What Culture Is

Is culture a fixed essence, or an elusive, constantly changing dynamic vitality?

The discipline of anthropology, which initially focused on non-Western human societies, has proven in the last thirty to forty years to be a field of research capable of confronting its own history, dismantling its initial assumptions, and engaging with today's complex problems in various ways.

What is Called Culture is a reflection of this richness and deepening of anthropology. It provides us with a map of anthropology's research agendas, in light of studies conducted both globally and in Turkey. Thanks to this map, we can see how our perspective on humanity and culture has undergone a major transformation recently in a very wide range of areas such as state, bureaucracy, agriculture, peasantry, economy, city, labor, gender, religion, ethnicity, sports, language, media, law, migration, sexuality, environment, and affect.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in anthropology's discussions, methods, and findings, both among social scientists working on Turkey and among readers. The articles in the book, while presenting a history of thought in their respective subjects, aim to inspire new questions and discussions that can emerge in front of this panorama.