Roy Wagner in the Idea

Roy Wagner

In "The Idea of Culture," Roy Wagner suggests that the study of anthropology invented the notion of culture itself. Anthropology is essentially the study of the "phenomenon of man" (2). An anthropologist studies both the parts of a culture including its artifacts or religious rituals, and the whole of culture: the unifying elements of humanity. The anthropologist sets out to examine "man's actions and meanings down to the most basic level...to examine them in universal terms in an attempt to understand them," (2). In the diversity of human experience, the anthropologist seeks to discover both common ground and differences between cultures. It is also impossible to achieve absolute objectivity" in the study of anthropology because an anthropologist is always influenced by his or her culture of origin. Finally, Wagner is impressed by the ways the study of culture can transform the anthropologist and help revise the definition of culture itself.

Wagner's essay is remarkably insightful and clearly written. I agree that anthropologists can never be wholly objective because their goal is in part to explore cultures in an oppositional way: to explore the differences between cultures as well as discovering common elements. Wagner addresses the idea of objectivity and also of cultural relativity especially well. Anthropology, according to the author, is the most relational of the sciences. The study of another culture demands that the anthropologist create a relation between the self and the other.