Herder’s Concept of Culture

Abstract

This article presents a critical examination of the concept of “culture” in the writings of Johann Gottfried Herder. Herder’s use of the term “culture” participates in a broader pan-European rethinking of the term as part of the emerging discipline of anthropology. In a first step, the paper offers a chronological reconstruction of Herder’s use of the concept, its Latin origins, and its links to theories of climate and geography. As a second step, the essay examines the critical intentions underlying Herder’s theory of “culture,” in particular as part of a conceptual framework in his critiques of Eurocentrism and colonialism. Especially the normative dimensions of the concept are analyzed, and the question is asked how successful Herder is in avoiding the hierarchies he intends to criticize. Finally, the paper discusses the relevance of Herder’s theory of “culture” in the context of various anthropological approaches since the 1970s that have attempted to use “culture” as a critical tool in the analysis of contemporary globalization.