Culture and comparative education: Toward decentering and recentering the discourse

Comparative Education Review

Volumn 43, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 464-488

  Hoffman, Diane M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0033248290     PISSN: 00104086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/447580     Document Type: Article

References (107)

1. Ulf Hannerz, Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places (New York: Routledge, 1996), p. 30.
2. I am indebted to Arif Dirlik for his argument concerning the "radicalness" of cultural inquiry. In "Culturalism as Hegemonic Ideology and Liberating Practice," Cultural Critique 6 (Spring 1987): 13-50, he argues that we need culture as one, if not the, primary source for radical inquiry: for culture shapes our ways of seeing, and it is these we must question first if we are to make changes in action at either micro or macrolevels.
3. Lila Abu-Lughod, "Writing against Culture," in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present, ed. Richard G. Fox (Santa Fe, N.M.: School of American Research, 1991), pp. 137-62.
4. Verena Stolcke, "Talking Culture: New Boundaries, New Rhetorics of Exclusion in Europe," Current Anthropology 36 (1995): 1-24.
5. See Patricia Limerick, "The Startling Ability of Culture to Bring Critical Inquiry to a Halt," Chronicle of Higher Education (October 24, 1997), p. A76.
6. Murray Wax, "How Culture Misdirects Multiculturalism," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 24, no. 2 (1993): 99-115.
7. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
8. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
9. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
10. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
11. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
12. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
13. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
14. It is beyond the scope of this article to do full justice to the complexity of this topic; rather, I have summarized and selectively illustrated a few of the main points in the literature that appear relevant to those working in the comparative education field. For a fuller and more comprehensive account of trends in the anthropological "culture wars," see Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994); Robert Brightman, "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995): 509-46; Christoph Brumann, "Writing for Culture: Why a Successful Concept Should Not Be Discarded," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S1-S27; James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Fox, ed. (n. 3 above); Richard Handler, "Interpreting the Predicament of Culture Theory Today," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 72-83; Ulf Hannerz, "When Culture Is Everywhere: Reflections on a Favorite Concept," Ethnos 58, nos. 1-2 (1993): 95-111; Michael Lambek and Janice Boddy, "Introduction: Culture in Question," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (1997): 3-23.
15. See Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996); Robert Borofsky, "Rethinking the Cultural," in Borofsky, ed., pp. 243-49; Roger M. Keesing, "Theories of Culture Revisited," in Borofsky, ed., pp. 301-10.
16. See Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996); Robert Borofsky, "Rethinking the Cultural," in Borofsky, ed., pp. 243-49; Roger M. Keesing, "Theories of Culture Revisited," in Borofsky, ed., pp. 301-10.
17. See Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996); Robert Borofsky, "Rethinking the Cultural," in Borofsky, ed., pp. 243-49; Roger M. Keesing, "Theories of Culture Revisited," in Borofsky, ed., pp. 301-10.
18. See Brightman; Brumann.
19. Abu-Lughod, "Writing against Culture," p. 143.
20. Lila Abu-Lughod, "Comment on Brumann's Writing for Culture," Current Anthropology 40, suppl. (February 1999): S14.
21. Abu-Lughod, "Writing against Culture," p. 140.
22. Ibid., p. 143.
23. See Keesing, p. 307.
24. Richard Handler, "Authenticity," Anthropology Today 2, no. 1 (1986): 2-4, quoted in Jocelyn Linnekin, "Cultural Invention and the Dilemma of Authenticity," American Anthropologist 93 (1991): 446-49.
25. Richard Handler, "Authenticity," Anthropology Today 2, no. 1 (1986): 2-4, quoted in Jocelyn Linnekin, "Cultural Invention and the Dilemma of Authenticity," American Anthropologist 93 (1991): 446-49.
26. For a good example, see Alan Hanson, "The Making of the Maori: Culture Invention and Its Logic," American Anthropologist 91 (1989): 890-902.
27. Frederik Barth, "A Personal View of Present Tasks and Priorities in Cultural and Social Anthropology," in Borofsky, ed. (n. 7 above), pp. 349-60.
28. See Vandra Masemann, "Anthropological Approaches to Comparative Education," Comparative Education Review 20, no. 3 (October 1976): 368-80.
29. Richard Heyman, "Comparative Education from an Ethnomethodological Perspective," Comparative Education 15 (1979): 241-49.
30. See Douglas Foley, "Anthropological Studies of Schooling in Developing Countries: Some Recent Findings and Trends," Comparative Education Review 21, nos. 2 and 3 (June/October 1977): 311-28; Heyman; Harold Noah, "The Uses and Abuse of Comparative Education," Comparative Education Review 28, no. 4 (November 1984): 153-65; Masemann, "Anthropological Approaches to Comparative Education," pp. 368-80.
31. See Douglas Foley, "Anthropological Studies of Schooling in Developing Countries: Some Recent Findings and Trends," Comparative Education Review 21, nos. 2 and 3 (June/October 1977): 311-28; Heyman; Harold Noah, "The Uses and Abuse of Comparative Education," Comparative Education Review 28, no. 4 (November 1984): 153-65; Masemann, "Anthropological Approaches to Comparative Education," pp. 368-80.
32. See Douglas Foley, "Anthropological Studies of Schooling in Developing Countries: Some Recent Findings and Trends," Comparative Education Review 21, nos. 2 and 3 (June/October 1977): 311-28; Heyman; Harold Noah, "The Uses and Abuse of Comparative Education," Comparative Education Review 28, no. 4 (November 1984): 153-65; Masemann, "Anthropological Approaches to Comparative Education," pp. 368-80.
33. See Vandra Masemann, "Critical Ethnography in the Study of Comparative Education," Comparative Education Review 26, no. 1 (February 1982): 1-15.
34. Ibid., p. 15.
35. Heidi Ross, Cho-Yee To, William Cave, and David E. Bair, "On Shifting Ground: The Post-Paradigm Identity of U.S. Comparative Education, 1979-1988," Compare 22, no. 2 (1992): 113-31.
36. Philip G. Altbach and Gail P. Kelly, "Comparative Education: Challenge and Response," Comparative Education Review 30, no. 1 (February 1986): 89-107.
37. Anthony R. Welch, "Class, Culture, and the State in Comparative Education: Problems, Perspectives and Prospects," Comparative Education 29, no. 1 (1993): 7-25, quote on 7.
38. Ibid., p. 20.
39. This was the theme of the 1998 Comparative and International Education Society meeting, Buffalo, New York.
40. This categorization is not exhaustive, nor is it intended as a way to "sort" the literature. It refers more to "metalevel" uses of culture that reflect overarching trends than to specific studies.
41. Lambek and Boddy (n. 7 above).
42. Abu-Lughod, "Writing against Culture" (n. 3 above).
43. Melford Spiro, "Some Reflections on Cultural Determinism and Relativism with Special Reference to Emotion and Reason," in Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion, ed. Richard A. Shweder and Robert A. LeVine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 345. I do not mean to imply that Abu-Lughod and Spiro are making the same argument about culture. In fact, while they are both concerned with the impacts of notions of difference in uses and constructs of culture, they come to very different conclusions: Abu-Lughod suggests that culture is no longer a viable idea, and Spiro suggests the very opposite - that culture remains a valid construct that ought to enable us to draw scientific comparisons and generalizations.
44. See Diane M. Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education: Reflections on Discourse, Text, and Practice," American Educational Research Journal 33, no. 3 (1996): 545-69, for a more detailed discussion of this point.
45. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for pointing out how postmodernist anthropology asserts radical difference "even as there is a foregrounding of processes of cultural hybridity, appropriation, and the like."
46. See Sherry Ortner, "Introduction," Representations ("The Fate of Culture: Geertz and Beyond," ed. Sherry Ortner) 59 (Summer 1997): 1-13, for a more detailed discussion of this point.
47. See Daniel Segal and Richard Handler, "U.S. Multiculturalism and the Concept of Culture," Identities 1, no. 4 (1995): 391-404.
48. I have seen this quite clearly among students in my comparative education classes, who, when asked to explore issues of cultural borrowing and the role of change agents, frequently resort to a position that it is wrong to do anything to "change the culture," implicitly relying on a view of cultures as unified, bounded, integral, and complete.
49. Despite widespread lip service to the ideals of globalized consciousness, alongside changes in the economic and educational domains, it remains doubtful whether the globalization campaign has been very successful at the attitudinal level. In fact, there has been a fair degree of doubt as well as cynicism among certain sectors of the population about the very meaning and value of the concept, with some Koreans deriding the campaign as a superficial palliative, and others seeing it as yet another case of Western ideological dominance.
50. WelcH (n. 25 above), p. 16.
51. Ortner, "Introduction," p. 9.
52. The debate on the "sharedness" of culture lies at the core of some of the contemporary critiques of culture in anthropology; for a good synopsis, see Brumann (n. 7 above).
53. Whether color terms are "cultural knowledge" might be a point for further consideration; Headland does not address this issue. See Thomas N. Headland, "Why Is a Cultural Materialist Teaching Cultural Idealism" (paper presented at the 96th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., 1996).
54. Bradley A. Levinson and Dorothy C. Holland, "The Cultural Production of the Educated Person: An Introduction," in The Cultural Production of the Educated Person: Critical Ethnographies of Schooling and Local Practice, ed. Bradley A. Levinson, Douglas E. Foley, and Dorothy C. Holland (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), pp. 1-56.
55. See Douglas E. Foley, "The Silent Indian as a Cultural Production," in Levinson et al., eds., pp. 79-117.
56. Debra Skinner and Dorothy Holland, "Schools and the Cultural Production of the Educated Person in a Nepalese Hill Community," in Levinson et al., eds., pp. 273-99.
57. Laura Rival, "Formal Schooling and the Production of Modern Citizens in the Ecuadorian Amazon," in Levinson et al., eds., pp. 153-68.
58. Claudia Strauss, "Partly Fragmented, Partly Integrated: An Anthropological Examination of 'Postmodern Fragmented Subjects,'" Cultural Anthropology 12, no. 3 (1997): 362-404, quote on 370.
59. The ubiquity of the theme of resistance is, as Michael Brown notes, partially explained by the way in which it validates the moral integrity of those resisting, as well as the ethnographer who serves as their "worthy scribe." See Michael Brown, "On Resisting Resistance," American Anthropologist 98, no. 4 (1996): 729-49.
60. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
61. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
62. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
63. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
64. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
65. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
66. See Lila Abu-Lughod, "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women," American Ethnologist 17, no. 1 (February 1990): 41-55; Sherry Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (January 1995): 173-93; Marshall Sahlins, Waiting for Foucault (Cambridge: Prickly Pear Press, 1993); Martha Kaplan and John Kelly, "Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of 'Disaffection' in Colonial Fiji," American Ethnologist 21, no. 1 (1994): 123-51; James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); P. Steven Sangren, "'Power' against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage," Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (February 1995): 3-40. For a critique of the concept within a more explicitly educational context, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Turning Power Inside Out: Reflections on Resistance from the Anthropological Field," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6 (in press).
67. See Sahlins, pp. 16-18.
68. Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal," p. 186.
69. See Sangren, p. 16.
70. An interesting example is cited by Brown, concerning ethnographic work among female channelers, who reject anthropologists' interpretations of their practices as "resistance" against male hegemony, and who rather see themselves as stepping outside the male/female duality that supports the dominance/resistance level of explanation. See also Petra Munro, "Resisting Resistance: Stories Women Teachers Tell," Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 12, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 16-28, who writes of women teachers who resist the researcher's efforts to define them as "resistors."
71. Jack David Eller, "Anti-Anti-Multiculturalism," American Anthropologist 99, no. 2 (1997): 249-60, quote on 253.
72. For a more detailed analysis, see Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education" (n. 32 above), "Diversity in Practice: Perspectives on Concept, Context, and Policy," Educational Policy 11, no. 3 (1997): 375-92, and "A Therapeutic Moment? Identity, Self, and Culture in the Anthropology of Education," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 29, no. 3 (1998): 324-46.
73. For a more detailed analysis, see Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education" (n. 32 above), "Diversity in Practice: Perspectives on Concept, Context, and Policy," Educational Policy 11, no. 3 (1997): 375-92, and "A Therapeutic Moment? Identity, Self, and Culture in the Anthropology of Education," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 29, no. 3 (1998): 324-46.
74. See Cameron McCarthy, "Multicultural Discourses and Curriculum Reform: A Critical Perspective," Educational Theory 44, no. 4 (1994): 81-98.
75. For a comparison of the different understandings of diversity in U.S. and Japanese contexts, see Diane M. Hoffman, "Models of Self and Culture in Teaching and Learning: An Anthropological Perspective on Japanese and American Education," Educational Foundations 9, no. 3 (1995): 19-42.
76. This literature is quite large, making a comprehensive citation here impossible; to begin, one might consult Eller; Margaret Gibson, "Approaches to Multicultural Education in the United States: Some Concepts and Assumptions," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1984): 94-119; J. Anthony Paredes and Mary Pohl, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism in a University Curriculum: A Case Study, Critique of Anthropology 15, no. 2 (1995): 193-202; Wax (n. 6 above); Terence Turner, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What Is Anthropology That Multiculturalists Should Be Mindful of It?" Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 4 (1993): 411-29; Segal and Handler (n. 35 above); Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education."
77. This literature is quite large, making a comprehensive citation here impossible; to begin, one might consult Eller; Margaret Gibson, "Approaches to Multicultural Education in the United States: Some Concepts and Assumptions," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1984): 94-119; J. Anthony Paredes and Mary Pohl, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism in a University Curriculum: A Case Study, Critique of Anthropology 15, no. 2 (1995): 193-202; Wax (n. 6 above); Terence Turner, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What Is Anthropology That Multiculturalists Should Be Mindful of It?" Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 4 (1993): 411-29; Segal and Handler (n. 35 above); Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education."
78. This literature is quite large, making a comprehensive citation here impossible; to begin, one might consult Eller; Margaret Gibson, "Approaches to Multicultural Education in the United States: Some Concepts and Assumptions," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1984): 94-119; J. Anthony Paredes and Mary Pohl, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism in a University Curriculum: A Case Study, Critique of Anthropology 15, no. 2 (1995): 193-202; Wax (n. 6 above); Terence Turner, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What Is Anthropology That Multiculturalists Should Be Mindful of It?" Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 4 (1993): 411-29; Segal and Handler (n. 35 above); Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education."
79. This literature is quite large, making a comprehensive citation here impossible; to begin, one might consult Eller; Margaret Gibson, "Approaches to Multicultural Education in the United States: Some Concepts and Assumptions," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1984): 94-119; J. Anthony Paredes and Mary Pohl, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism in a University Curriculum: A Case Study, Critique of Anthropology 15, no. 2 (1995): 193-202; Wax (n. 6 above); Terence Turner, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What Is Anthropology That Multiculturalists Should Be Mindful of It?" Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 4 (1993): 411-29; Segal and Handler (n. 35 above); Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education."
80. This literature is quite large, making a comprehensive citation here impossible; to begin, one might consult Eller; Margaret Gibson, "Approaches to Multicultural Education in the United States: Some Concepts and Assumptions," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1984): 94-119; J. Anthony Paredes and Mary Pohl, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism in a University Curriculum: A Case Study, Critique of Anthropology 15, no. 2 (1995): 193-202; Wax (n. 6 above); Terence Turner, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What Is Anthropology That Multiculturalists Should Be Mindful of It?" Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 4 (1993): 411-29; Segal and Handler (n. 35 above); Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education."
81. This literature is quite large, making a comprehensive citation here impossible; to begin, one might consult Eller; Margaret Gibson, "Approaches to Multicultural Education in the United States: Some Concepts and Assumptions," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1984): 94-119; J. Anthony Paredes and Mary Pohl, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism in a University Curriculum: A Case Study, Critique of Anthropology 15, no. 2 (1995): 193-202; Wax (n. 6 above); Terence Turner, "Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What Is Anthropology That Multiculturalists Should Be Mindful of It?" Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 4 (1993): 411-29; Segal and Handler (n. 35 above); Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education."
82. Eller, p. 251.
83. See Segal and Handler.
84. See Hoffman, "Culture and Self in Multicultural Education," for a more detailed discussion of this issue.
85. See Paredes and Pohl; and Eller for trenchant analyses of this topic.
86. Ortner, "Introduction" (n. 34 above).
87. See Raymond McDermott, "The Acquisition of a Child by a Learning Disability," in Understanding Practice, ed. Jean Lave and Seth Chaiklin (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 269-305, and "The Explanation of Minority School Failure, Again" Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 (1987): 361-64.
88. See Raymond McDermott, "The Acquisition of a Child by a Learning Disability," in Understanding Practice, ed. Jean Lave and Seth Chaiklin (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 269-305, and "The Explanation of Minority School Failure, Again" Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 (1987): 361-64.
89. See Vandra Masemann, "Ways of Knowing," Comparative Education Review 34, no. 4 (1990): 465. Of course this does not mean that a concern for culture commits one, a priori, to a kind of antitheoretical particularism; it only means that the generalizations upon which theory is based need to be able to account for cross-cultural variation or, alternatively, that theories be "grounded" in cultural contexts.
90. See Clifford Geertz, "The Uses of Diversity," in Borofsky, ed. (n. 7 above), pp. 454-67.
91. Ibid., p. 458.
92. Clifford Geertz, quoted in James M. Ostrow, "The Availability of Difference: Clifford Geertz on Problems of Ethnographic Research and Interpretation," Qualitative Studies in Education 3, no. 1 (1990): 61-69.
93. See Abu-Lughod, "Writing against Culture" (n. 3 above); and George E. Marcus, "Ethnography In/Of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography," Annual Review of Anthropology 24 (1995): 95-117.
94. See Abu-Lughod, "Writing against Culture" (n. 3 above); and George E. Marcus, "Ethnography In/Of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography," Annual Review of Anthropology 24 (1995): 95-117.
95. See Ortner, "Introduction," p. 8.
96. It is perhaps helpful to note here that I am not equating cultural practice with cultural production: these are two essentially different theoretical orientations that, although they share a common interest in examination of what people do, take divergent perspectives on the reasons why they do what they do and the implications of performances for culture more generally.
97. Michael Herzfeld, "Anthropology and the Politics of Significance," Social Analysis 41, no. 3 (November 1997): 107-37, quote on 113.
98. See Michael Cole, Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996); Richard A. Shweder, "Cultural Psychology: What Is It?" in Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development, ed. James W. Stigler, Richard A. Shweder, and Gilbert Herdt (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 1-46.
99. See Michael Cole, Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996); Richard A. Shweder, "Cultural Psychology: What Is It?" in Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development, ed. James W. Stigler, Richard A. Shweder, and Gilbert Herdt (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 1-46.
100. See Jerome Bruner, Acts of Meaning (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990); Stigler, Shweder, and Herdt, eds.
101. For example, see Joseph Tobin, "Japanese Preschools and the Pedagogy of Selfhood," in Japanese Sense of Self, ed. Nancy R. Rosenberger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 21-39; Catherine Lewis, Educating Hearts and Minds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
102. For example, see Joseph Tobin, "Japanese Preschools and the Pedagogy of Selfhood," in Japanese Sense of Self, ed. Nancy R. Rosenberger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 21-39; Catherine Lewis, Educating Hearts and Minds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
103. See esp. Hazel R. Markus and Shinobu Kitayama, "Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation," Psychological Review 98, no. 2 (1991): 224-53; Hoffman, "Models of Self and Culture in Teaching and Learning" (n. 56 above).
104. See esp. Hazel R. Markus and Shinobu Kitayama, "Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation," Psychological Review 98, no. 2 (1991): 224-53; Hoffman, "Models of Self and Culture in Teaching and Learning" (n. 56 above).
105. Alan Roland, In Search of Self in India and Japan: Toward a Cross-Cultural Psychology (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988).
106. In discussions with researchers from a variety of nationalities in Japan, South Korea, and France, for example, I have often heard criticisms of American scholars and their interactions with host country nationals. Most of the time, the main focus is that Americans - while amicable - expect everyone else to accept their suggestion or idea as the best. This attitude, I believe, stems from the tendency for Americans, in interaction with others, to assume that their ideas about what is good, right, proper, beneficial, etc., cannot but be universally valid and applicable. This is not just a case of ethnocentrism, but of inclusive ethnocentrism: the idea that what is good for us/me is also what is good for you. It is interesting to note that a reverse ethnocentrism is found in other cultural contexts: what is good for us/me cannot possibly be good for you, since you are from a different culture. This latter idea is gaining increasing visibility within the United States proper, along with the rise of pluralist ideologies.
107. Wax (n. 6 above), pp. 108-9.