This is a work by a sociologist from Princeton University who has specialized mainly in sociologically based studies of religion, especially of Protestant denominations in the USA. This work, however, is only peripherally about sociology of religion. It is rather a study of different methodologies for studying cultures. According to the author (p. xi), "This volume is directed primarily who share an interest in rigorously pursuing the study of culture."

An idea of what the author means by the shifty term "culture" is shown by his statement (p. 4) that "a definition that will be used repeatedly in this volume conceives of culture simply as the symbolic-expressive aspect of social behavior." (Author’s italics.) More specifically, the author says (p. 10) that the present volume "consists of a series of explorations that address some of the core issues in cultural analysis: the problem of meaning, the nature of moral order, the character and role of ritual in dramatizing moral order, and the role of the state as a source of ideological production and institutionalization."

The author guides himself throughout the work by keeping in mind four basic approaches to the study of cultures. He calls these the subjective, structural, dramaturgic, and institutional views.

The subjective view is said to have been a dominant one in sociology. It is exemplified by studies based on surveys of public opinion, individual interviews, and the like. The author indicates that this view suffers from a deficiency of observable evidences of the sort one looks for in social sciences.

In the structuralist view, the elements of culture are said to be "regarded as relatively autonomous entities" (p. 12). This is said to involve to some fair extent a separation of the structures of societies from subjective views of individuals, and also from broader social conditions which do not focus on organizational components and relationships in societies.

The dramaturgic approach, the author says, "focuses on the expressive or communicative properties of culture." (p. 13) This is indicated to involve a kind of interaction between social structures considered in themselves, and notions of moral orders – "what is proper to do and what is reasonable to expect" in social life (p. 14).

Finally, the institutional view is said to add further elements to the dramaturgic approach. "Here," says the author, "culture is regarded not only as a patterned set of elements (as in the structural approach) that expresses something about moral order (as in the dramaturgic approach), but also as consisting of actors and organizations that require resources and, in turn, influence the distribution of resources." (p. 15) It emerges during the course of the book that the author has in mind, with this last, Marxist influences on interpretation of societies and their cultures.

For purposes of tracing some of the history of approaches to cultural analysis, the author adopts a different classification, which are exemplifies by some notable sociologists. One such approach, which the author calls the "classical" tradition, is said to be best illustrated by writers such as Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. A second "neo-classsical" tradition is exemplified by Peter Berger, Thomas Luckman, Clifford Geertz and Robert Bellah. A third relatively recent "post-structuralist" development is associated with such people as Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas. The author observes that it is unorthodox to lump together Marx, Weber and Durkheim, who have customarily been taken to represent three distinct traditions. This is defended as making less obscure some of the fundamental assumptions which were common to all three of the traditions exemplified by these three writers.

This should be enough to indicate the themes of this work. The book consists of a working out of details, and giving of examples, concerning the development and characteristics of the four approaches to cultural analysis set forth by the author. At the end, there is a concluding section in which the author analyzes relationships and overlaps of these four approaches, and some of their advantages and weaknesses.

Gordon Fisher, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics & Computer Science, one-time Senior Lecturer in Mathematics & History and Philosophy of Science.

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