Placing Culture in Nature

Notes from the Mid-twentieth Century American Anthropological Debate

Bibliographic Data

ID13001968
AuthorsAntonio M Nunziante (0000-0001-5172-332X, University of Padua, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume16
Issue2
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2036-4091 • E-ISSN: 2036-4091
PublisherAssociazione Pragma (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.4000/12yvj
OpenAlexW4405600215
LanguageEN
References cited21

Focusing on early twentieth-century American anthropological discourse, this paper examines diverse epistemological approaches to integrating culture within a naturalistic framework. Leslie Alvin White’s materialistic and energy-based “culturology” will be contrasted with Louis Kroeber’s emergentist perspective. Through a detailed examination of some key epistemic stances, I will illustrate how American cultural anthropology grappled with the dual pressures of scientific naturalism and the epistemic autonomy of the cultural world. The conclusion argues for distinguishing between “naturalized culture” and “naturalization of culture,” suggesting that within this distinction, naturalism reveals not merely as a philosophical stance, but as a historically contingent phenomenon

Epistemology · Pragmatism · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Philosophy

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