William W Dressler - Culture and the Individual: Theory and Method of Cultural Consonance

First published 2018
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ISBN: 978-1-62958-518-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-62958-519-2 (pbk)
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This book pulls together the research that I have been working on for the past twenty-five years. In 1991 I began a research project in Brazil, with my colleagues Mauro C. Balieiro and Jos Ernesto Dos Santos, that was designed to test hypotheses derived from earlier work I had done in the area of culture, stress, and disease. In beginning that work, based on a more careful reading of theory in cognitive anthropology, discussions with colleagues, the fieldwork itself, and, honestly, a single comment from a reviewer of a research grant proposal, a different way of thinking about the process presented itself. Curiously, a few months ago I was re-reading a handwritten journal from that time in which I ran across a three-page outline of what I ultimately labeled the cultural consonance model (this was dated June 4, 1992). I was surprised to see a very brief and pretty accurate statement of what forms the basis of this book, namely, how do we understand and measure the relationship between individual belief and behavior and the collective cultural models for belief and behavior found in society, and what are the implications, particularly for human health, of individual variation in approximating those shared models? After more than a couple of decades, including numerous replications and refinements of this basic model, it seemed like the time to reflect on and evaluate what has been done. That is what this book is about.

This work has not only been my collaborators and mine; it has also formed the foundation for the work of other colleagues working independently, and for a number of doctoral students who have completed their degrees elsewhere as well as in our Ph.D. program in biocultural medical anthropology here at The University of Alabama. In other words, many people have been engaged in the development of the concept of cultural consonance, and they deserve a great deal of credit both for their own excellent research and for pushing me to be more clear in my thinking.

Its best to start at the beginning. Looking back I can see that my professors in both undergraduate and graduate school shaped the outlook that ultimately produced what Ive written here. These include Bob Benfer, Doug Caulkins, the late Ron Kurtz, Bert Pelto, and Mike Robbins. Doug Caulkins deserves special thanks here; we have maintained our professional association and friendship for nearly forty-five years. Lots of discussion occurred over that time, all of it illuminating.

In my professional life I have had the good fortune to work and interact with people doing really great work. Their thinking has often been a source of inspiration for me, and they have been kind in encouraging me in my efforts. Marshall Abrams, Russ Bernard, Robbie Baer, Garry Chick, the late Roy DAndrade, Javier Garcia de Alba Garcia, Lance Gravlee, Jeff Johnson, Tom Leatherman, Bill Leonard, Thom McDade, Catherine Panter-Brick, Kim Romney, Rebecca Seligman, Norbert Ross, Larry Schell, Alan Schultz, Jeff Snodgrass, Elizabeth Sweet, Fernando Viteri, Sue Weller, and Carol Worthman have all influenced my thinking.