Freedom and Culture

Freedom and Culture by Lee, Dorothy D.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780881333039.

In this well-known collection of essays, Dorothy Lee offers her readers an expedition into various world cultures, an imaginary field trip that reveals different views of autonomy, concepts of the individual in society, and interpretations of personal freedom. Dorothy Lee brings Wintu, Hopi, Tikopia, Trobriand, and many other cultures into focus, often contrasting them with our social structure, delineating the differences in language patterns, responsibilities as citizens of a community, and the appreciation of individual expression. The point of view of this work, a unique perspective on these contemporary materials, is achieved through Dorothy Lees ability to fuse the anthropologists contact with many cultures and a personal concern with the immediate responsibilities of citizenship, homelife, and motherhood. The result is a blending of science an the humanities-a readable, warm, and concrete account of freedom, being, and existence. Dorothy Lees work provides possible alternatives to the social direction often thoughtlessly followed by modern man. Not prescriptive or "angry," it implicitly challenges the sophistication and stimulates the creative imagination of the reader.