This fall I watched the Nova Special on String Theory. Aside from bringing back fond childhood memories (Nova was like classically awesome and dramatic for me, especially the intro), it made me realize how much we anthropologists are like the string theorists of culture. We can’t really see it but think it plays “the crucial’ role in universe of the social. Heh.
And though it might not be as totalizing as that (thankfully, though I would like to think of the uNiverse as these little string packest of twanging energy) the economists have recently discovered that “culture” actually plays a role: PHEW. What upligting affirmation. I can go ahead with my research in peace.