WITTGENSTEIN AND ANTHROPOLOGY

This essay explores the theme of Wittgenstein as a philosopher of cult ure. The primary text on which the essay is based is Philosophical Inv estigations; it treats Stanley Cavell's work as a major guide for the understanding and reception of Wittgenstein into anthropology. Some Wi ttgensteinian themes explored in the essay are the idea of culture as capability, horizontal and vertical limits to forms of life, concepts of everyday life in the face of skepticism, and the complexity of the inner in relation to questions of belief and pain. While an attempt ha s been made to relate these ideas to ethnographic descriptions, the em phasis in this essay is on the question of how anthropology may receiv e Wittgenstein.