Beyond Culture

“The answer lies not in restricting human endeavors, but in evolving new alternatives, new possibilities, new dimensions, new options, new avenues for creative uses of human beings based on the recognition of multiple and unusual talents so manifest in the diversity of the human race.”

Beginning with antithesis, Hall emphasizes the contrast between limiting actions and the courage needed for innovative possibilities. Hall underscores the myriad solutions to the crises that humans face with anaphora, repeating the word “new” five times: The range of solutions corresponds with the vast nature of human abilities. This forward-looking perspective features a human-centric approach punctuated with positive diction, evident in Hall’s use of the terms “evolving,” “new,” and “creative.”

“[S]tudying the models that men create to explain nature tells you more about the men than about the part of nature being studied.”

In a paradox, Hall underscores the tendency of humans to fixate on the model’s meaning rather than its design, performance, or purpose. More broadly, Hall implies that “men,” a generalized metonymy for all of humankind, reveal their own nature through artifacts of their own design.

“Culture is man’s medium; there is not one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture.”

Hall’s alliterative description of culture highlights the creative aspect of this backdrop for human experiences. He emphasizes its universality with the repetition of “not,” and the repetition creates litotes, allowing Hall to underscore that culture’s intensive impact on all aspects of human life. Finally, Hall implies that culture has a dual role, both influencing and changing culture (“touched,” “altered”).