Star Trek and the Anthropological Enterprise: Cultural Relativism and Tolerance in Contemporary America

Cultural relativism and an ethic of tolerance have become common values in American culture. Originating in the anthropological tradition of historical particularism, the doctrine became an influential component of anthropological practice and activism since the early twentieth century. Cultural relativism has since become a contentious subject in contemporary America, manifesting itself in American civil society in both debates about a culture war and in human rights discourse. The doctrine's influence can also be gauged in popular and mass culture, especially in the various television Star Trek series.

The objectives of the present thesis are twofold. First, we will consider the doctrine's diffusion into popular American culture with specific reference to its salient features and appearance in the debates about an American culture war. Second, we will consider its appearance in Star Trek and address the manner in which the television show provides a complicated interpretation of its ethical and political implications.

The methodology utilized in the present thesis has been adopted from the work of Roland Barthes. His semiotic method allows for a detailed analysis of the various codes structuring a text and its intertextual nature. Genre analysis has also been used to understand the relationship between Star Trek and science fiction in general.

A theoretical framework has been elicited from the work of Antonio Gramsci, Raymond Williams, and Victor Turner. Gramsci's concepts of hegemony, common sense, and folklore have been important in suggesting that ideological processes are not unidirectional but are rather complicated by various factors. Victor Turner's concept of liminoid phenomena has been utilized to suggest the medium's status as a forum for the presentation of debates about American culture and values.