Western intellectuals, whether liberal or conservative, have been brilliant in turning to cultures outside the West and explaining the myths that held those cultures together. However, when it comes to turning this type of analysis to the West the intelligentsia balks. They have said there can be no anthropology of the West because where there is no myth there can be no anthropology. They argue that our behaviors are natural, that our “reality” has been instituted by Evolution and is, therefore, not a culture at all. When the theory of Evolution was applied to purely organic species, like animals, scientific understanding of the natural world was emancipated. However, when applied to humans, Evolution is half mythic, half scientific.

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