Leonard Helfgott and John K. Nelson have chosen very different vantage points from which to study the cultures of Iran and Japan. Yet Helfgott's study of the manufacture of carpets and Nelson's description of the annual cycle of activities at a Shinto shrine have several important points in common. Both authors deal with traditional practices that have involved and affected every level of their societies. Both of these practices have been modified in ways that reflect broader cultural change. And both practices have unique and very significant roles in their respective societies today. But the two studies necessarily employ very different methodologies and seek different types of information. As a study of a major aspect of the material culture of Iran, Helfgott's Ties That Bind: A Social History of the Iranian Carpet deals with economic aspects of Iranian culture, and the society's relationship with the West and the world economy, in some detail. It is a historical industry study that concentrates on the relationship of that industry to the broader society. Nelson's A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine, on the other hand, deals with the ritual year at a single contemporary shrine, and historical and general social questions are incidental to the body of the study. A comparison of these two works will demonstrate two distinct approaches to the study of culture that share the common goal of reaching a broader understanding of a culture via the study of a single aspect of the society.
Clearly neither study limits itself to the relatively narrow range that might be inferred from the titles. They stretch out into far more general pictures of the societies they study. But, as a result of their very different subjects and approaches, the two studies produce different kinds of knowledge. In Helfgott's case the impact of the industry on Iranian culture and its role in the nation's relations with the West seem adequately expla...