Greek culture and American "culturology": James Faubion's Modern Greek Lessons

Abstract

This paper is built around an assessment of James D. Faubion's Modern Greek Lessons: a primer in historical constructivism (Faubion, 1993). In reviewing Faubion's book, it will attempt to provide an account of the problems and limitations of traditional anthropological focus and methods (against which Faubion has reacted) for the study of modern Greek society, and at the same time to point to some of the difficulties entailed by Faubion's approach. Central to the paper's discussion will be a consideration of what Faubion means by "culture", of the vexed status of "culture" in contemporary anthropology, and of the possibilities of defining what could be meant by "modern Greek culture".