Culture

Refers to the different cumulative adaptive responses of human societies to the different physical (natural) environment they live in which is the product, in the first instance, of a dialectic between agency and structure (in this instance, environmental structures). However, because we are intelligent beings cultures are never static; they are constantly developing, that is they are a permanent work-in-progress. This cultural development is never entirely self-generated; it always includes cross-cultural fertilizations through both deliberate and fortuitous cultural “border-crossings” facilitated by such things as migrations, wars of conquest, trade, commerce, and so on. And when it comes to “civilizations” (which are simply complex cultures) there is absolutely (repeat, absolutely) no way that a civilization can arise without cross-cultural fertilizations or border-crossings (implication: no cultural diversity, no civilization). In other words, the idea of a “Western” civilization, to give one example, is not only a bogus idea, but it is also a racist idea! (Think about this: if we went far back in time when human societies were still forming, it is quite possible that we would find evidence of humans borrowing elements from animal “cultures”—e.g. cultures of apes—as they developed their own human cultures [now, how about them apples!]). Second, the fuzzy zone that marks off one culture from another can be termed as a cultural border or boundary. In a truly democratic society that encompasses many cultures, among the objectives of democracy in such a society includes the twin-goals of acceptance (not just tolerance) of cultural borders and the simultaneous facilitation of border-crossings as essential to democracy, progress, and the quality of life. Two further points, but about border-crossings: where communities involved insist on maintaining strict boundaries in enforced hegemonic opposition to border-crossings then one should view it as symptomatic of racism/ ethnicism and the like. Second, where there are deliberate border-crossings, even in the face of opposition, it does not always signify respect and acceptance of the culture of the Other. The same can also hold true for fortuitous border-crossings (arising for instance out of one or more of such avenues as conquest or colonization or trade and commerce). In such instances, that is border-crossings in the absence of respect and acceptance of other peoples' cultures, we can call these border-crossings as “appropriation” (sometimes also referred to as “going native,” especially in the context of settler colonialism). Note, however, that appropriation is further characterized by a refusal to acknowledge the appropriation (in this sense appropriation is really theft). A good example from history is the appropriation of the contributions of the Egyptian civilization to the development of the Greek civilization conducted by Western historians in the service of the racist project of denying the contribution of black people to the development of Western civilization. A contemporary example of appropriations and which you should be able to relate to easily is the appropriation of black music (such as hip-hop) by young whites. When young white kids listen to hip-hop music they are not necessarily engaged in a “democratic” border-crossing, but may instead be engaging in exoticism and/or transient teenage rebellion (the latter referring to the use of this music as a means of rebelling against their parents—but while at the same time sharing with their parents racist stereotypes of black people in general [1]).

[1]. An extreme example of such behavior is when a neo-Nazi Skinhead listens to rap music. (See Yousman, Bill. “Blackophilia and Blackophobia: White Youth, the Consumption of Rap Music, and White Supremacy.” Communication Theory 13 (no. 4): 366-91.)