Full Description
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend, should start with these questions, and the answers, given different historical conditions, should apply equally well to people of all times, places, and walks of li
Contents
* Sociocultural Viability: An Introduction The Theory * Introduction to Part One: Against Dualism * The Social Construction of Nature * Making Ends Meet * Preferences * Ringing the Changes * Instability of the Parts, Coherence of the Whole The Masters * Introduction to Part Two: The Indispensability of Functional ExplanationMontesquieu, Comte, and SpencerDurkheimMarxWeberMalinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, and ParsonsMerton, Stinchcombe, and Elster Political Cultures * Introduction to Part Three: Cultures Are Plural, Not SingularThe Missing Ways of Life: Egalitarianism and FatalismAmerican Political SubculturesThe Civic Culture ReexaminedHard Questions, Soft Answers
