Introduction - sociology of culture and sociology of religion

Sociology of Religion, Spring, 1996 by Rhys H. Williams

Another context for the analysis of culture is the cultural repertoire. That is, cultural objects have both their own internal structure as well as exist m relation to other objects in the same category, setting, or interaction. Symbolic expressions are not isolated, they follow some expressions and precede others; they use previous symbols as referents, and are referenced by others. Further, social groups have a stock or storehouse of cultural meanings that help shape the possible meanings objects generate - it is a "repertoire" available to culture actors. Thus the field of cultural objects helps structure the possible readings of any given object (while there are similarities between my use of "field" and Bourdieu's champ, they are not identical; see Swartz's essay).

As this framework makes clear, there is no need for the analysis of culture to be confined to subjective mental products, whether cognitive or affective. Neither is there a need to dissolve culture into reflective expressions of"deeper" social structural categories and processes. Culture is "symbolic-expressive" human action and that action can be approached on a number of levels. But it can only be "understood" by integrating mental processes and social behaviors - symbols and the settings in which they are used.

This five-point grid helps delineate a number of relationships useful for an analysis of culture, for example, the institutional location of cultural producers and the interpretations by cultural receivers, or the structure of the cultural object and the content of the cultural repertoire. Cross-cutting this grid is the distinction between implicit and explicit uses of culture (Wuthnow and Witten 1988). On one hand, culture (or religion) is a set of explicit symbols that are available to actors for manipulation. On the other hand, culture (or religion) is implicit, forming an important part of the worldview that is the backdrop of action within any social setting. For example, assumptions and beliefs that are often not even recognized as "religious" nevertheless have their origins in religion as culture. In this sense, religion acts as a "frame" for social action in both its implicit and explicit connotations - frames are both "windows" and "tools." Frames are orienting devices that shape understanding, often without actors' conscious awareness; and frames are tools used by particular actors in particular situations.

Thinking about ideas as manipulable tools has pitfalls, of course, if they are understood only as tools. This can lead to a discounting of "culture," making it epiphenomenal to political and material interests, and too thoroughly instrumental. However, by keeping both connotations of the frame metaphor in mind - both window and tool - culture becomes understandable as something that is available to human agency but in turn helps to shape the settings and possibilities that limit its use.

A Special Issue on Religion and Culture

The essays presented here approach culture in these multi-faceted ways. They understand "religion as culture" but do not limit that to beliefs and value-commitments. Rather, they view religion as a source of particular kinds of cultural objects, actions, and resources that are mobilized, interpreted, and manipulated m a variety of institutional settings for a variety of purposes. Religion as culture happens within institutions, organizations, social networks, and cultural fields, and is shaped by them as well as helping to shape them.