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PARTISAN REVIEW
to push to the limit the position of relativism and the philosophical implica–
tions of a rigorous study of culture as a symbolic
system .
For this he deserves
credit and merits reading (though he will be undoubtedly ignored by a lot of
anthropologists). His commitment to human inventiveness and
to'
'the spon–
taneous and creative realization of human culture" is exceptional. But, in his
commitment to inventiveness, he has fallen victim to precisely the sloganism
of his own culture. A dynamic word does not necessarily make for a dynamic
theory. To replace culture by invention, interpretation, understanding, and
meaning by innovation, may nudge the reader to regard man as dynamic,
creative, innovative, and inventive, but it does not provide a theory which
accounts for these essential features of mankind.
To the sophisticated reader, Wagner's argument will appear naive ,
clumsy ,
deja entendu,
and frustrating-very frustrating for he is clearly onto
something. His book is above all a struggle between that humanistic vision of
man as a creative being that motivates so many anthropologists and the cogni–
tive and moral violence that is implicit within the anthropological enterprise
itself. Wagner's solution-a sincere sort of compromise between theoretical
obfuscation and sloganistic humanism- must be seen, I suppose , as a pro–
found symptom of the confrontation of which he himself writes.
VINCENT CRAPANZANO
nEW
,
PRom CAIIPORftlA
The Custom-House
of Desire
A Half-Centu ry o f Surrea li st Stories
Translated, with an introduction by
J.
H. Matthews
" Provocat ive reading for those interes ted
in sea rching out the germs of ideas tha t
are currently surfacing in com temporary
fiction."-Publisher s Weekly
" Black humor and a rather play ful ero–
ticism."-Kirkus R eviews
330 pages, 7 illustra tions. $12.95
At bookstores
.
.~
uniVERSITY
011'
CAIiPORnlA PRESS
~
BERHElEY 94J10
