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Файл:Culturology. Educational manual
.pdf
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Cultural relativism
As usual ordinary worldview of a person has ethnocentrical character. It means
that a person judges someone else's foreign culture through the values and beliefs of
her own ones. From this standpoint, a person might frame other cultures as weird,
exotic, intriguing, and even as problems to be solved. In contrast, it is necessary to
recognize the rights of all cultures of the world their own beliefs, values, and
practices that have developed in particular historical, political, social, material, and
ecological contexts and that it makes sense that they would differ from someone`s
else culture. None are necessarily right or wrong, or good or bad. This concept is
called the concept of cultural relativism.
While some societies have clear-cut gender and racial divisions, for instance,
others do not seem to exhibit a similar metaphysics. Cultural relativists hold that no
culture has a truer worldview than any other; they are simply different views.
Examples: Cultural relativism explains, for example, what constitutes breakfast
varies widely from place to place. A typical breakfast in Turkey are fish soup or
stewed vegetables might seem strange for breakfast in Russia or some other places,
this is perfectly normal. Or a tendency in USA toward sugary cereals and milk or
preference for egg sandwiches loaded with bacon and cheese would seem quite
bizarre to other cultures too. But for USA it is a traditional breakfast. For Russia
traditional breakfast is porridge or scrambled eggs.
Why does Recognizing Cultural Relativism Matter?
By acknowledging cultural relativism, we can recognize that our culture shapes
what we consider to be beautiful, ugly, appealing, disgusting, virtuous, funny, and
abhorrent. It shapes what we consider to be good and bad art, music, and film, as well
as what we consider to be tasteful or tacky consumer goods.
Question: how do you think, if relativism is possible in nature? Argue you
position.
Task: fill in the table (table 2) with some differences between the features of
your culture and any other one. Chose any features you want for the comparison. Write
an explanation of the differences. To find an explanation use the Internet. Table 1 is an
example for you.
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Table 1
Features
Russian culture
Tajik culture
An explanation of the difference
National cuisine
Russians eat pork
Tajiks don`t eat pork
Tajiks are Muslims. Pork in Islam is
forbidden
Attitude towards
old men
For modern youth
they are not
authoritative
persons
For modern youth
they are authoritative
persons, especially
in villages
Russian culture develops quicklier
then Tajik one, so the life
experience of old people still makes
sense for youth
Position during
eating
Russian sit at the
table on chairs or
sofa
Modern Tajik use
chairs too, but more
traditional Tajiks sit
on the floor
Tajiks find out about tables and
chairs only in the beginning of the
XX century, but this furniture was
not popular among them for a very
long time. Russians have been using
this furniture for centuries
Table 2
Features
__________
your culture
____________
write any other culture
you know about
An explanation
of the difference
1.
2.
3.
Multiculturalism and cosmopolitism
The idea of culture, most notably in connection with the phenomenon of
globalization, has given rise to the concept of multiculturalism. From the middle of
the XX century till nowadays we can see mass migration of people and spread of
various cultural phenomena to wide range of different cultures.
Multiculturalism is a position according to which different cultures and cultural
groups within particular cultures have to be recognized and given political rights and
social guarantees. Multiculturalists say, that religion, language, traditions and so on
of different peoples have equal value, should be respected equally. Language and
religion are very important for peoples to keep their ethnic identity.
In one way or another, a large part of the contemporary world population lives
in more than one culture, be it because of the exchange of culinary techniques,
holidays, musical or literary knowledge, or fashion ideas, and so on. There is a
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cosmopolitan view of culture within the multicultural concept. In modern world
meaningful options come to individuals from a variety of cultural sources. For
example, the Bible, Roman mythology, and the Grimms’ fairy tales have all
influenced Russian culture and they all came to Russian culture from different
cultures.
Question: is your country a multicultural one? Prove your answer with some
examples.
Task: fill in the table. Write what was borrowed by your culture from other ones.
Your country
What was borrowed
From what country
Parallels between cultural and biological mechanisms
There are some common features between cultural and biological mechanisms
identified. But they look very controversial.
Task: read the text and fill in the table after it.
Memes and Cultural Epidemiology
“It is a platitude that cultures change over time. Some research studies the
nature of these changes. Such changes are often described under the rubric of cultural
evolution. As the term suggests, cultural change may resemble biological change in
various respects. As with biological traits, we can think of culture as having trait-like
units that arise and then spread to varying degrees. The study of cultural evolution
explores the factors that can determine which cultural traits get passed on.
Some authors push the analogy between cultural evolution and biological
evolution very far. Within biology, the most celebrated evolutionary process is
natural selection: traits that increase fitness are more likely than others to get passed
on from one generation to the next. 20th century evolutionary theory (“the modern
synthesis”) supplements this Darwinian idea with the principle that traits are
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transmitted genetically. Genes produce traits (or phenotypes), which impact
reproductive success, and thereby impact which genes will be copied into the next
generation. Richard Dawkins (1976), who helped popularize this idea, suggests that
cultural traits get reproduced in an analogous way. Dawkins characterizes cultural
items as “memes” — a term that echoes “gene” while emphasizing the idea that
culture is passed on mimetically — that is, by imitation. Like a gene, a meme will
spread if it is successful.
Some authors have resisted the analogy, arguing that there are crucial
differences between generic and cultural transmission. In natural selection, genes
ordinarily spread vertically from parents to children. Cultural items, in contrast, often
spread laterally across peer groups, and can even spread from children to parents, as
with the rise of email and other technological innovations. Cultural traits are also
spread in a way that is mediated by intentions, rather than blindly. A teacher may
intend to spread a trait, and a student may recognize that the trait has some value, and
innovators may come up with new traits by intending to solve problems. Intentional
creation is unlike random mutation because it can happen at a more rapid rate with
immediate correction if the trait doesn't succeed. Success, too, is measured differently
in the cultural case. Some cultural traits are passed on because they increase
biological fitness, but traits that reduce reproduction rates, such as tools or war or
contraception, can also spread, and many traits, such as music trends, spread without
any impact on procreation or survival. Unlike genes, cultural traits are also copied
imperfectly, sometimes changing slightly with each transmission. And there is no
clear distinction within culture between a genotype and a phenotype; the trait that
gets reproduced is often responsible for the reproducing. For example, if someone
learns to ride a bicycle, there is no clear distinction between an inner mechanism and
an outward manifestation; the skill is both the mechanism and its deployment.
All these contrasts suggest to some that the notion of a meme is misleading.
Cultural traits are spread in ways that differ significantly from genes. In an effort to
bypass the comparison to genes, Sperber (1996) offers an epidemiology analogy.
Cultural items, which for him are representations, are spread like viruses. They can
be spread laterally, and they can reduce fitness. Viral transmission depends on
contagion, and, like viruses, some cultural traits are catchier than others. That is to
say, some traits are easier to learn — they are more psychologically compelling.
Boyer (2001) has applied this idea to the spread of religious beliefs. Tales of
the supernatural build on existing knowledge but add variations that make them
exciting, such as the idea of a person who can survive death and walk through walls.
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Boyer shows experimentally that such exotic variations on ordinary categories are
easy to remember and spread.
The epidemiology analogy may have limitations. For example, viruses do not
usually spread with intentional mediation, and they are often harmful. But it has some
advantages over the analogy to genetic transmission. Ultimately, such analogies give
way to actual models of how transmission works”
13
.
Task: fill in the table. Write in the first part of the table what is in common
between memes and genes, according to Richard Dawkins (strong sides of the
concept) and what is the difference between them (weak sides of the concept). Write
in the second part of the table what is in common between transmission of viruses
and cultural items, according to Sperber (strong sides of the concept) and what is the
difference between them (weak sides of the concept).
Concept
Strong sides of the concept
Weak sides
of the concept
1. Memes and genes
2. Viral transmission
If animals have a culture?
Once Daniel Kelly and Andreas De Block asked a question — if animals have
their own culture?
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Kelly D., Block De A. Culture and Cognitive Science // The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy / ed.
Edward N. Zalta. URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/culture-cogsci.
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Task for students:
Before reading the further text, assume the answer to the question. Substantiate
your opinion.
The opinion of the scientists is the following:
“If culture is defined in terms of practices or abilities that are shared within
groups in virtue of the achievements of particular group members, then one can even
say that apes have culture. Evidence for group-specific innovations, such as nut
cracking techniques, have been found among chimpanzees and orangutans. Culture
and cultural transmission have also been documented in dolphins.
This raises a question. If other creatures are capable of cultural transmission,
why don't they show the extreme forms of cultural variation and accumulated cultural
knowledge characteristic of our species? There are various possible answers. Great
apes may also be less innovative than humans, and this may stem from their limited
capacity to understand causal relations, or to plan for the distant future. Apes may
also have limitations on memory that prevent them from building on prior
innovations to create cultural products of ever-increasing complexity. In addition,
apes have less highly developed skills for mental state attribution, and that may
further reduce their capacity for imitative learning. Human infants do not just copy
what adult models do; they copy what those models are trying to do. Warneken and
Tomasello have shown that young chimps understand intended actions to some
degree, but less robustly than their human counterparts. Finally, the human capacity
to build on prior innovations and transmit cultural knowledge is often linguistically
mediated, and apes and dolphins may have communication systems with far more
limited expressive potential, making it impossible to move beyond simple copying
and adopt the deferred form of imitation that we call instruction”14.
Questions
1. What is the position of the scientists about “animal” culture?
2. What arguments do they give?
Literature and Internet sources
1. Winfried N. The topography of Yuri Lotman’s semiosphere // International
Journal of Cultural Studies. — 2015. — Vol. 18 (1). — Р. 11–26.
14
Culture and Cognitive Science // Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: website. URL:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/culture-cogsci/.
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2. Brinkmann K. How Can Cultural Values Be Reformed? // Philosophy Now. —
2019. — April/May. — P. 20.
3. Culture and Cognitive Science // Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy :
[website]. — URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/culture-cogsci/.
4. How culture influences health beliefs // EuroMed Info : [website]. — URL:
https://www.euromedinfo.eu/how-culture-influences-health-beliefs.html/.
5. Robinson A. Bakhtin: Dialogism, Polyphony and Heteroglossia // Ceaserfire. —
2011. — July 29. — URL: https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-bakhtin-1/.
1.3. ETHNIC AND NATIONAL CULTURES:
RELATIONSHIP AND FEATURES
Content of the topic:
Ethnic culture and its features. National culture and its features. Comparison of
ethnic and national cultures. Ethnic culture in our days. Ethnocultural stereotype and
its types.
After the topic completion students should
1) know:
- notions of ethnic and national cultures;
- about relationship between these two kinds of culture;
- distinctive features of these two kinds of culture;
2) be able to:
- search and critically use the literature necessary for the explaining of the topic;
- evaluate cultural achievements through the historical context of their creation;
- use the knowledge gained in the course to assess the phenomena of the
cultural life of modern society;
- understand the role of cultural heritage in self-improvement and self-
development of the individual;
3) have:
- skills of studying and analyzing texts with cultural content;
- methods of discussion and polemics;
- skills of public speech and reasoned presentation of their own point of view.
Main notions
Ethnos is a cross-generation group (blood relationship is necessary) of people
that is united by long collective living on the certain territory, by common language,
culture and self-consciousness.
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Ethnic culture is a culture of people connected by a common origin (blood
relationship) and jointly carried out economic activities.
Nation is a historical community of people that appears as a result of the
common territory, economic relations, language, ethnic features of culture.
National culture unites people living in large areas and not necessarily related
by blood and family relations. It appears as a result of a new type of social
communication associated with the invention of writing, with the birth of the literary
language and national literature. Writing helps spread the ideas that are necessary for
unite the nation. Thus, the national culture is built on the foundation of written
culture, while the ethnic culture can be quite illiterate, for example, the culture of
primitive tribes that still exist in our day.
Ethnocultural stereotype is a generalized idea of the typical features that
characterize any ethnos.
Every ethnic culture has ancient roots. Their traditions were accumulated for
centuries. They impact their representatives, ethnic and national identity. There are a
lot of definitions of terms “ethnos” and “nation”. Also, there is no any common
position according to the relationship between these terms in science world. Some
scientists believe that it is possible to refuse the term “nation” and use only the term
“ethnos”. Other scientists consider the terms are equal.
Ethnic culture
Ethnic culture is the most ancient layer of the national culture. It involves
everyday life and traditions of ancestors. We can find it in folk cuisine, in closes,
folklore, folk craft, folk medicine, etc. Its features depend on natural environment,
because in the past nature used to influence on society more strongly than now. Every
person belongs to an ethnos.
There isn`t the only one point of view on nature of ethnic identity. Some
researchers believe that the identity depends on our genome and we cannot choose it
ourselves. Other researchers believe that an ethnos is a social community. To be a
member of the community a person has to consider himself a representative of an
ethnic group and separate from other ethnic groups.
These both positions have common idea: there is no any person in the world
that would genetically belong only to one ethnos. Almost everyone has his ancestors
from different ethnic groups. We have to say that the only right way to understand the
ethnic identity is to consider it as a bio-social community.
Some people consider their ethnos the most valuable and all other ethnic
groups evaluate throw their cultural measure. This position is called ethnocentrism.
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This is wrong position. We have to consider value of all the ethnic groups are equal.
As you remember, we have already talked about it in the topic about cultural
relativism.
National culture
There are two basic aspects in national culture — socioeconomical one and
political one. In national culture common traditions, believes and area are more
important than biological relationship between people.
Development of a nation is influenced by urban growth, because it leads to the
common economic and political relationships, improving of level of education, and in
the same time mythological worldview is replaced by religious one and later by
scientific. We can understand how a nation appears if we use a historical approach.
We have to consider a nation during its process of historical development. What is in
common between an old man and a child this old man was once? This common thing
is a biography that this old man keeps in his memory. Every nation appears in the
same way by its own history that is stored in its culture.
Every nation has their single semiotic field. This is a system of signs that is
known for every representative of a nation, for example language, traditional forms
of behavior, everyday symbolism, art symbolism, political symbolism and so on.
It is considered that there are both Russian ethnos and Russian nation. There
are a lot of representatives of different ethnic groups on the territory of Russian
Federation. Common for all of them is one nation — Russian. For example, the
grand-grandfather of famous poet Alexander Pushkin was Ethiopian, but Pushkin is
considered Russian.
Famous Russian writer Nicolay Gogol was from Ukraine but is considered
a Russian writer. Nicolay Berdiaev is a Russian philosopher but his mother was
a Frenchwoman. We can see the same situation in other countries, for example
American Japanese, American Indian, French Arab and so on (see scheme 1).
Scheme 1
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But there is also other situation when representatives of one nation live in
different countries. For example, we can find Slavic roots of Russians, Ukrainian,
Belorussian, Poles, Bulgarians and other peoples of Eastern Europe (see scheme 2).
Scheme 2
National culture is founded on ethnic culture that is supplemented by national
literature and art, science and philosophy. Despite the fact that the impact of ethnic
culture on the contemporary life is very weak ethnic culture is still influencing
national culture — writers take images and narratives from ethnic myths and
fairytales, compositors take rhythms and melodies from ethnic songs, architects take
styles and ways of building decoration in an antient architecture.
Comparison of ethnic and national culture
Ethnic culture
National culture
1. Ethnic culture preserve archaic life traditions,
which don`t meet the conditions of modern life.
It keeps old rules
1. National culture valuates innovations,
creativity and permanent changes
2. Ethnic culture is closed. It does not accept any
unknown cultural phenomena
2. National culture accepts new achievements.
More it is developed more it takes from other
cultures its achievements
3. Ethnic culture try to keep difference in
everyday life, in behavior, pronunciation and so
on between different groups of population
3. In national culture such distinctions disappear
4. Ethnic culture emergences in village
4. National culture emergences in city
5. Ethnic culture is passed from generation to
generation through everyday life
5. National culture is passed through the
education and requires intellectual effort to
assimilate it
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