Intercultural Memories

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(Barry Lopez)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Where does culture end and choice begin?

When pondering this question we generally frame it in terms of "culture vs. personality," the unwritten assumption perhaps being that, while formed in the community or communities in which we grow up and live, the power of culture in our lives somehow diminishes as we individuate. And, this individuation is seen as an inevitable or desirable process in which we pick and choose those values and contexts that will be our own and differentiate us from those about us in the same community as well as from those in outside groups. 

In the USA children are trained for choice from the outset of consciousness. I never fail to be amused by seeing tourist parents in a French restaurant asking a 3.5 year-older, "Now honey, do you want the escargot en croûte or the  soupe de poisson aux croûtons et sa rouille à l'estragon?",  while the waiter smirks, pad in hand, shifting from one foot to the other.

But then, does culture not run deeper than these choices between cultural artifacts and behaviors? Certainly it affects how and when we make as well as give us input into which choices to make. Perhaps how we have and hold choice is also quite cultural, as well as related to the the amount of choice available to us as we shape our culture. Maybe culture is more like an infinite matriuska, where, lifting off one layer after another, we find the same thing or something similar at the heart of it?

I found the TED presentation by Barry Schwartz, which I have inserted below, to be very much to the point and was particularly struck, at the very outset, by his clear articulation of the core belief system, "the official dogma" of US (aka Western) individualistic and capitalistic culture, and dares to call into question from the perspective of its behavioral results.  Have a look. Then a couple questions worth discussing:
  1. Will the current financial crisis result in less choice and more satisfaction with what we have? Will it make us more communitarian?
  2. Are we at the "fooling ourselves" (a la Triandis) stage of fixing the system to make it work again and stomping our feet at tea parties in protest to any economic shift. 
  3. Should we love this system so dearly?  What would falling out of love with it mean?


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