While guiding us into the rainforests and savannas of lowland South America on a quest to understand Amerindian myths and rituals, A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture is simultaneously an intellectual journey into the theory of culture, and an endeavor to fathom the human differences that are attributable to culture, from consciousness of the physical world and time to the ritual practices of chanting and speaking in secret languages. Urban argues that we cannot assume that culture is shared; we must study the question empirically. And the logical starting point for such an investigation is the discourse that actually circulates within communities--around the campfire, in ritual chanting or laments, and in speech more generally. The book contains detailed analyses of myths that were tape-recorded in their Amerindian settings, including comparisons among distinct versions collected over time, and it explores the actual mechanisms of ritual wailing, ceremonial dialogues, and other discourse phenomena.

A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture: Native South American Myths and Rituals (Texas Linguistics Series)

Politics & Social Sciences

Urban, Greg

Anthropology

Univ of Texas Pr

What happens to Amerindian cultures when they come into contact with the Europe-derived nation-states of Latin America? How are the nation-states in turn affected by this experience? These questions motivate the essays in Nation-States and Indians in Latin America. While furnishing a sweeping overview of Latin America, the essays are empirically focused, dealing with such issues as how the Guatemalan tourist industry appropriates indigenous clothing to create a national image, how highland Indian music has adapted to Peruvian state interventions since the colonial period, and how debates developed in turn-of-the-century Brazil over the proper method for integrating isolated Indian populations into the national society. The essays also pose a challenge to classical anthropological theory and methodology, in which Indian cultures have been analyzed in isolation, without regard for the role of state interventions. The essays suggest not only that anthropologists should pay attention to the nation-state contexts of their research but also that modern nation-states are themselves appropriate objects for anthropological investigation.

Nation-states and Indians in Latin America (Symposia on Latin America series)

Social Sciences

University of Texas Press

Nation-States and Indians in Latin America (Symposia on Latin America Series)

Winner, Senior Book Prize, American Ethnological Society
Starting with the post-structuralist idea that truth systems are lodged in discourse, and that discourse varies from society to society, Greg Urban seeks to discover the nature and extent of that variation. His journey to an Amerindian society in which dreams are more prominent than everyday aspects of the sensible world leads him to radically reformulate one of the main problematics of Western thought: the relationship between our sensations of the world and the understandings we form of them.
Metaphysical Community proposes that this dichotomy comes from the interplay between two sides of discourse-its intelligible side as a carrier of meanings, and its sensible side as thing-in-the-world that must be replicated. This insight leads to the heart of the book-the exploration of the uneasy tension that binds experience and understanding, phenomena and noumena.
Urban challenges basic assumptions that underlie social and cultural anthropology and much of the social sciences and humanities. His provocative insights will be of interest to all those concerned with anthropology, cultural studies, literary criticism, the sociology and politics of culture, and philosophy.

Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect

Winner, Senior Book Prize, American Ethnological Society
Starting with the post-structuralist idea that truth systems are lodged in discourse, and that discourse varies from society to society, Greg Urban seeks to discover the nature and extent of that variation. His journey to an Amerindian society in which dreams are more prominent than everyday aspects of the sensible world leads him to radically reformulate one of the main problematics of Western thought: the relationship between our sensations of the world and the understandings we form of them.
Metaphysical Community proposes that this dichotomy comes from the interplay between two sides of discourse-its intelligible side as a carrier of meanings, and its sensible side as thing-in-the-world that must be replicated. This insight leads to the heart of the book-the exploration of the uneasy tension that binds experience and understanding, phenomena and noumena.
Urban challenges basic assumptions that underlie social and cultural anthropology and much of the social sciences and humanities. His provocative insights will be of interest to all those concerned with anthropology, cultural studies, literary criticism, the sociology and politics of culture, and philosophy.

It is one thing to comprehend how culture makes its way through the world in those cases where something old is reproduced in the same physical shape-where, for example, a song is sung or a story retold. It is another thing altogether, as Greg Urban demonstrates, to think about cultural motion when something new is created-a new song or a new story. And this, the creating of new culture, is the overarching value of the contemporary world, as well as the guiding principle of the capitalist entrepreneur. From the Declaration of Independence to the movie Babe, from the Amazon River to the film studio, from microscopic studies of the words making up myths and books to the large-scale forces of conquest, conversion, and globalization that drive history, Urban follows the clues to a startling revelation: "metaculture" makes the modern, entrepreneurial form of culture possible. In Urban's work we see how metaculture, in its relationship to newness, explains the peculiar shape of modern society and its institutions, from the prevalence of taste and choice to the processes of the public sphere, to the centrality of persuasion and hegemony within the nation. Greg Urban is Class of 1965 Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Public Worlds Series, volume 8

Metaculture: How Culture Moves Through the World (Public Worlds, Vol 8)

Lee, Benjamin

Sociology

Univ of Minnesota Pr

It is one thing to comprehend how culture makes its way through the world in those cases where something old is reproduced in the same physical shape-where, for example, a song is sung or a story retold. It is another thing altogether, as Greg Urban demonstrates, to think about cultural motion when something new is created-a new song or a new story. And this, the creating of new culture, is the overarching value of the contemporary world, as well as the guiding principle of the capitalist entrepreneur. 
From the Declaration of Independence to the movie Babe, from the Amazon River to the film studio, from microscopic studies of the words making up myths and books to the large-scale forces of conquest, conversion, and globalization that drive history, Urban follows the clues to a startling revelation: "metaculture" makes the modern, entrepreneurial form of culture possible. In Urban’s work we see how metaculture, in its relationship to newness, explains the peculiar shape of modern society and its institutions, from the prevalence of taste and choice to the processes of the public sphere, to the centrality of persuasion and hegemony within the nation.

Metaculture: How Culture Moves through the World (Volume 8) (Public Worlds)

Univ. of Minnesota Press

Corporate culture is critical to any organizational change effort. This book offers a proven model for identifying and leveraging the essential elements of any culture. In a world that changes at a dizzying pace, what can leaders do to build flexible and adaptive workplaces that inspire people to achieve extraordinary results? According to the authors, the answer lies in recognizing and aligning the elusive forces-or the "puzzling" pieces-that shape an organization's culture. With a combined seventy-five years' worth of research, teaching, and consulting experience, Mario Moussa, Derek Newberry, and Greg Urban bring a wealth of knowledge to creating nimble organizations. Globally recognized business anthropologists and management experts, they explain how to access the full power of your culture by harnessing the Four Forces that drive it- Vision- Embrace a common purpose that illuminates shared aspirations and plans. Interest- Foster a deep commitment to authentic relationships and your organization's future. Habit- Establish routines and rituals that reinforce "the way we do things around here." Innovation- Promote the constant tinkering that produces surprising new solutions to old problems. Filled with case studies, personal anecdotes, and solid, practical advice, this book includes a four-part Evaluator to help you build resilient organizations and teams. The Culture Puzzle offers the definitive playbook for thriving amid constant transformation.

The Culture Puzzle: Harnessing the Forces That Drive Your Organization's Success

Business & Money

Moussa, Mario

Newberry, Derek

Business Culture

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture

Greg Urban

Hats Off Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Urban, Greg. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Urban, Greg

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Urban, Greg. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture: Native South American Myths and Rituals (Texas Linguistics Series)

Nation-states and Indians in Latin America (Symposia on Latin America series)

Nation-States and Indians in Latin America (Symposia on Latin America Series)

A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture: Native South American Myths and Rituals (Texas Linguistics Series)

Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect

Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect

Metaculture: How Culture Moves Through the World (Public Worlds, Vol 8)

Metaculture: How Culture Moves through the World (Volume 8) (Public Worlds)

The Culture Puzzle: Harnessing the Forces That Drive Your Organization's Success

A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture