What is culture? Introduction to culture theory (in Estonian)

An idea of how culture functions -- in other words an idea of everything that helps people to find meaning in their living environment and their place in it- is important for every independent and thinking person; but for people in the field of humanities and social sciences it is inevitable. The book is trying to offer that kind of a perception. First and foremost the reader is introduced to the most important approaches that have been applied in science nowadays to analyse the cultural phenomena. On the other hand, it is pointed out, how to use these approaches or different combinations of them in our everyday cultural environment as well as to giving a critical meaning to the substance that is in our cultural memory. In addition to modern theories, a lot of space has been dedicated to the historical background of the way of thinking of culture theory and to approaches that are not used anymore. It is because newer theories can be easily understood when knowing on which viewpoint they are based on. It is good to know the tradition in order to recognize paraphrasing of old ideas in new statements as well as in our own. Semiotician Mihhail Lotman: the book fills an important gap in the field of Estonian cultural literature. It is the first original Estonian approach that gives a full overview of culturology and its main issues, methods and schools of thought. It can be sensed that the author is not an office scientist but a teacher whose intelligence has been successfully combined with appealing presentation. The monograph of Rein Raud can be used as a textbook but it is still something much more. It is original and at times in a good way, even a provocative narrative of culture.