ABSTRACT
Cultural comparison has meant different things to different anthropologists. A minimal definition entails the establishment of socially significant cultural differences and similarities between groups of people. The two aspects presuppose each other: if people were completely different, it would be impossible to register the differences; if people were entirely the same, there would be no point in comparing them (cf. Fay 1996:72-91). As Howe and Hobart argue, however, ‘relations of similarity and difference are not given in the empirical phenomena themselves but are generated by people who act on them and decide, using criteria of their own choosing, to which class, category or concept they conform’ (Holy 1987:16).
