DOCSLIB.ORG

What Is Western Civilization?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Is Western Civilization? What is Civilization? Marshall High School Mr. Cline Western Civilization I: Ancient Foundations Unit One BD * What is Civilization? • Rebooting the Checklist • Now we can return to making a list of the characteristics of civilization. • As historians investigating civilizations, we are seeking a list that delivers no judgment, either for or against civilization, simply a description of what constitutes most actual civilizations. • This list may include: • surplus food • density of population • specialized occupations • social classes topped by small elites • subordination of women • coerced tribute, collected by force if necessary * What is Civilization? • Rebooting the Checklist • state religions • monumental public buildings • standing armies • frequent warfare • notable modification of the natural environment • lavish tombs and burial goods for rulers and elites • system of writing and numbers • regular foreign trade • representative art • calendars, math, other science * What is Civilization? • Rebooting the Checklist • some slavery • epidemics of disease • By now it seems clear that any given civilization need not have all the characteristics on a list, only most of them. • It is also clear that, while there is a core of common characteristics of civilization, any list of them will reflect the judgment and point of view of its author(s). • Most big historians have chosen to use the word "civilization" rather than to reject it, but they define it carefully as a particular type of human community with specific features. • Why do all these features come together in this type of community but not in others? • Big historians are still wondering about this profound question. * What is Civilization? • Analogy with Ants • Several scholars thinking on the largest scale of history have called our attention to the analogies of human societies with those of the most social insects: ants, termites and bees. • Ants have evolved over a hundred million years from a solitary wasp to creatures living in the most complex of social structures, now being called a super-organism. • Ants have achieved a success that rivals that of humans in terms of sheer mass—each group has about ten percent of the animal biomass on the planet. (The animal biomass is only about two percent of plant biomass, which is only about one percent of the bacterial biomass.) • Ant societies have several features in common with human civilization. • They have a rigid, hierarchical caste system. • They have communication, consisting of ten to twenty chemical signals (but no writing or numeration!). * What is Civilization? • Analogy with Ants • Some ants herd aphids. • The leafcutter ants of South America have agriculture; they chew their cuttings of huge leaves, fertilize them with their feces to produce a mushroom-like fungus, which they eat. • Most ant societies have aggressive warriors; their societies are even more aggressive and war-like than human societies, sometimes attacking their own species over food and territory. • Individual ants have relinquished their reproductive roles to the central queen, making their super-organism possible. • Ants have a significant effect on their environment, moving around as much dirt as earthworms do, enriching the soil. • Are human societies headed in the direction of ant societies as our density increases? * What is Civilization? • Analogy with Ants • Do humans have any choice in the matter, or is this a process beyond our control? • Where else but in large-scale history do these questions even arise? • And, as it is with the ants in our analogy, we have to question the value of the study of civilization, and whether it is the proper form or level of human interaction to study, as well as what it is and what characterizes it. • In this class, I have chosen to study a particular civilization, because many of its common characteristics, once relegated to people who met many of the criteria on our list, were and are shared by our ancestors, the founding fathers of the United States, and even into today by our families and social institutions, • Therefore, to understand what civilization is, is to understand what we are. • But in defining who we are, we have to have a point of comparison, there must be other civilizations to compare ourselves to, and this is the inherent problem made particularly poignant in the book “Orientalism” by Dr. Edward Said * What is Western Civilization? • To begin to understand the concept of Orientalism, and therefore begin to understand what Western Civilization is, I want to engage you in a thought experiment. • Take about 10 to 15 minutes and describe the following two concepts: • Black, as in the color, and • Hot, as in the temperature. • But, here is the catch: • You cannot use the words of other colors in describing black, and • You cannot use the words of other temperatures in describing hot. * What is Western Civilization? • It was difficult, wasn’t it? • In order to define a set term, we often need some basis of comparison in order to compare it. Such as white to help describe black, and cold to help describe hot. • The problem with this oppositional dialectic is that it separates things into categories. And when you are dealing with separating people into categories, you run into the value implication that one is better than the other. • Hence, when studying Western Civilization, we run into the implication that it is in some ways superior to those we not only do not considered civilized, but superior to other civilizations. • So, how do we justify the study of western civilization, particularly given the number of crimes committed throughout its history by some of its members, in the names of this theoretical superiority? • The Orientalism argument does suffer from a serious flaw that haunts historians and historical philosophers, * What is Western Civilization? • If any westerner desires to write about any other civilization or peoples, they are writing from their perspective about it; a western perspective • In writing in a western perspective, one is imposing cultural and societal biases on the culture being studied, and therefore is guilty of orientalism. • Orientalism is a term coined in Said’s book and refers to the historical pattern of studying the middle east (the orient) as an almost mythical land filled with low and base characters, camel caravans, oases, spectacular rajes, lustful Turks, and beautiful but hidden women. • This cultural picture of the orient was found in so many histories of the region that it became a pervasive fantasy within western culture. • Thus, whenever a westerner writes about another culture, they can be accused of a cultural bias similar to the one found in the histories of the Orient. • This poses two unique, but inherently self defeating premises. • For one, if westerners cannot write on anything but western culture, then can other groups write about western culture? * What is Western Civilization? • And, if we can only write about what we belong to, then how limited can history be, especially if we are required to get down to the individual level? Will we only be able to write a history of ourselves? • Secondly, and subsequently, how can westerners writing about western culture then be accused of being Orientalists? If they cannot write about it, then who can without ascribing cultural biases to it? • In other words, could anyone write any history? • These two premises obviously defeat each other, and despite the claims to a form of racism inherent in the claim of Orientalism, just by studying the subject, it must be completed and done. • However, we must be careful in understanding and limiting what western civilization is in order to maintain some cultural integrity; so let us examine what is the commonly understood principle of what Western Civilization is. * What is Western Civilization? • Western Civilization can also be thought of as Western culture, sometimes equated with a Western lifestyle or European civilization. • It is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe, having both indigenous and foreign origins. • The term has come to be applied by people of European ethnicity to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, colonisation, and influence, such as the continents of the Americas and Australasia, whose current demographic majority is of European ethnicity, and is not restricted to the continent of Europe. • Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and traditions; • The heritage of Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Hellenic, Jewish,Latin, and other ethnic and linguistic groups,as well as Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church, which played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. * What is Western Civilization? • Also contributing to Western thought, in ancient times and then in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance onwards, is a tradition of rationalism in various spheres of life, developed by Hellenistic philosophy, Scholasticism, humanism, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. • Values of Western culture have, throughout history, been derived from political thought, widespread employment of rational argument favoring freethought, assimilation of human rights, the need for equality, and democracy. • Historical records of Western culture in Europe begin with Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. • Western culture continued to develop with Christianization during the Middle Ages, the reform and modernization triggered by the Renaissance, and with globalization by successive European empires, that spread European ways of life and European educational methods around the world between the 16th and 20th centuries. • European culture developed with a complex range of philosophy, medieval scholasticism and mysticism, and Christian and secular humanism. • Rational thinking developed through a long age of change and formation, with the experiments of the Enlightenment, and breakthroughs in the sciences.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Zombies in Western Culture: a Twenty-First Century Crisis
    JOHN VERVAEKE, CHRISTOPHER MASTROPIETRO AND FILIP MISCEVIC Zombies in Western Culture A Twenty-First Century Crisis To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/602 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Zombies in Western Culture A Twenty-First Century Crisis John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, and Filip Miscevic https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2017 John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro and Filip Miscevic. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro and Filip Miscevic, Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017, http://dx.doi. org/10.11647/OBP.0113 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https:// www.openbookpublishers.com/product/602#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://www.
    [Show full text]
  • The Model Minority: Asian American Students and the Relationships
    The Vermont Connection Volume 31 Think Globally, Act Locally, Care Personally: Connecting Personal and Professional Article 16 Discoveries in Student Affairs January 2010 The oM del Minority: Asian American Students and the Relationships Between Acculturation to Western Values, Family Pressures and Mental Health Concerns Nathan Panelo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons Recommended Citation Panelo, Nathan (2010) "The odeM l Minority: Asian American Students and the Relationships Between Acculturation to Western Values, Family Pressures and Mental Health Concerns," The Vermont Connection: Vol. 31 , Article 16. Available at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol31/iss1/16 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education and Social Services at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in The eV rmont Connection by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Panelo • 147 The Model Minority Student: Asian American Students and the Relationships Between Acculturation to Western Values, Family Pressures, and Mental Health Concerns Nathan Divino Panelo As the Asian American student population grows in United States (U.S.) higher education, so does the demand for resources on campus. One major concern facing Asian Americans today is the cultural pres- sure from home which often leads to mental health concerns. Many Asian American students acculturate to Western values in United States colleges, and in doing so, sacrifice part of their traditional iden- tities. As Asian American students acculturate to Western values, it becomes difficult for them to relate to their immigrant parents or first- generation Asian American parents.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy Emerging from Culture
    Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I. Culture and Values, Volume 42 General Editor: George F. McLean Associate General Editor: William Sweet Philosophy Emerging from Culture Edited by William Sweet George F. McLean Oliva Blanchette Wonbin Park The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2013 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Box 261 Cardinal Station Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Philosophy emerging from culture / edited by William Sweet, George F. McLean, Oliva Blanchette. -- 1st [edition]. pages cm. -- (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I, Culture and values ; Volume 42) 1. Philosophy and civilization. 2. Philosophy. 3. Culture. I. Sweet, William, editor of compilation. B59.P57 2013 2013015164 100--dc23 CIP ISBN 978-1-56518-285-1 (pbk.) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Philosophy Emerging From Culture 1 William Sweet and George F. McLean Part I: The Dynamics of Change Chapter I. What Remains of Modernity? Philosophy and 25 Culture in the Transition to a Global Era William Sweet Chapter II. Principles of Western Bioethics and 43 the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Africa Workineh Kelbessa Chapter III. Rationality in Islamic Peripatetic and 71 Enlightenment Philosophies Sayyed Hassan Houssaini Chapter IV. Theanthropy and Culture According to Karol Wojtyla 87 Andrew N. Woznicki Chapter V. Al-Fārābī’s Approach to Aristotle’s Eudaimonia 99 Mostafa Younesie Part II: The Nature of Culture and its Potential as a Philosophical Source Chapter VI. A Realistic Interpretation of Culture 121 Jeu-Jenq Yuann Chapter VII. Rehabilitating Value: Questions of 145 Meaning and Adequacy Karim Crow Chapter VIII.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Philosophy and Western Culture Jewish Prelims I-Xvi NEW.Qxp 25/10/07 14:06 Page Ii
    Jewish_Prelims_i-xvi NEW.qxp 25/10/07 14:06 Page i Jewish Philosophy and Western Culture Jewish_Prelims_i-xvi NEW.qxp 25/10/07 14:06 Page ii ‘More than just an introduction to contemporary Jewish philosophy, this important book offers a critique of the embedded assumptions of contemporary post-Christian Western culture. By focusing on the suppressed or denied heritage of Jewish and Islamic philosophy that helped shape Western society, it offers possibilities for recovering broader dimensions beyond a narrow rationalism and materialism. For those impatient with recent one-dimensional dismissals of religion, and surprised by their popularity, it offers a timely reminder of the sources of these views in the Enlightenment, but also the wider humane dimensions of the religious quest that still need to be considered. By recognising the contribution of gender and post-colonial studies it reminds us that philosophy, “the love of wisdom”, is still concerned with the whole human being and the complexity of personal and social relationships.’ Jonathan Magonet, formerly Principal of Leo Baeck College, London, and Vice-President of the Movement for Reform Judaism ‘Jewish Philosophy and Western Culture makes a spirited and highly readable plea for “Jerusalem” over “Athens” – that is, for recovering the moral and spiritual virtues of ancient Judaism within a European and Western intellectual culture that still has a preference for Enlightenment rationalism. Victor Seidler revisits the major Jewish philosophers of the last century as invaluable sources of wisdom for Western philosophers and social theorists in the new century. He calls upon the latter to reclaim body and heart as being inseparable from “mind.”’ Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia Jewish_Prelims_i-xvi NEW.qxp 25/10/07 14:06 Page iii JEWISH PHILOSOPHY AND WESTERN CULTURE A Modern Introduction VICTOR J.
    [Show full text]
  • Civilizations As Networks: Trade, War, Diplomacy, Command-Control
    Civilizations as Networks: Trade, War, Diplomacy, Command-Control Wilkinson, D. UCLA Political Science Department Los Angeles, CA 90024 Email: [email protected] Abstract Civilizational studies have been advanced by using network concepts for defining and bounding units of analysis, and for examining and comparing command-control networks. Several future applications of network concepts can be identified. Highly contextualized, "natural-historical" approaches will likely be most fruitful. Introduction Complex physical systems exist simultaneously as an interacting combination of atomisms and as a coherent field, itself an atomism on another level of interaction (Wilkinson and Iberall, 1986:37-38). "Complex systems have embedded interiors with many interacting parts, networks, and fields. From a mechanical point of view, emergent field processes often lead to 'surprising' results that are not reducible to a mechanical or deterministic account" (White and Johansen, 8/8/2002, xxiii). Indeed, "complexity" is informational: complex systems surprise and educate their observers by their unpredicted, and therefore informative, behavior. Complex systems are complex in spatial structure: they are wholes whose identity is more than the collection of their parts. They are also complex in temporal structure: the timescales of the whole are not those of the parts. "[A]ll complex physical systems display 'long' cycles...." (Wilkinson and Iberall, 1986:38). Complex systems are objects of study for many disciplines, and similar principles and research strategies seem to apply across many scales, and across "social," "biological," and "physical" sciences. Of particular importance is the determination of their process timescales, their "spectroscopy" (Wilkinson and Iberall, 1986; Iberall and Wilkinson, 1987, 1991; Iberall et al., 2000).
    [Show full text]
  • Legatees of a Great Inheritance: How the Judeo-Christian Tradition Has Shaped the West 428287 Text.Qxp 5/6/08 9:18 AM Page KJ1
    428287_Cover.qxp 5/1/08 9:19 AM Page 3 Legatees of a Great Inheritance: How the Judeo-Christian Tradition Has Shaped the West 428287_Text.qxp 5/6/08 9:18 AM Page KJ1 Civilisations die from suicide, not murder. —Arnold J. Toynbee Throughout its most flourishing periods, Western civilization has produced a culture which happily absorbs and adapts the cultures of other places, other faiths, and other times. Its basic fund of stories, its moral precepts, and its religious imagery come from the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament. —Roger Scruton Copyright © 2008 by Kairos Journal (kairosjournal.org). All rights reserved. KJOP-02 428287_Text.qxp 5/6/08 9:18 AM Page KJ2 estern civilization is indebted to the Judeo-Christian tradition for its notions of human dignity and human Wrights, its innovation in science and medicine, its habits of humanitarian charity and universal education, and its rich contribution to the arts. Though once commonplace, this claim has become increasingly controversial, challenged by the revisionists of late modernity as well as those who suffer from historical amnesia. As the prodigious Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner has said, “Religion has written much of the history of the West.”3 Or as British sociologist and historian of culture Christopher Dawson once put it, “Western culture has been the atmosphere we breathe and the life we live: it is our own way of life and the way of life of our ancestors; and therefore we know it not merely by documents and monuments, but from our personal experience.”4 Even the notorious atheist Christopher Hitchens agrees that Western culture makes little sense without attending to the contribution of biblical religion: “You are not educated,” he maintains,” if you don’t know the Bible.
    [Show full text]
  • The Death of Christian Culture
    Memoriœ piœ patris carrissimi quoque et matris dulcissimœ hunc libellum filius indignus dedicat in cordibus Jesu et Mariœ. The Death of Christian Culture. Copyright © 2008 IHS Press. First published in 1978 by Arlington House in New Rochelle, New York. Preface, footnotes, typesetting, layout, and cover design copyright 2008 IHS Press. Content of the work is copyright Senior Family Ink. All rights reserved. Portions of chapter 2 originally appeared in University of Wyoming Publications 25(3), 1961; chapter 6 in Gary Tate, ed., Reflections on High School English (Tulsa, Okla.: University of Tulsa Press, 1966); and chapter 7 in the Journal of the Kansas Bar Association 39, Winter 1970. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review, or except in cases where rights to content reproduced herein is retained by its original author or other rights holder, and further reproduction is subject to permission otherwise granted thereby according to applicable agreements and laws. ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-1-932528-51-0 ISBN-10 (eBook): 1-932528-51-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Senior, John, 1923– The death of Christian culture / John Senior; foreword by Andrew Senior; introduction by David Allen White. p. cm. Originally published: New Rochelle, N.Y. : Arlington House, c1978. ISBN-13: 978-1-932528-51-0 1. Civilization, Christian. 2. Christianity–20th century. I. Title. BR115.C5S46 2008 261.5–dc22 2007039625 IHS Press is the only publisher dedicated exclusively to the social teachings of the Catholic Church.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Name: HIST 4 Title: History of Western Civilization Units
    Course Name: HIST 4 Title: History of Western Civilization Units: 3 Course Description: This course is a survey of western civilization from the Renaissance to the present, emphasizing the interplay of social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual forces in creating and shaping the modern world. The focus is on the process of modernization, stressing the secularization of western society and examining how war and revolution have served to create our world. Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to: identify and correctly use basic historical terminology distinguish between primary and secondary sources as historical evidence compare and evaluate various interpretations used by historians to explain the development of western civilization since the Renaissance evaluate multiple causes and analyze why a historical event happened identify the major eras and relevant geography of western civilization since the Renaissance evaluate major economic, social, political, and cultural developments in western civilization since the Renaissance evaluate the experiences, conflicts, and connections of diverse groups of people in western civilization since the Renaissance draw historical generalizations about western civilization since the Renaissance based on understanding of the historical evidence describe and evaluate the major movements and historical forces that have contributed to the development of western civilization. Course Content: 4 hours: Introduction to the Study of Western Civilization, Historiography; Age of Transition: The Early Modern Period. 3 hours: The Nature and Structure of Medieval Society; those who work, those who pray, those who fight, the Great Chain of Being, manorialism; Decline of the Medieval Synthesis; The Renaissance and the Question of Modernity: humanism, individualism, secular spirit, Petrarch, Bruni, Pico, Castiglione, Machiavelli, etc., literature, art, and politics.
    [Show full text]
  • Acculturation Factors Among Arab/Moslem Women Who Live in the Western Culture
    ACCULTURATION FACTORS AMONG ARAB/MOSLEM WOMEN WHO LIVE IN THE WESTERN CULTURE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Hend Al-Ma’seb, M.S.W. ***** The Ohio State University 2006 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Maria Julia, Adviser Dr. Thomas Gregoire ------------------------------------------- Adviser Dr. Denise Bronson Graduate Program in Social Work ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the cultural changes experienced by Arab/Moslem women residing in Columbus, Ohio, during the Winter of 2006 based on the six indicators of religion, relationships with non-relative men, living alone, control over decisions, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes. This study also intended to discover the predictive relationship between the period of time that Arab/Moslem women stay in the USA, contact with American culture and people, contact with Arab culture and people, educational level, and acculturation. One hundred and two Arab/Moslem women were recruited through the Islamic organization in Columbus, Ohio. Non-probability data collection method (convenience sampling) was utilized. The participants responded to a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Descriptive statistics were used to answer the first research question (To what extent do Arab/Moslem women who live in Columbus, Ohio acculturate). Multiple regression analysis was conducted to answer the second research question (Can a model consisting of a linear combination of the period of time that Arab/Moslem women stay in the USA, contact with American culture and people, contact with Arab culture and people, and educational level predict the level of acculturation of the Arab/Moslem women living in Columbus, Ohio?).
    [Show full text]
  • Filatova N.P. PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS of FORMING OF
    SWorld – 18-27 December 2012 http://www.sworld.com.ua/index.php/ru/conference/the-content-of-conferences/archives-of-individual-conferences/december-2012 MO DERN PROBLEMS AND WAYS OF THEIR SO LUTIO N IN SCIENCE, TRANSPORT, PRODUCTION AND EDUCATION‘ 2012 Filatova N.P. PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF FORMING OF INDIVIDUAL’S POLYCULTURAL COMPETENCE North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russia (677000, Yakutsk, 2 Lenin Avenue Abstract. The article is devoted to the formation of pupils’ polycultural competence. We consider the most effective phases, structure, pedagogical conditions of polycultural competence formation based on pedagogical projection. Key words: polycultural education, polycultural competence, pedagogical projection, project and research work, integration, interaction. The idea of polyculturalism began to develop in the beginning of XX century. Since then it has become a fundamental trend of modern cultural and civilizational development. L. Gurlitt, F. Gansberg, G. Sharrelman included in the concept of polyculturalism ethnic and world culture, promoting the development of human consciousness and predicating the idea of a common world. They connected polyculturalism with the freedom of the spiritual development of individuals and peoples: a person may not consciously and deeply possess culture, if he imposed foreign ideas and views, if the development of his natural strength and abilities are not provided. L. Gurlitt argued that foreign influence can never be harmful, if it is imposed not forcibly or from the outside, if it does not suppress or obscured individual characteristics and distinctive spiritual life of the given people [6, 41]. Thus, the basic idea of polyculturalism is reflecting the coexistence of different cultures in the society.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnicity, Multiculturalism and the Problem of Culture
    Ethnicity, Multiculturalism and the Problem of Culture Aleksandra Ålund The self-archived postprint version of this journal article is available at Linköping University Institutional Repository (DiVA): http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-45213 N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original publication. This is an electronic version of an article published in: Ålund, A., (1999), Ethnicity, Multiculturalism and the Problem of Culture, European Societies, 1(1), 105-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.1999.10749927 Original publication available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.1999.10749927 Copyright: Taylor & Francis (Routledge) (SSH Titles - no Open Select) http://www.routledge.com/ ETHNICITY, MULTICULTURALISM AND THE PROBLEM OF CULTURE Aleksandra Alund Universityof UmeA, Sweden Abstract: This articlediscusses the complex meaning of ethnicity and identity in the multicultural society of today with reference to Swedish society. Sweden, a pronouncedly multiethnic society, is today undergoing division along ethnic lines. Social inequalities tend to be understood in terms of cultural difference. This development seems to be characteristic of most European countries. Culture is usually connected with ethnicity and race and understood as pure, as an 'essence', as related to some original and eternal ethnic core. In this way importantaspects of cultural dynamic in multicultural societya re leftunobserved. What is usually not recognized are cultural crossings and the emergence of composite identities. Within the framework of multicultural society new cultures, identities and ethnicities are created. Departing from some general features of the dominant discourse on ethnicity, its historical roots and its relations to culture and multiculturalism, I discuss problems of cultural essentialism.
    [Show full text]
  • A Visitor's Guide to the Epic of American Civilization
    9 A Visitor’s Guide to The Epic of American Civilization The Epic of American Civilization represents the most ambitious public work undertaken by the 6. The Pre- 16. Symbols of renowned Mexican muralist during 4. Aztec 5. Coming of Columbian 7. Departure of 8. The 11. Cortez and 12. The 13. Anglo- 14. Hispano- 15. Gods of the Nationalism his years in the United States. Warriors Quetzalcoatl Golden Age Quetzalcoatl Prophecy the Cross Machine America America Modern World Despite its “epic” title, Orozco conceived of the mural not as a narrative but as a work structured around an “American idea,” 9. Totem Poles 10. Machine Totems 17. Modern 3. Ancient specifically a representation of a Human Human Sacrifice continent characterized by the Sacrifice duality of indigenous and European historical experiences. He used the reserve reading room’s symmetrical 2. Snakes and Spears west and east wings—devoted to 20. Modern 20. Modern pre-Hispanic and post-conquest Industrial Industrial 1. Migration Man III Man I 18. Modern Migration of civilizations, respectively—to create 10. Machine Totems 9. Totem Poles the Spirit historical and cross-cultural parallels and to suggest the cyclical nature of human conflict, self-sacrifice, and regeneration. 20. Modern Industrial Man II 19. Chains of the Spirit 10 11 The West Wing: 5. Coming of Quetzalcoatl: Quetzalcoatl, the impor- 8. The Prophecy: This small portrait of the armed, 12. The Machine: In this panel, the mural makes a 15. Gods of the Modern World: In this savage and destroys the sources of his agony,
    [Show full text]