Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket / Edition 1

by Gordon Mathews

Overview

Most people still think of themselves as belonging to a particular culture. Yet today, many of us who live in affluent societies choose aspects of our lives from a global cultural supermarket, whether in terms of food, the arts or spiritual beliefs. So if roots are becoming simply one more consumer choice, can we still claim to possess a fundamental cultural identity?
Global Culture/Individual Identity focuses on three groups for whom the tension between a particular national culture and the global cultural supermarket is especially acute: Japanese artists, American religious seekers and Hong Kong intellectuals after the handover to China. These ethnographic case studies form the basis for a theory of culture which we can all see reflected in our own lives.
Gordon Mathews opens up the complex and debated topics of globalization, culture and identity in a clear and lively style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415206150
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/09/2000
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)

About the Author

Gordon Mathews is associate professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also the author of What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 On the meanings of culture; Chapter 2 What in the world is Japanese?; Chapter 3 What in the world is American?; Chapter 4 What in the world is Chinese?; Chapter 5 Searching for home in the cultural supermarket;

Editorial Reviews

'Clearly written, avoids jargon, and uses theory in a direct and unpretentious way' - Richard Wilk, JARI

'The theoretical breadth of this work is paralelled by its ethnographic breadth ... the three short cultural portraits are competently done ... and some might want to use this book in an undergraduate course in order to provoke discussion about gloablization, relativism or the culture concept.' - Anthropological Forum

'Clearly written, avoids jargon, and uses theory in a direct and unpretentious way' - Richard Wilk, JARI

From the Publisher