Roger Sandall

Who was Roger Sandall?

Roger Sandall was an essayist and commentator on cultural relativism and is best known as the author of The Culture Cult. He was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, but spent most of his career in Australia. He became a film director at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1965 and subsequently a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney in 1973, a post he held until he retired in 1993.

Sandall was a strong critic of romantic primitivism and the concept of the noble savage; he was an advocate of modern civilization. In Sandall's view, romantic primitivism places far too high a value on cultures that were often characterised by, among other aspects, limited human rights, religious intolerance, disease and poverty. Other negative aspects he discusses include domestic oppression, violence, clan/tribal warfare, poor care of the environment and considerable restriction on artistic freedom of expression.