ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the meanings of culture and presents some of the ways in which it contributes to change and is itself in change. A decisive change occurs in the meaning of ‘culture’ from the late eighteenth century, when it is increasingly applied not only to individual but also to social development. In an era of globalization and postmodern capitalism, the currents of cultural change seem both to coalesce and to differentiate with rapidity. As the anecdote of the incident of the cannibal dog demonstrates how cultural encounters can generate change, there is a much wider interest in exploring the processes of hybridity that characterize mundane as well as momentous encounters. Since the late 1980s, there has been what is often described as a ‘cultural turn’ in human geography and other social sciences. Since contemporary interpretations focus on the fluidity of cultural identities, it could be concluded that culture and change are virtually synonymous.
