Key National Issues
‘cross-cultural universals’
Eminent anthropologists provide ‘cross-cultural universals’ – practices, customs and beliefs found in all cultures
Anthropologists follow ‘participant observation’
The goal is to understand the culture from native perspective
There ethnographic prejudices, various cultural barriers
Cross-cultural universals by Robin Fox
Law about property
rules about incest and marriage
customs of taboo and avoidance
methods of setting disputes with a minimum bloodshed,
Beliefs about supernatural and practices relating to it
A system of social status and methods of indicating it
Initiation ceremonies for young men
Courtship practices involving adornment of females
System of symbolic body ornament generally
Certain activities set aside for men from which women are excluded
Gambling of some kind
A tool and weapons making industry
Myths and legends, dancing, adultery
Branding the nation
France Kingdom - Monarchy – the Bourbons Louis XIV Versailles →
Revolution of 1789 changed the French package :
Republic The Tricolor replaced the Fleur de Lys Marseillaise
Bonaparte → Emperor
The Second Empire
The Third Empire
Bismarck – unified Germany Kaiser The Second Reich Wagner Teutonic myths
Ataturk & the Ottoman Empire Turkey
Scotland has Tartans Kilts Scotch whisky The Highlands The Edinburg festival VS Slovenia VS Slovakia
British picture of the world
Island – insular spirit – Anglocentrism
The first profound influence upon English is the fact they live on an island (Paxman 1999) Tight little island
The precious stone set in the silver sea
The British have a totally private sense of distance
The sea around and beneath him
The dominion of the sea
The strategic position of Britain as an island
Splendid isolation
To be born on the island is a privilege, but the privilege is evaporating. Every Englishman is an island. Little Englandism,
Sea
Ship
To turn adrift – send sb away without help
to cut adrift from – порвати з усіма
To set afloat - бути в повному разгарі
To lay an anchor to windward- знайти тиху гавань
To take in a reef – діяти обережно
To make shipwreck- вмерти, розоритися
To sink or to swim – або пан, або пропав
When my ship comes home – коли я стану багатим
Drink sea dry – to be drunk
British VS American picture of the world
Follow (get on) the river – to get a job on the river
Get down the river – to be sold to the South
Go up the Salt river –to fail in the elections
Send sb down the river – to put sb to prison
British picture of the world
Traditions
Country, countrylife
Prosperity
Decency (barbarian wealth, stinking rich, self-made rich)
Getleman, gentry honour, dignity, integrity, considerateness, courtesy, chivalry, well –born, gentrify
VS Self – Self-starter, self-made man
Stereotypes of 20th century England:
Symbols Sandwiches, Christmas cards, Boy Scouts, detective stories are the products made in England.
Royal family Princess Diana – caring, who represented values of ‘caring, sharing nineties’- Dimania, Dianamania
Big Ben/ Houses of Parliament
Englishness
Pubs Robin Hood Cricket Snobbery BBC West end Times newspaper Shakespeare Thatched cottages –Thatcher-Thatcherism Cup of tea Stonehenge
Stiff upper lip Marmalade Oxford/Cambridge
Harrods Gardening Alice in Wonderland Winston Churchill
Queen Victoria Wembley Stadium Public schools The old school tie/ network total
Darby and Joan – a faithful married couple
Mrs Mop – a female house or office cleaner
Miss Smith – clerk
Brown, Jones and Robinson -
Colonel Chinstrap – merry person
Privacy Exaggerated politeness Communication etiquette Hunting
Sports Slight laziness sybarites Love to animals Eccentricity
Key national characters
John Bull (ruddy and plump with a pair of cheeks like a trumpeter, honest, plain, choleric, bold, john Bullish, John Bullist, John –Bullism),
Oliver Cromwell is the Expression of English Noncomformity,
Shakespeare ( The Shakespeare Wonder (Shakespeare’ Universality, Elizabethan Mystery).
Key national characters
Churchill, Elizabeth I Mary Stuart, Queen Victoria.
Gladstone - a symbolic figure of the 19th century, Disraeli.
Love-hate relationships with the French (French postcards/prints, take French lessons, the French disease, French gout, French pox, French leave
VS
earlier it was Spanish pox, Spanish practices- corruption
In Dutch, Dutch courage