Anthropology and Biblical Studies: Avenues of Approach

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Winter, 2006 by Zeba Crook

And finally, Mario Aguilar (pp. 299-313) wishes in his paper to encourage New Testament social-scientific critics to keep up to date on developments in anthropology, the most important of which is the death of the culture concept. Aguilar claims that the notion of culture as something that exists, as an entity that shapes individuals, has been replaced with an ethnographic understanding of culture as continually contested. Aguilar touches on the primary difference between ethnography and abstract anthropology (one that works with models and broad generalizations). Philip Esler provides the best way to understand the merits of both approaches in his essay in this volume (p. 58): Some people prefer to survey the earth from the ground or very close to it, seeing the detail and subtlety. Others prefer to survey the earth from 30,000 feet above it, forcing them to miss the details but allowing them to see broader patterns that cannot be seen from the ground. It is not uncommon for an abstraction gained from "high-altitude" to be challenged or contradicted by details observed from a lower level. This does not gainsay the existence of those broader patterns; it simply (and importantly) enriches our understanding of the whole picture. Aguilar is perfectly right to argue that (at a lower level of abstraction) we find culture contested and resisted, but it cannot be denied that (at a higher level of abstraction) cultural patterns exist and that they influence actors. Culture does exist; whether you see it or not depends entirely on your vantage point.

Zeba Crook

Carleton University

Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6