Prepared by Claire Kelly
Diversity Literacy Week 7

 Use: Miller, H.M. (1956) Body ritual among the Nacirema.
American Anthropologist, 58 (June),503-507.
 Insert: pictures of stereotypical notion of who has culture.
For example the Masai:
 https://s3.amazonaws.com/adventure_collection/images/se arch_headers/activity_interests/main_culture_history_ruins.jpg
“They have culture, we have psychology.” (Rosaldo,
1989)
Prepared by Claire Kelly

 …is a system of patterned values , meanings , and beliefs that give cognitive structure to the world, provide a basis for coordinating and controlling human interactions, and constitute a link as the system is transmitted from one generation to the next (Berger and Luckmann, in
Smelser, 1992, p. 11).
 …is a set of expressive symbols of ethos – a worldview constructed through active human interaction (Eisenstadt,
1992, p. 65).
 …exists only in its variations and transition s
. Culture in itself, then, is the result of past, present, and future processes of creolisation (Wicker, 1997, p. 38).
 etc .
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(Appiah)
 “What makes a cultural expression authentic ?” (p.
107)
 “…trying to find some primordially authentic culture can be like peeling an onion …” (p. 108)
 “Cultures are made of continuities and changes …”
(p.108)
 “Cultural purity is an oxymoron” (p. 113)
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(Appiah)
 Cultural imperialism as the consumption of cultural products made available by a world system of capitalism
 “…it is the imagery and cultural perspectives of the ruling sector in the center that shape and structure the consciousness throughout the system at large.” (p. 108)
 “ Passive vessels ” and “dupes”? (p. 110)
 Local expression of global flows….
Prepared by Claire Kelly

 Insert: pictures of Japanese “Ganguro” (Ganguro literally means “black face”)
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjnCrz-fBFw
 http://www.blogofasia.com/wpcontent/uploads/ganguro.jpg
 http://farm1.static.flickr.com/57/156878386_cea5706
922.jpg
 http://japanesefashiontrends.files.wordpress.com/20
10/06/854615336_a4d54a1ea5.jpg
 “ ganganguro ”: exceptionally dark
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

 everyday
 globalised / local articulations
 consumption
 fluid & contested
 racialised
 gendered
 infused with power relations
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 “Cultural identity is a matter of becoming as well a being .... Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories . But like everything which is historical they undergo constant transformation . Far from being externally fixed in some essentialised past, they are subject to the continuous 'play' of history, culture and power ”.
(Stuart Hall, 1990, p. 394)
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 Eisenstadt, S. N. (1992). The Order- Maintaining and Order- Transforming Dimensions of Culture. In R.
Münch & N. J. Smelser (Eds.), Theory of culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [64-87]
 Hall, S. (1990) Cultural identity and disapora. In J. Rutherford, J. (Ed.) Identity, culture, difference
(pp.392-403). London: Lawrence and Wishart.
 Miller, H.M. (1956) Body ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist, 58 (June),503-507.
 Rosaldo, R. (1989). Border crossings. In Culture and truth: The remaking of social analysis. Boston:
Beacon Press. [196-217]
 Smelser, N. J. (1992). Culture – Coherent or Incoherent. In R. Münch & N. J. Smelser (Eds.), Theory of
culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [3-28]
 Wicker, R. (1997). From Complex Culture to Cultural Complexity. In P. Webner & T. Modood (Eds.),
Debating cultural hybridity: Multicultural identities and the politics of anti-racism. London: Zed Books.
[29-45]
Prepared by Claire Kelly