Concepts of Culture: Histories and Genealogies

Research directions in the communication between cultures need to reflect on and account for their understanding of or notions of culture. It behooves researchers of (trans-, cross-, inter-, or comparative) culture to be aware of an influential range of major concepts of which each has a complex and nuanced history. Very few ideas of culture have been entirely superseded by later ones; most are relevant also for intercultural lines of questioning. Since new research often seeks an orientation within particular approaches to culture, this brief and historically oriented overview, designed to complement studies that introduce the specific logic of a systematic treatment or definition of culture, may be helpful in providing relevant clues. In 14 conceptual differentiations, this overview traces the development from early sources that consider what we would now think of as “macro” cultural systems, including the body politic, to intermediary notions of plurality and of unconscious mental patterns, to current constructivist frames, postmodern multiple identities, and the “undoing of culture.” This treatment aims to provide a textually elaborated review of how human thinking about culture has evolved, in order to document and guide more nuanced understandings of the genealogy of concepts that specific approaches or studies may presuppose or even take for granted.