Culture and Structure vs. Agency
Fragment of a discussion from Talk:Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture (Group 06)
Your dimsum example made me think back to Merton's concept of latent function. Having dimsum as a tradition that initially embedded in the food culture. After reading your example, I realize that having dimsum in the Chinese culture, it also a form that gathers families together, and we can refer to Merton's concept of latent function.
KejingPeng (talk)