ABSTRACT
The social selection of one form of life out of many possible forms is what is meant by “culture.” Over and beyond chemical, biological, and environmental determinations, human beings have invented many variations in the patterns of their consciousness. Anthropologists have wrestled with many conflicting ways to define the baffling richness of culture. Many Americans never doubt that “the American way”—or even “the Massachusetts way”—is the best, the truest, the only really advanced and humane way. Many relatively unsophisticated Americans simply lack experience of any alternative. The paradox of human life may be stated in two propositions. First, from a scientific point of view, biologically and in its social structures, the human race is one. Secondly, there is vast cultural variation in the concrete forms of life, beliefs, values, images, affections. Cult dramatizes the mysterious sources of a culture’s vitality. A cult reenacts a culture’s sense of reality, story, and symbol.
