FOR EXAMPLE, TAIWAN: TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGY OF NATIONAL CULTURE

Culture has many dimensions, e.g., that of gender, but what's up with cultures of whole nations? Can such an issue be approached phenomenologically? Using a small nation as an example and drawing on a popular history, I first discuss here how concrete cultural objects are different from naturalistic objects, after removing from them all the functions or uses they have. Then, I naturalistically describe Taiwan geographically, geologically, ecologically, etc. and then anthropologically with regard to how it has been inhabited. Leaving aside abstraction, I then evoke cultural aspects of this island for its citizens, in terms of religion, high culture, social system, economy and politics. These aspects are certainly different for other national cultures, but they all have similarities, and starting from this example we could go furhter, towards a national culture in general.