Kulturkomplex bezeichnet das Zusammenwirken verschiedener, zusammen auftretender Kuturzüge (culture traits: Geräte, Methoden des Wirtschaftens, Sozialformen, Alltagspraktiken, Zeremonien, und Glaubensvorstellungen). Ein herausragendes Beispiel hierfür ist der von Herskovits herausgearbeitete "Cattle Complex" bei den Großviehzüchtern Südostafrikas.
Siehe auch Kulturkreis.
Ethnographisches Beispiel für eine Kultur des "cattle complex": Die Nuer (südlicher Sudan) um 1940
"A people whose material culture is as simple as that of the Nuer are highly dependent on their environment. They are pre-eminently pastoral, though they grow more millet and maize than is commonly supposed. Some tribes cultivate more and some less, according to conditions of soil and surface water and their wealth in cattle, but all alike regard horticulture as toil forced on them by poverty of stock, for at heart they are herdsmen, and the only labour in which they delight is care of cattle. They not only depend on cattle for many of life's necessities but they have the herdsman's outlook on the world. Cattle are their dearest posession and they gladly risk their lives to defend their herds or to pillage those of their neighbours. Most of their social activities concern cattle and cherchez la vache is the best advice that can be given to those who desire to understand Nuer behaviour."
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1940): The Nuer. A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people, New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, p. 16.
