As a continuation to two previous posts about words and cultures, culture
is relative to a specific society not only in form but also in connotation.
Formally speaking culture includes the artistic achievements of a group but
also the mechanisms of daily interaction. So, the type of music loved by people
is an example of culture but so is the manner of saying hello, whether that is
by shaking hands, bowing, kissing cheeks, or using words alone. Thus, it is
clear that all human languages must include some way to express culture.
For a linguist, an additional distinction is the attached connotation.
For example, the word “culture” when applied in the United States, France,
Israel and Russia can imply very different purposes. Modern America was settled
by immigrants that were poor and quite often uneducated, even illiterate...
Thus, a reference to culture is a way of distinguishing one person from
another, generally negatively. Describing a lover of opera as cultured can
either be praise or derogatory, i.e., elitist, depending on the point of few. Not
only that, its multiethnic society has espoused a vision of blending as compared
to maintaining traditions. Thus, the expression “they come from another
culture” is an alternative phrase for “they don’t behave like Americans”. The
American ethea of anti-intellectualism and melting pot, notwithstanding the
existence of exceptions to these tendencies, adds a connotation of different
to the term culture.
By contrast, France glories in its Culture. French people are proud
of its artistic icons, whether in literature or the visual arts. The country even has a special institution
for them, the Pantheon. The average French person mentions Victor Hugo, Marcel
Proust, Claude Monet and Edith Piaf with pride. Even those that would never
read any of their books beyond what is required for the Bac or go to a museum
would think twice before stating so. France is the cultural leader of Europe,
at minimum, in terms of literature, art and food. Unlike the United States,
culture in France, or at least its appreciation, is a unifying factor.
Israel too was founded by immigrants but they came from many communities,
each with its own Culture and culture. The dogma of wiping out the diaspora and
imposing the new Israeli stamp on all of its citizens, applied for its first 25
or so years, is slowly but surely disappearing. Today, Israelis talk about
culture to explain differences in food, music and wedding arrangements. In
practice, most couples reflect mixed ethnic background except for the
ultra-orthodox. This requires negotiation of cultural issues such as which
foods to eat on holidays, the level of spiciness and frequency of family
visits, to name just a few matters. Culture in Israel is of part of the
dialogue of everyday life.
The Russian use refers to both the high-brow and, more commonly, the
communal aspect of culture. As the French, Russians are proud of Dostoevsky,
Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, to name a few. However, the most common use of the
word culture is the negative term некультурный человек [nekulturni cheleovek], meaning an uncultured
person, better translated by the term barbarian. To clarify, this
expression does not refer to the lack of familiarity with Shostakovich’s music.
Instead, it describes crude (by Russian standards) behavior, a lack of social savior
faire and open greed. It is hard for a foreigner to decode this term as it
encompasses so many unspoken rules. For
example, to the best of my knowledge, Ivan the Terrible was a некультурный
человек but Stalin and Putin are okay.
It is possible to be unbelievable cruel but remain cultured. So, when a
Russian accuses you of being uncultured, you have apparently crossed some
(ultraviolet) red line.
Dictionaries may agree upon the definition of culture but people stamp
their own opinions and perspectives on the term. There is a wonderful scene in Shogun
in which several Japanese calmly discuss how they are so much civilized than
the shipwrecked English sailors, which are being boiled alive at the time. One
person’s culture is another person’s primitivism.
*Insert captions under pictures to allow access to the blind. Picture from wikipedia.
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