The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Too much common sense, not enough critical thinking!
Abstract
This paper explores two different views about common sense—those of Clifford Geertz and Antonio Gramsci. It examines their presuppositions, assesses their utility for archaeologists, and considers the implications of current common-sense explanations of the past. It points out that common sense is both historical. Yesterday’s common sense sometimes morphs into today’s good sense or scientific truth. Today’s common sense or scientific truth often becomes tomorrow’s false consciousness or folklore. Common sense is also relational. Groups with different positionalities in hierarchically organized societies may have widely divergent views about what is common sense. Finally, it raises the question of why particular “common sense” explanations of the present—buttressed with claims that they are rooted historically in a fixed, unchanging human nature and morality—are repeatedly resurrected by fundamentalists and conservatives in both hemispheres to justify political arguments and to reassert or impose or particular power relations.
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“The Angst that an analysis of power is reductive, determinist, and subsumes all other scholarly interests to manifestations of power is often unfounded when it comes to the questions raised by anthropologists working on a Gramscian concept of common sense (Patterson 2016).”
From Thinking with Gramsci Today: Gramscian perspectives in ethnographies of Europe (2022) · cites this paper as Patterson 2016
Citations
Cites
Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture
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The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
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The Food-sharing Behavior of Protohuman Hominids
Isaac, G. L. (1978) · Scientific American · doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0478-90 · Cited by 795
Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz
Asad, T. (1983) · Man · doi:10.2307/2801433 · Cited by 585
Gramsci's Political Thought: Hegemony, Consciousness, and the Revolutionary Process
Femia, J. V. (1981) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 574
Gramsci, culture and anthropology
(2003) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.40-6488 · Cited by 542
Sahlins, M., Roe, A., & Simpson, G. G. (1959) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2089399 · Cited by 535
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Human ancestors: Changing views of their behavior
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Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Haraway, Donna. 1978/1991b. The past is the contested zone: Human nature and theories of reproduction in primate studies. In Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature, 21–42. New York: Routledge.
- Haraway, Donna. 1989. Remodeling the human way of life: Sherwood Washburn and the new physical anthropology, 1950–1980. In Primate visions: Gender, race, and nature in the world of modern sciences, 186–230. New York: Routledge.
- Locke, John. 1690/1960. Of paternal power. In Two treatises on government, ed. Peter Laslett. Chap 15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Telios, T. (2022) · Dialectical Anthropology · doi:10.1007/s10624-022-09674-5 · Cited by 10
Thinking with Gramsci Today: Gramscian perspectives in ethnographies of Europe
Streinzer, A., & Tosic, J. (2022) · Dialectical Anthropology · doi:10.1007/s10624-022-09679-0 · Cited by 9
Truffer, J., & Tsakmaklis, D. (2025) · Dialectical Anthropology · doi:10.1007/s10624-025-09801-y
Zheng, K. (2022) · uO Research (University of Ottawa) · doi:10.20381/ruor-27889
Das, N. (2026) · Dialectical Anthropology · doi:10.1007/s10624-026-09854-7
Metadata
- Authors
- Patterson, T. C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- Corresponding author
- Patterson, Thomas C.
- Venue
- Dialectical Anthropology
- Published
- 2016-07-18
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 251-258
- ISSN
- 0304-4092 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-0786
- OpenAlex
- W2494405712
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Dialectical Anthropology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political theory and Gramsci
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Marxism and Critical Theory
- Keywords
- common sense, critical thinking, Clifford Geertz, Antonio Gramsci, historical change, false consciousness, folklore, social positionality, human nature, conservatism, fundamentalism, power relations
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