SIR,—Your reviewer, Ronald Bryden can't have 'culturology' to describe the
writings of Hoggart et. al. This word has already been pre-empted by the American anthropologist L. A. White to mean the science of culture.
And culture? This is 'an extra-somatic temporal continuum of things and events dependent upon symboling. Specifically and concretely, culture con- sists of tools, implements, utensils, clothing, orna- ments, customs, institutions, beliefs, rituals, games, works of art, language, etc.' The Evolution of Cultna, p.3.
Since the new writings deal with part only of this whole, perhaps `subculturology' might do? Let's massacre language properly while we're at it.
[Mr. Bryden writes: 'I tried to make it.clear that while I welcome the study, I certainly don't want the name. If the sociologists or anthropologists would like it, it's theirs.'—Editor, Spectator.]
Previous page
