my little soap box: the definition of culture is learned behavior. It is not necessarily something one can create, per say, rather, it's something one can witness or experience.
I think that marketing and mass media create cultures everyday-Perhaps the farrari culture is not as robust as the latin culture,,. but it exists. Why the preachy soapbox? what is culture who makes or determines it? good question.
That is a classic misuse of the term that anthropologists founded and are fighting to protect. Don't take this as an attack, I am working these issues out myself as I struggle with how to harness my academic background and attempt to make sense then fruit out of it.. Culture is leaned behavior. You are using it like a boy who found his pap's gun. Perhaps you mean paradigm, lifestyle, or group of people with similar interests. And yes, there might be a farrari culture-but that is a group of people whose identity is informed by behavior, rituals, and familial structures that have been passed generationally from senior members to newbies, to use possible vernacular speech. If it is a group of people whose behavior is influenced by commercialism, pop culture (did I just say that?!) or common interests, then you should use a more descriptive term, such as clique, team, club, gang.. or even diaspora. The fecundity of this speech and thus reason I am salivating right now is that semantics while not always can and do carry some heavy meaning.
If we realize that culture is learned, perhaps we can find out how large car-society has come about and what exactly that “culture” really is: the identity, ceremonies, gender roles, rights of passage, vernacular language—all the elements of “culture—we find a much more rich realization of how what is actually going on. If it were not culture, then a commercial or museum would do the job. A few slides would convince people that they need to drive a small car. If it is culture, then we must dig deep into the fabric of society, we must research modes of cultural transmission, peel away the layers of identity if we ever want to have an impact.. which takes me to the heart of my personal struggle: do we use this powerful tool to change the world or is that too dangerous, too imperial, too hegemonic.
So, I said you aren’t using the word correctly. If you insist you are, then you have your work cut out for you!
iT IS AS IF YOU ARE IGNORING THE CONTROVERSY AROUND DEFINING "CULTURE" THAT EXISTS EVEN WITHIN YOUR OWN ANTHROPOLOGICAL BUBBLE. Your 1874 definition of culture needs to be and has been updated. You seem to know so much about one side of the argument and are so unwilling to look at the many definitions and evolution of the word "culture". Surely it is deep and in some part learned but in fact I am not sure that YOU are qualified to redefine the word culture to ME. Its cool, I just don't have time to argue with you Franz Boas. Thanks anyway.
Awww...this is TOOO CUTE!
ReplyDeleteummmmm. ok POPCORNS!
ReplyDeletemy little soap box: the definition of culture is learned behavior. It is not necessarily something one can create, per say, rather, it's something one can witness or experience.
ReplyDeleteand then I stepped down, off the box.
I think that marketing and mass media create cultures everyday-Perhaps the farrari culture is not as robust as the latin culture,,. but it exists. Why the preachy soapbox? what is culture who makes or determines it? good question.
ReplyDeleteThat is a classic misuse of the term that anthropologists founded and are fighting to protect. Don't take this as an attack, I am working these issues out myself as I struggle with how to harness my academic background and attempt to make sense then fruit out of it.. Culture is leaned behavior. You are using it like a boy who found his pap's gun. Perhaps you mean paradigm, lifestyle, or group of people with similar interests. And yes, there might be a farrari culture-but that is a group of people whose identity is informed by behavior, rituals, and familial structures that have been passed generationally from senior members to newbies, to use possible vernacular speech. If it is a group of people whose behavior is influenced by commercialism, pop culture (did I just say that?!) or common interests, then you should use a more descriptive term, such as clique, team, club, gang.. or even diaspora. The fecundity of this speech and thus reason I am salivating right now is that semantics while not always can and do carry some heavy meaning.
ReplyDeleteIf we realize that culture is learned, perhaps we can find out how large car-society has come about and what exactly that “culture” really is: the identity, ceremonies, gender roles, rights of passage, vernacular language—all the elements of “culture—we find a much more rich realization of how what is actually going on. If it were not culture, then a commercial or museum would do the job. A few slides would convince people that they need to drive a small car. If it is culture, then we must dig deep into the fabric of society, we must research modes of cultural transmission, peel away the layers of identity if we ever want to have an impact.. which takes me to the heart of my personal struggle: do we use this powerful tool to change the world or is that too dangerous, too imperial, too hegemonic.
So, I said you aren’t using the word correctly. If you insist you are, then you have your work cut out for you!
iT IS AS IF YOU ARE IGNORING THE CONTROVERSY AROUND DEFINING "CULTURE" THAT EXISTS EVEN WITHIN YOUR OWN ANTHROPOLOGICAL BUBBLE. Your 1874 definition of culture needs to be and has been updated. You seem to know so much about one side of the argument and are so unwilling to look at the many definitions and evolution of the word "culture". Surely it is deep and in some part learned but in fact I am not sure that YOU are qualified to redefine the word culture to ME. Its cool, I just don't have time to argue with you Franz Boas. Thanks anyway.
ReplyDeletebooooo
ReplyDelete