ABSTRACT
One of Max Weber's greatest services to social science was to show how to recognize and work with the interaction of the logic of culture and that of institutionalized mutual expectation in human experience. Sociocultural macrocosms — "societies" — he saw as made up of many culture-bearing and culture-creating collectivities, pursuing purposes, both in cooperation and in conflict, purposes which they more and less explicitly revise and reconceptualize as they encounter social consequences and work through the logic of their ideas and ideals. The best the social anthropologist can do is to analyze societies as equilibrium systems at successive points in time and fill in the gaps with narrative. Thomas Kuhn's scientists seek personal and collective recognition through successful performance in working out the logical implications of scientific "paradigms". Conversely, if one cares more for theoretical elegance or aesthetic closure, one must give up a measure of practical relevance.
