What do social groups have to do with culture? The crucial role of shared experience

Authors

Bradley W. BergeyFollow
Avi Kaplan, Temple University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

In an eloquent article in American Psychologist, Cohen (2009) evoked a contentious question: What are the boundaries of culture? In this opinion piece, we argue that signifying “cultural” identities that have nominal labels as potential markers for culture may be interpreted to suggest that group membership is synonymous with cultural processes. The emphasis on nominal groupings such as religion and SES, raises the question: What do these social groups have to do with culture? We argue that a focus on shared meanings of experiences, rather than nominal social groupings, is a more appropriate and productive path toward achieving Cohen’s goal of expanding and refining our understanding of cultural-psychological processes.

Comments

Published in Frontiers of Psychology, 1, 199. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00199