The Elements of Culture

ture, mainly through an operationalist perspective (operationalism is explained in 5.4.1.). Other approaches to the unpackaging of culture, rooted in different schools of thought, are also possible. Yet, operationalizations of abstract concepts are needed to understand the empirical realities that they target. This chapter briefly dwells on what can be called particular elements of culture: those that are found in small numbers of societies or are so specific that they make cross-cultural comparisons hard or impossible. Then, it devotes much greater attention to components that have a universal or near-universal character, at least across modern nations and ethnic groups, and can therefore be used for the purpose of hologeistic cross-cultural analysis. 3