"Taking Culture to Court" - Considering the Use of the Concept of Culture in a Cultural Defence
(2013) SANK01 20131Social Anthropology
- Abstract
- This thesis is a result of an initial interest in multiculturalism – how states to deal with cultural plurality and the role of the concept of culture in this process – which led to a particular interest in the use of “culture” as a defence plea in courts; what is referred to as a “cultural defence”. With reference to two empirical cases it explores the legal, political and anthropological discussion on the cultural defence and how the concept of culture has been presented in the trials. The argument of the author is that there needs to be a focus on the very concept of culture itself before it can be decided if and how we should accommodate culture in court. In particular it is argued that an essentialist notion of culture cannot be at... (More)
- This thesis is a result of an initial interest in multiculturalism – how states to deal with cultural plurality and the role of the concept of culture in this process – which led to a particular interest in the use of “culture” as a defence plea in courts; what is referred to as a “cultural defence”. With reference to two empirical cases it explores the legal, political and anthropological discussion on the cultural defence and how the concept of culture has been presented in the trials. The argument of the author is that there needs to be a focus on the very concept of culture itself before it can be decided if and how we should accommodate culture in court. In particular it is argued that an essentialist notion of culture cannot be at the base of a cultural defence as a cultural defence needs to adjust to the changing nature of culture and acknowledge the issues related to culture and authority. This argument is in part driven by alternative notions of culture and cultural representation such as those provided by Wikan, Barth, Ardener and Baumann. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3809070
- author
- Morris, Freja LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SANK01 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- culture and power, cultural defense, rights, social anthropology, culture, multiculturalism
- language
- English
- id
- 3809070
- date added to LUP
- 2013-10-15 08:14:13
- date last changed
- 2013-10-15 08:14:13
@misc{3809070,
abstract = {{This thesis is a result of an initial interest in multiculturalism – how states to deal with cultural plurality and the role of the concept of culture in this process – which led to a particular interest in the use of “culture” as a defence plea in courts; what is referred to as a “cultural defence”. With reference to two empirical cases it explores the legal, political and anthropological discussion on the cultural defence and how the concept of culture has been presented in the trials. The argument of the author is that there needs to be a focus on the very concept of culture itself before it can be decided if and how we should accommodate culture in court. In particular it is argued that an essentialist notion of culture cannot be at the base of a cultural defence as a cultural defence needs to adjust to the changing nature of culture and acknowledge the issues related to culture and authority. This argument is in part driven by alternative notions of culture and cultural representation such as those provided by Wikan, Barth, Ardener and Baumann.}},
author = {{Morris, Freja}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"Taking Culture to Court" - Considering the Use of the Concept of Culture in a Cultural Defence}},
year = {{2013}},
}