You know…after close to 27 years on this hunk of space debris, I realized that I haven’t a clue what culture is. Note to self: Figure out what culture is.
What prompted this was a simple question? I was translating a debate from a Japan/Korea joint conference on religious education as a part time job. I came across the phrase, “…not only do we fall short in the study of other cultures but we are also severely lacking in the study of our own.”
What does it mean to study your culture? How can it be mine if it is unknown to me? In what sense are traditions, rituals, and prescriptive norms a part of “my” culture if I don’t even know about them, much less follow them…
You think culture just IS? You think it’s whatever soaks in through your pores from whatever happens to be around you? You have to work at it!! You have to make an effort to learn to be a cultured, or let’s say “encultured” individual, which is to know as far as possible what it is like to be others who are somewhat like you. When you’ve done that you may start on others who are not like you, but not until.
Well, sorry … you did ask.