Reviews for Culture, Multiculture, Postculture

The average rating for Culture, Multiculture, Postculture based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-07-23 00:00:00 L Bass After years of work as an anthropologist and cultural analyst Kahn has ventured into the big question of the meaning of 'culture' - not of a specific cultural formation but the thing we study in general. 'Culture' is one of those useful catch all words that has become so general in its explanatory use as to be close to meaningless. Kahn's approach to making sense of the word and what it signifies is to begin from what seems to be a contradiction - capitalism is becoming increasingly uniform its global activity, while 'culture' seems to be becoming increasingly diverse. He does two things that I like (aside from rejecting the simple banality that imposed uniformity leads to diversity as the product of some innate sense of resistance - or diversity as the result of bloody-mindedness): he argues that 'culture' must be understood has historically grounded and not the product of some innate or essentialised being; and secondly he explores the complex relationship between 'culture' and specific versions and understandings of reality without falling into the mechanical trap of false consciousness or ideology as distortion. Best of all, he avoids the simplistic celebration of diversity, and the all-to-common idealism of large parts of postmodernist-inflected cultural analysis. It's not an easy read, but for those of us who work in and around these areas it is one we should take more notice of.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-09-11 00:00:00 Adam Sant Wailoo's "Dying in the City of Blues" presents an excellent overview of how sickle cell anemia emerged as a disease in need of political, social, and medical resources. The book focuses tightly on Memphis, TN as a site of medical developments (at St. Jude's Children's Hospital and the University of TN hospital) and unique social shifts in the mid-20th century. Although Wailoo values the role of patient voices in the clinical or political encounter, "Dying in the City of Blues" includes very few patient accounts. Instead, it traces the institutional development of research centers and charities. Throughout the book, Wailoo emphasizes the "value" associated with sickle cell anemia. Value, in this account, has several meanings-- including social stigma or status, economic potential, research value. Wailoo suggests that various actors manipulated the shifting value of patients ("clinical material" in the dehumanizing language of medicine) to advance political or medical causes only tangentally related to sickle cell disease. I recommend this book to readers interested in the development of America's medical system. Wailoo touches on HMOs, Medicare and Medicaid, research centers, and philanthropy. However, people interested in a more detailed study of race and health should look elsewhere. Wailoo's text assumes a fairly high degree of familiarity with health inequities, structural racism, and the Civil Rights Movement.