Blood, Thunder, and the Mockery of Anthropology: Derek Freeman and the Semang Thunder-God

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Abstract
The concept of culture is coming increasingly under attack by proponents of a variety of approaches sharing largely deductive methodologies, a thoroughgoing materialism, and the dualistic assumption that culture is reducible to phenomena on some more "fundamental" level. This paper analyzes one such approach, embodied in an analysis by Derek Freeman of an aboriginal Malaysian belief and behavior complex. It examines the logical structure of the argument and its use of the empirical data, making explicit the assumptions underlying these sorts of arguments and assessing their implications for a science of anthropology.

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