Cultural complexity

A rich, witty, and accessible introduction to the anthropology of contemporary cultures, "Cultural Complexity" emphasizes that culture is organized in terms of states, markets, and movements. Hannerz pays special attention to the interplay between the centralizing agencies of culture, such as schools and media, and the decentering diversity of subcultures, and considers the special role of cities as the centers of cultural growth. Hannerz discusses cultural process in small-scale societies, the concept of subcultures, and the economics and politics of culture. Finally, he presents the twentieth-century globalization of culture as a process of cultural diffusion, polycentralism, and local innovation, focusing on periods of intensive cultural productivity in Vienna, Calcutta, and San Francisco.

First sentence: Homo sapiens is the creature who "makes sense."

Year

1992

Language

English

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Editions

1

Pages

358

ISBN

9780231076234

Data source: Wikidata