Introduction

Reading through the articles in this Symposium is like walking deep into a dense forest. The experience is exhilarating but edged by a concern that the farther you go, the less sure you are of where you are. The articles here reveal the problem of cultural preservation in all its complexity and many-sidedness. This is not one of those symposia where the authors seek to outdo each other in self-condemnation for the wrongs perpetrated by colonial invaders on hapless indigenous people. Neither is it a lament for the assault on science by advocates of modish multiculturalism. The essays here are serious efforts to understand and to explore the implications of one important strand of the contemporary interest in “communities” as a focus for political, moral, and cultural life.