Cultures as Systems of Interconnections

How do cultures work? This is a question that has baffled anthropologists since the origin of the discipline. Although anthropologists acknowledge that a culture has to be understood in its own right (Carrithers 1992, 3), when analysing certain cultures, anthropologists have found that there are similar social organisations within cultures, but every culture seems to have a different approach to categorising aspects of their culture within these seemingly similar constructions (Eriksen 1995, 5). The question remains, however, of how these organisations allow cultures to persist through time, while sustaining their inhabitants in the process. With the way that specific cultures are presented through ethnographic evidence, cultures can be understood as a system that consists of interactions throughout the culture, and this allows for the sustenance of its participants and allows the culture to prosper.

The interconnectedness of a culture can be seen through organisations within the culture. Within a specific culture, there are systemic organisations that work for the benefit of its people. This is drawn from the notion that humans cannot exist individually, and rely on their relationships between people in their culture in order to survive (Carrithers 1992, 1). Prominent anthropologist, Michael Carrithers (1992, 18), through the influence of structural-functionalist, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown’s analogy of seashells, stipulates that cultures are formed through social structure, which are institutions that hold the culture together from the inside. This can be seen through the distinctive, acephalous society of the Nuer, whose inhabitants reside in the African region of Sudan. Although there is no hierarchical leadership system within ...

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...eract with other people, or with other forms of social infrastructure, in order to complete these tasks. That is, in in essence, the nature of culture. It is a system of relationships within, between and beneath cultures, which demonstrate the interconnectedness of culture. Without the idea of culture as a series of systems, it is impossible for anthropologists to analyse the beliefs and practices of a culture thoroughly and meaningfully.

Works Cited

Carrithers, M. 1992. Why humans have culture: Explaining anthropology and social diversity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Eriksen, T. H. 1995. Small places, large issues: An introduction to social and cultural anthropology. London: Pluto Press.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.