Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings
Freedom from violence stands as an important candidate for a universal human right. By definition, however, such rights apply only to phenomena that are universally perceived and experienced and take predictable expression, a possibility that many contemporary interpretations of cultural theory reje...
Published in: | American Anthropologist |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
1997
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Faa.1997.99.4.799 https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 |
id |
crwiley:10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crwiley:10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 2024-09-30T14:30:51+00:00 Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings Handwerker, W. Penn 1997 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Faa.1997.99.4.799 https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor American Anthropologist volume 99, issue 4, page 799-809 ISSN 0002-7294 1548-1433 journal-article 1997 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 2024-09-11T04:13:25Z Freedom from violence stands as an important candidate for a universal human right. By definition, however, such rights apply only to phenomena that are universally perceived and experienced and take predictable expression, a possibility that many contemporary interpretations of cultural theory reject. Yet people who live dramatically different lives—on tourist islands in the West Indies or as hunter‐gatherers and reindeer herders in Arctic regions—agree about components that comprise a unitary phenomenon legitimately called "violence." This is consistent with findings from cognitive and neruological science and with a more Geertzian theory that culture understood as meaning is not a thing, cultural variability occurs between individuals, and cultural consensus emerges as a necessary consequence of social interaction among people who participate in common social fields, who engage in common social discourse. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Wiley Online Library Arctic American Anthropologist 99 4 799 809 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Freedom from violence stands as an important candidate for a universal human right. By definition, however, such rights apply only to phenomena that are universally perceived and experienced and take predictable expression, a possibility that many contemporary interpretations of cultural theory reject. Yet people who live dramatically different lives—on tourist islands in the West Indies or as hunter‐gatherers and reindeer herders in Arctic regions—agree about components that comprise a unitary phenomenon legitimately called "violence." This is consistent with findings from cognitive and neruological science and with a more Geertzian theory that culture understood as meaning is not a thing, cultural variability occurs between individuals, and cultural consensus emerges as a necessary consequence of social interaction among people who participate in common social fields, who engage in common social discourse. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Handwerker, W. Penn |
spellingShingle |
Handwerker, W. Penn Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings |
author_facet |
Handwerker, W. Penn |
author_sort |
Handwerker, W. Penn |
title |
Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings |
title_short |
Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings |
title_full |
Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings |
title_fullStr |
Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings |
title_full_unstemmed |
Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings |
title_sort |
universal human rights and the problem of unbounded cultural meanings |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1997 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Faa.1997.99.4.799 https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
American Anthropologist volume 99, issue 4, page 799-809 ISSN 0002-7294 1548-1433 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1997.99.4.799 |
container_title |
American Anthropologist |
container_volume |
99 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
799 |
op_container_end_page |
809 |
_version_ |
1811635622962528256 |