ABSTRACT
There has been substantial debate among scholars about the definitions of culture. Rather than getting drawn into this debate, Michael Thompson, Richard Ellis and Aaron Wildavsky have sought to clarify matters by distinguishing between three terms: cultural bias, social relations and way of life. They explain [I] that ‘Cultural bias refers to shared values and beliefs. Social relations are defined as patterns of interpersonal relations. When we wish to designate a viable combination of social relations and cultural bias we speak of a way of life.’ Their book seeks to identify the viable ways of life and explain how these maintain themselves. Their ‘cultural theory‘ (which is now more aptly called TTOCC), is derived from social anthropology and founded on the work of Professor Mary Douglas. TTOCC has its origins in her argument [2] that there are two dimensions by which all cultures can be classified.
