Spindler's Question
... I don't remember that there was any discussion of explicit senses of culture in either my undergraduate study or my graduate training. My undergraduate research assistant gig in the production of Robert B Textor's A Cross-Cultural Summary dealt with data on 400 named cultures, though 'ethnicities' might have been a better general term in the mid-1960s context. And Peace Corps in Sarawak facilitated a beginning and superficial acquaintance with Iban language and culture...But it wasn't until my PhD Oral in 1971 that George Spindler asked the Question
I'd really like to know your idea of culture... by which I was simply struck dumb. I fumbled an answer, but had to admit that I just didn't know what to say. Spindler let me off, but there I was having nothing well-considered to say about THE central concept of Anthropology... and I've been working ever since on answers to the koan-like question. What is my idea/understanding/explication of the concept? Here I want to gather up and massage into coherence the elements of an Answer to George Spindler.