book reviews Culture clash in American anthropology

Culture: The Anthropologists’ Account A difference of by Adam Kuper perspective: the Harvard University Press: 1999. 299 pp. circumstances $29.95, £18.50 surrounding the Mary Douglas death of Captain

Cook in Hawaii in GALLERY BRIDGEMAN ART Satire is hard to bear; the more elegant it is, 1779 remain a the more it hurts. A quarter of a century ago, subject of Adam Kuper wrote a critical history of anthropological British social anthropology. As he admits in controversy. the preface to the third edition of Anthropol- ogy and Anthropologists: The Modern British School (Routledge), he was young and heed- less then, and he was astonished by the fury that greeted the book in England. But the Americans loved it. It is only fair that Kuper should now write a critical history of recent terms for debate between Marxist and cul- vaguenesses about professional research American anthropology, a hatchet job if ever tural explanations. Eventually, the patterns objectives and about the concept of culture there was one. What may not be exactly fair is of ideas and values that are the object of do not prepare the anthropologist well for that this second history of the subject, Cul- anthropological research come to be policy analysis or philosophy. ture: The Anthropologists’ Account, is a divorced from the patterns of work and Cool irony inspires Kuper’s keen scrutiny, mature work, profound, well researched, action that interest the social scientists. and anthropologists not mentioned can only and therefore even more lethal than the first. Without particularly intending it, or even feel grateful for their exclusion. More signifi- English ‘social anthropologists’ between noticing, the discipline left the ground and cantly, as the last part of the book shows, the the 1920s and 1970s had broken away from floated up into philosophical idealism. One profession is now strongly radicalized in the the current perception of their discipline, result is to impede dialogue between idealist sense that tough theoretical issues have turning their backs on culture and mytholo- anthropology and the realist social sciences. become marginalized, while good causes are gy to become absorbed in the systematic Both academic spheres are the poorer for the brought centre stage. comparison of social organization. In com- lack of interaction. For their part, the British Anthropology is becoming an expressive plete contrast, the American anthropolo- anthropologists still remain strongly en- branch of social work, attending to human gists, every bit as seriously, claimed ‘culture’ trenched in a realist mode by their involve- rights, the defence of oppressed persons and to be their special province. Re-establishing ment with social studies. No wonder conver- environments, the post-Colonial aftermath the discipline after the Second World War, the sation is awkward between British and and the politics of identity. Kuper argues professors kept trying to define it, but the task American colleagues. throughout that the dispersion of scholarly proved difficult because, by itself, the word is From the UK side of the Atlantic, the effort can be blamed on the “resolutely ideal- empty. In the eighteenth- and nineteenth- recent American controversy over the death ist conception of culture”. One can add that century philosophical debates in France, of Captain Cook in Hawaii seems totally this standpoint creates intellectual tangles Germany and England, the word ‘culture’ fig- mysterious. The question is the extent to that discredit the subject, call into question ured prominently, always steeped in political which behaviour is governed by mythic for- the importance of the academic enterprise bias and always changing its tinge. With post- mulas or by rational-instrumental decisions. and weaken the resistance of professionals to structuralist hindsight, it is obvious that, in With such defective records about a single pressure from politics and the media. its old usage, culture was part of a contrast set, event 200 years ago, how could one ever hope Steven Shapin’s superb Social History of sometimes the good part, as in a contrast of to settle it? The idealist perspective actually Truth (University of Chicago Press, 1994) civilized/primitive or spiritual/material, hampers the articulation of these problems. shows that, in the seventeenth century, the sometimes the bad part, as in a contrast of To illustrate his general thesis, Kuper trustworthiness of a scientist’s theory partly artificial/simple. When the American closely examines the work of three leaders of depended on his social and religious creden- anthropologists wanted a neutral concept for the present generation of anthropologists: tials. Now we witness the secular version: the the focus of an objective intellectual disci- two giants, Clifford Geertz and Marshall acceptability of an American anthropolo- pline, they innovated by making culture Sahlins, and one stormy petrel, the late David gist’s work partly depends on his political stand on its own. But, true to its history, the Schneider. The first two come out with hon- credentials. term remained apt for polemic. As American ours, both having conducted exemplary and On a professional note, Kuper has be- anthropology developed, some preferred the fascinating enquiries into economics and trayed an idealist’s bias in his treatment of cultural approach to interpretation simply politics as well as kinship and religion, the subject. To provide a social rather than a because it was untainted by economic deter- Geertz in Islamic countries, Indonesia and cultural anthropology, he would have had minism. Morocco, Sahlins in Polynesia. Geertz only to have analysed the institutional under- In America, culture — that is, ideas and becomes vulnerable when he seeks to give his pinnings of the profession. All the same, it values — came to be treated as a separate views on political realities in the countries he remains an important story. The author field, the life of the mind, independent of studied. Sahlins is more seriously vulnerable need not worry this time around about the economics, politics and psychology. As the because the philosophical problems of rep- anthropologists’ reaction. Even the targeted book unfolds, this trend towards bracketing resentation are among his central interests, victims will welcome it, and not because culture away gets stronger, leading implicitly so the idealist starting point is a more funda- Americans enjoy seeing their fellow country- to cultural determinism and so setting the mental drawback. It would seem that initial men brought low, nor because they are

NATURE | VOL 400 | 12 AUGUST 1999 | www.nature.com © 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd 631 book reviews generous to critics. The distinguished implied a willingness to use biological have done enough to help secure the agree- achievements in the history of ideas will be weapons in major military operations. Final- ment of the BTWC Verification Protocol now acclaimed, although the story of the self- ly, it is clear that recent advances in genetic being negotiated in Geneva, for this is surely destruction of a once-respected, learned engineering were being used — for example the best way available to us of preventing such discipline is saddening. to increase the antibiotic resistance of plague. misuse of biology and medicine. Mary Douglas is at 22 Hillway, Highgate, London Ken Alibek was one of the leading scien- Malcolm R. Dando is in the Department of Peace N6 6QA, UK. tists and organizers of this offensive biologi- Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford cal-weapons programme and, through a BD7 1DP, UK. series of interviews on television and in What did you do in the newspapers and magazines, he has been a principal source of public knowledge about Neural networks [cold] war, Daddy? what was done. Alibek’s book, Biohazard, ghost written by Stephen Handelman, gives a beyond Freud Biohazard readable account of what can reasonably be by Ken Alibek called a ‘chilling true story’ in the form of an The Mind Within the Net Random House: 1999. 319 pp. $24.95, £17.99 autobiography. by Manfred Spitzer Malcolm R. Dando I feel strongly that this book should be MIT Press: 1999. 359 pp. $27.50, £19.50 compulsory reading for everyone involved in Terrence J. Sejnowski In his well-known history, The Greatest Ben- the dramatic biotechnology/genomics revo- efit to Mankind: A Medical History of Human- lution today. Many other scientific advances Sigmund Freud was a pioneer in a field that ity from Antiquity to the Present (Harper- have been applied in new weapons systems, today is called neural networks. Before turn- Collins), Roy Porter argued: “... the latter and we will be fortunate indeed if modern ing to the ‘talking cure’, he sought explana- part of the nineteenth century brought one biology is not misused in the same way. tions for normal as well as disordered of medicines’s few true revolutions: bacteri- Although Alibek’s account may be fallible thought processes in the flow of ‘nervous ology [emphasis added]. Seemingly resolv- in parts, enough has been confirmed by energy’ through networks of neurons, based ing age-old controversies over pathogenesis, other sources for the whole to be taken very on what was known about the neurophysiol- a new and immensely powerful aetiological seriously. Different readers will be struck by ogy and anatomy of the brain at the end of doctrine rapidly established itself ...”. Porter different parts of this story. For me, the the nineteenth century. From these early went on to point out that, very unusually for account of project ‘Bonfire’ was particularly speculative ideas came such concepts as medicine, this revolution brought dramatic alarming. Alibek describes being in a long, repression and sublimation which would and rapid benefits to the human population boring review meeting in 1989. One of the become the foundation of psychoanalysis. In in new preventative measures and remedies. last speakers was due to report on this pro- The Mind Within the Net, psychiatrist Man- Unfortunately, the demonstration — by sci- ject, which was a long-running attempt to fred Spitzer takes us back to these roots and entists of the standing of Louis Pasteur and genetically engineer a human pathogen to asks whether recent advances in cognitive Robert Koch — that specific diseases were produce an additional toxin or bioregulator. neuroscience and neural-network models caused by specific microorganisms, also Alibek recounts: “The test was a success. A provide a firmer foundation for explaining raised the possibility that the new knowledge single genetically engineered agent had pro- the mysteries of human experience. might be misused in offensive biological- duced symptoms of two different diseases, Many of the important technical break- warfare programmes. We know now that, one of which could not be traced. The room throughs that fuelled the neural-network during the First World War, both sides was absolutely silent. We all recognized the revolution that began in the 1980s were made attempted to use biological weapons to sabo- implications ... A new class of weapons had by psychologists, as heralded in the two vol- tage the other side’s valuable animal stocks. been found ...” umes on Parallel Distributed Processing, edit- Subsequently, during the middle of the He goes on to describe how such new ed by David Rumelhart and James McClel- twentieth century, other advances in biology weaponry might be used to damage heart land (MIT Press, 1986). A new mathematical and medicine — such as in aerobiology and function or to target the nervous system and foundation was developed for explaining production microbiology — were used in behaviour. Today’s neuroscientists, striving human cognition based on models with con- major offensive biological-warfare pro- to find means of helping those afflicted by tinuous variables and dynamical systems grammes by countries such as the United mental problems, might also be concerned rather than computer programs based on Kingdom and United States. For some years by the related ‘Flute’ programme, which was logic and symbol processing. Spitzer does it appeared that such misuse of science had devoted to developing psychotropic agents not cover these latest developments, but has been halted by agreement of the Biological to induce mood and behavioural changes in written a highly readable introduction to and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in people for malign purposes. ‘traditional’ neural-network models. the early 1970s. But the convention lacked Nevertheless, Alibek comes over in the Thinking about how populations of neu- any effective verification conditions, and it book as a thoughtful and decent man. We rons encode the sensory world and motor has recently become clear that the former could all perhaps learn from his experience. coordination, and how they acquired these Soviet Union embarked on a vast expansion In his final paragraph he states: “... I cannot properties, is not easy. Computer simula- of its biological-weapons programme at the unmake the weapons I manufactured or tions of relatively simple neural-network very time the convention was agreed. undo the research I authorized as scientific models have revealed their powerful ability A proper description of the full extent of chief of the Soviet Union’s biological to solve complex problems, such as the this modern programme is not available in weapons programme ...” recognition of facial expressions. The same the public domain. From a variety of sources, He continues: “... but every day I do what I networks that were built to mimic normal however, we know some of its characteristics. can to mitigate their effects. The realization human behaviour can also be used to First, we know that it was carried out on a that even today, in Iraq or China, another explore the inexplicable breakdown patterns massive scale, with numerous institutes and father of three may be sitting down at a con- that occur when brains are damaged. The many thousands of people involved. Second, ference table to plot the murder of millions of Mind Within the Net excels at exploring a it involved the large-scale creation of people is what spurs me on ...” wide range of clinical problems, including weapons involving a range of agents, and so We should all ask ourselves whether we phantom limbs, autism and schizophrenia.

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