ABSTRACT
The similarities between the seemingly distinct paradigms become apparent when they are compared to truly divergent paradigms, such as those of the existential tradition, poststructuralism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism that focuses upon unique individuals. "Structural" models tend to focus on some sort of unique spirit, ethos, or essence of the culture. "Historical particularism" is a classic school of anthropological thought that centers upon the uniqueness of specific cultures. This method is especially relevant because, many cultural particularists became involved with practitioner work that parallels the emerging role of business anthropology. The essentials of the Culture at a Distance Method can be easily stated; by dealing with cultures as structured and homogeneous entities, Benedict, Mead, and their colleagues modeled how people would tend to react to interventions such as propaganda. The basic technique was to extrapolate the "national character" of a particular people and then predict their responses based upon that model.
