporary relevance. Roy Wagner's The Invention of Culture, originally published in 1975, is one. Wagner breaks new ground by arguing that culture arises from the dialectic between the individual and the social world. Rooting his analysis in the relationships between invention and convention, innovation and control, and meaning and context, he builds a theory that insists on the importance of creativity, placing people-as-inventors at the heart of the process that creates culture. In an elegant twist, he shows that this very process ultimately produces the discipline of anthropology itself. Tim Ingold’s foreword to the new edition captures the exhilaration of Wagner’s book while showing how the reader can journey through it and arrive safely—though transformed—on the other side.
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