In a context where cultural difference is for many a source of apprehension, often leading to discrimination against minority groups, culture and cultural rights are particularly important for Indigenous peoples. However, compared with the promotion and protection of other human rights, the marginalization of cultural rights is readily apparent. This article explores one of the sources of this marginalization by asking the following question: to what extent does the concept of culture within the field of international law influence the promotion and protection of cultural rights of minority groups? The author claims that ambiguity around the notion of culture and the absence of a binding definition in the international human rights field yield a reductionist conception of culture. By failing to do justice to minority cultural rights, this conception impacts the realization of those rights and exacerbates certain exclusions. A re-conceptualization of the notion of culture, one that accounts for anthropological ideas and concepts, is therefore needed.

The key for conceptualizing both the Galatians' former pagan religion and an existence ‘under the Jewish law’ as ‘serving the στοιχεια’ (Gal 4.3, 9) lies in their characterization as ‘weak and impotent’ in Gal 4.9. As suggested by passages in the writings of Philo, the στοιχεια do not possess inherent creative power and thus are unable to solve the anthropological problem of sin. To overcome the passion of σαρξ, Philo suggests a process of forming and strengthening the immortal soul by way of the Mosaic law. Paul, by contrast, denies the renewing, life-giving power of the νομος and thus categorizes the law as στοιχεια του κοσμου.

In 1904, a Viking Age ship was found and excavated in Oseberg, on the west side of the Oslo Fjord, south of Oslo, Norway. The skeletal remnants of two females buried onboard were anthropologically examined during the inter-war years. Questions surrounding their identities have prompted much speculation, and many people like to believe that one of the women could be Queen Åsa, the grandmother of Norway's first king. When the skeletons were reburied in 1948, a few smaller pieces were held back and stored in the Anatomical Institute at the University of Oslo. Those fragments have now been radiocarbon dated at 1220±40 and 1230±40 BP. Their similar δ13 = −21.6‰/−21.0‰ indicates that they both were nourished by a diet consisting primarily of terrestrial food and only to a lesser degree by fish. To answer the question of whether the two women were related, Dr Tom Gilbert at the Panum Institute in Copenhagen managed to obtain a DNA profile from the younger of the two, which profile indicates that her sample falls into the haplogroup U7. This finding is interesting, as this haplogroup is nearly absent in modern Europeans but is common in Iranians. Perhaps this could mean that the young lady's ancestors came from the district around the Black Sea, as Snorri Sturlusson notes in his Saga. Unfortunately, the bones from the older woman were too contaminated to provide a clear profile. Because there is reason to fear that the reburied skeletal material will slowly disintegrate in the coffins, some scholars desired that the mound be reopened in order to save the remains and to determine whether it is possible to obtain another DNA profile before such an opportunity is lost.