The institution as the analytical unit of culture

Following suggestions by anthropologists, (Tylor, Malinowski, Benedict, and White), social psychologists (G.H. Mead), sociologists (Goffman and Berger and Luckmann), and philosophers (Ricoeur and Cassirer), I propose a characterization of the anthropological concept of culture using the institution as the fundamental unit of cultural analysis and show how this characterization can address a number of serious problems associated with the classical characterization of culture. The first part of the paper examines eight major problems inherent in the classical view: analytical units; integration; discreteness; language; continuity; organic whole; pragmatics; and origins. The second part introduces the concept of the institution and how it works. The third final part shows how the institution can, in a comprehensive way, overcome of serious flaws in the classic concept of culture. The article concludes with a discussion of how this concept opens up a new set of interesting analytical questions.