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Pluralism, Diversity, and Preserving Cultural Communities

Jacob T. Levy

in The Multiculturalism of Fear

Examines and criticizes a number of more common arguments for the moral importance of political action that protects cultural variety. It argues that different cultures do not embody different ... More

Examines and criticizes a number of more common arguments for the moral importance of political action that protects cultural variety. It argues that different cultures do not embody different moralities which are incommensurable and incapable of judging one another. Whatever the truth of the idea of moral or value pluralism, cultural pluralism is not its march through the world. Arguments grounded in diversity fail to take sufficiently seriously the freedom of group members, and lead to an aestheticization of group difference that actively condemns cultural fluidity. Arguments for cultural preservation that are based in collective action problems typically also fail to take group members’ freedom seriously, and require the imputation of preferences to them that the state has no way to truly discern.Less

‘Nous’ et ‘les Autres’ The Politics of Complex Cultural Dialogue in a Global Civilization

Seyla Benhabib

in Multicultural Questions

Seyla Benhabib's case for universalism is somewhat more cautious. She approaches the lead question through the negative, by contesting various fashionable versions of cognitive relativism, radical ... More

Seyla Benhabib's case for universalism is somewhat more cautious. She approaches the lead question through the negative, by contesting various fashionable versions of cognitive relativism, radical incommensurability, and untranslatability. She then shows the untenability of the (mosaic) multicultural version of relativism. Such relativism, Benhabib says, is ‘poor man's sociology’, relying upon a holistic view of cultures and societies (even evident in the work of Kymlicka) that is at odds with our mixed‐up global world, a context‐transcending ‘pluralist universalism’ becomes ever more a necessity, but fortunately also a reality.Less

Why Does Culture Matter?

Alan Patten

in Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights

The account of culture in Chapter 2 sets the stage for an account of why culture matters to people. Why is it a bad thing for one's culture to disappear, or for one to be denied the opportunity to ... More

The account of culture in Chapter 2 sets the stage for an account of why culture matters to people. Why is it a bad thing for one's culture to disappear, or for one to be denied the opportunity to participate in some cultural practice? This chapter takes up this question and develops an account of why culture matters that is salient to the strong cultural rights thesis. The thought is that it is bad for people to lose their culture, or to be denied certain cultural opportunities, because the options that are open to them are thereby diminished in an unacceptable way. Any account of this form is vulnerable to a dilemma, and an important implication of the dilemma is that strong cultural rights should not be thought of as rights to cultural preservation.Less

International Laws, Treaties, and Organizations

Patrick J. O'Keefe

in Cultural Heritage Management: A Global Perspective

International conventions, recommendations, and resolutions on preservation of cultural resources provide a guide to how states view various matters and what they are likely to accept if proposals on ... More

International conventions, recommendations, and resolutions on preservation of cultural resources provide a guide to how states view various matters and what they are likely to accept if proposals on public policy are put forward. This chapter takes into account the role of international communities in creating a legal framework for preserving the world's cultural resources. It provides a selected account of the conventions, recommendations, resolutions, and regulations that have shaped cultural resource preservation. The chapter also brings into the limelight different conventions of UNESCO pertaining to heritage management throughout the world.Less

“Getting Out of Your Box” versus “Preserving a Culture”: Two Opposed Ways of “Appreciating Cultural Diversity”

Nina Eliasoph

in Making Volunteers: Civic Life after Welfare's End

This chapter explains that multiculturalism means safety and protection for people who consider themselves minorities, and that they are protecting a tradition by staying apart from the mainstream. ... More

This chapter explains that multiculturalism means safety and protection for people who consider themselves minorities, and that they are protecting a tradition by staying apart from the mainstream. For people who feel “mainstream”—usually white, middle-class—on the other hand, multiculturalism means exploring and mixing with other cultures, not staying apart from them. The chapter illustrates the tensions between these two categories of people as they represent nearly opposite objectives: on the one hand, there are the “mixers,” who aim at experiencing lots of cultures but do not engage in any of them for a significant period of time; on the other, there are the “protectors” who prefer to separate themselves from the mainstream and devote themselves to learning the details of a single culture.Less

Cultural Traditions and the Evolutionary Advantages of Noninnovation

Craig T. Palmer

in Innovation in Cultural Systems: Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology

This chapter addresses the evolutionary advantages of noninnovation. It suggests two evolutionary benefits to traditions and the metatraditions that promote them, one beginning much earlier in human ... More

This chapter addresses the evolutionary advantages of noninnovation. It suggests two evolutionary benefits to traditions and the metatraditions that promote them, one beginning much earlier in human existence than the other. It notes that metatraditions may contribute to the “descent” aspect of the Darwinian principle of descent with modification. This chapter shows that although the emphasis on cultural preservation may seem to be incongruous with much of the current thinking about innovation and cultural evolution, it actually is compatible (if not synonymous) with Darwin's original views on natural selection.Less

Cultural Intervention in America’s Eden

Heather A. Diamond

in American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition

This chapter traces the history of cultural intervention in traditional arts in Hawaiʻi. It first looks at the 1989 Festival of American Folklife, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, and how it ... More

This chapter traces the history of cultural intervention in traditional arts in Hawaiʻi. It first looks at the 1989 Festival of American Folklife, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, and how it fit into ongoing negotiations over ethnographic authority. It then considers how, at the end of the monarchy, traditional arts were politicized and collected as a way of establishing a record of indigenous civilization in relation to nineteenth-century ideals held by European powers. It also examines the role of religious institutions and national and local government in shaping ethnic identity by sponsoring ethnographic studies and cultural revivals. Finally, it discusses collaborations between the Hawaiʻi State Foundation for Culture and the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to establish programs for cultural preservation based on assessments of traditional culture as both valuable and endangered. The chapter shows how tourism and tradition are bound together in the marketing of Hawaiʻi.Less

Tango as Part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Morgan James Luker

in The Tango Machine: Musical Culture in the Age of Expediency

This chapter takes the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s 2009 declaration recognizing tango as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity as a ... More

This chapter takes the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s 2009 declaration recognizing tango as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity as a frame for the critical discussion of heritage-making discourses in contemporary Buenos Aires. The discourse and practice of heritage-making frames local cultures as a natural or renewable resource in need of management like any other, providing both legalistic and ethical frameworks for state intervention in newly audible and valuable cultural areas. As such, it could be argued that many if not most aspects of the 2009 tango declaration, and the UNESCO intangible heritage program as a whole, represent nothing more than a further entrenchment of a compulsion towards economic productivity that has become one of the hallmarks of local, national, and international cultural policymaking following the neoliberal turn. At the very least, these features of the program speak to the emergent and multiple values that local cultural differences have begun to take on within new circuits of transnational cultural prestige and economic exchange.Less

In the Service of the Lord: Religion, Race, and the Polynesian Cultural Center

Hokulani K. Aikau

in A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai'i

This chapter examines how cultural tourism and cultural preservation through replicas of village life intersected at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It argues that attempts at the institutional level ... More

This chapter examines how cultural tourism and cultural preservation through replicas of village life intersected at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It argues that attempts at the institutional level to preserve Polynesian culture can be seen as a racial project that relies upon stereotypes of the “happy native.” It contrasts these dominant discourses with the perceptions and commitments of Polynesians themselves, thus shifting the focus away from the consumption side of tourism to the production side. By analyzing tourism from the perspective of workers, an alternative narrative of culture emerges.Less

Gone but Not Forgotten: Sapelo’s Vanishing Folk and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor

Melissa L. Cooper

in Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination

Chapter 6 explores the legacies of 1920s and 1930s studies within the Gullah revival and the land battles raging throughout the region. This chapter recounts the marriage of low country blacks' newly ... More

Chapter 6 explores the legacies of 1920s and 1930s studies within the Gullah revival and the land battles raging throughout the region. This chapter recounts the marriage of low country blacks' newly embraced Gullah identity, and their fight for the survival of coastal black communities like Sapelo. Chapter 6 investigates cultural preservation and historic preservation—ideas that became deeply contested categories as Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commissioners and Gullah communities try to define their past and plan their future.Less

Sustaining People-to-People Relationships

Jonathan S. Addleton

in Mongolia and the United States: A Diplomatic History

This chapter focuses on the “soft” aspects of the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Mongolia - public outreach; public affairs; educational exchanges and cultural ties. It also ... More

This chapter focuses on the “soft” aspects of the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Mongolia - public outreach; public affairs; educational exchanges and cultural ties. It also details the growing interaction between Americans who work in Mongolia and Mongolians who live in the United States, marking the foundation of an active Mongolian-American community that has grown significantly in recent years. Education exchanges such as the Fulbright program are discussed and assessed, along with Mongolia's success in accessing funds for cultural support through the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation. Finally, it discusses the establishment and growth of a large Peace Corps presence in Mongolia.Less

Beyond the Festival Afterglow

Heather A. Diamond

in American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition

This chapter examines the legacy of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (SFF) in its restaging, national and local offshoots, and memory as well as the local impact of national cultural intervention. ... More

This chapter examines the legacy of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (SFF) in its restaging, national and local offshoots, and memory as well as the local impact of national cultural intervention. It considers the various forms in which the SFF was transported back into a local context—performance, film, follow-up projects, and memory. It also raises a number of questions about Festival aftereffects, such as the impact of the Festival on cultural preservation programs and policy in Hawaiʻi, or the larger implications of institutional attention to tradition. The chapter argues that beyond its time-bound performance, the Hawaiʻi program provided an ongoing means of production and reproduction, but that its aftereffects were blunted by local politics and socioeconomic factors. It also explains how the Festival legitimized and made cultural celebrities of participants, albeit mostly on a small scale. Finally, it shows how the Festival and its 1990 restaging reinforced the notion that geniality, hospitality, reciprocity, and inclusivity are qualities inherent in Hawaiʻi lifestyles.Less

Introduction

in Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage Under Vichy

This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore what French leaders did when faced with an unforeseen opportunity to control and possibly house highly coveted and valuable works ... More

This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore what French leaders did when faced with an unforeseen opportunity to control and possibly house highly coveted and valuable works of art. The book also examines the development of important and enduring cultural preservation policy under the Vichy regime. The fine arts administration of the Vichy regime implemented numerous measures to protect French national treasures from the ravages of modern warfare and Nazi looting. Some laws were more effective than others in preserving art and historic sites, but all contributed to the development of national policy that postwar leaders would later validate and expand.Less

Nurturing Bantu Africanness in Bahia

Kwame Dixon and John Burdick

in Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America

Chapter 1 examines the spiritual, social, and philosophical basis of Bantu Blackness as well as the social justice ethos of Bantu activists in Bahia, Brazil.

“Culture Is Your Base Camp”: Tibetans in New Mexico, Youth, and Cultural Identity

in Immigrant Ambassadors: Citizenship and Belonging in the Tibetan Diaspora

This chapter examines the work of cultural preservation by Tibetans in Santa Fe and the fulfillment of their ambassadorial role. It highlights new forms of Tibetanness that are emerging as the ... More

This chapter examines the work of cultural preservation by Tibetans in Santa Fe and the fulfillment of their ambassadorial role. It highlights new forms of Tibetanness that are emerging as the diaspora expands and a new generation of Tibetan youth comes of age. Focusing from the time period after family reunification, it discusses parental concerns that arose after the arrival of spouses and children, and the shift to cultural preservation and education. Interviews with Tibetan youth reveal complex expressions of emergent Tibetan American identity.Less

Introduction

Heather A. Diamond

in American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition

This book explores the poetics and politics of festival making as seen through an ethnographic history of the 1989 Hawaiʻi program at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival (SFF), the largest ... More

This book explores the poetics and politics of festival making as seen through an ethnographic history of the 1989 Hawaiʻi program at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival (SFF), the largest national tourist event in the United States. The SFF is an idealistic, innovative, populist-based experiment in cultural democracy that celebrates cultural diversity and advocates cultural preservation through fieldwork-based research that identifies culture bearers and offers public presentations and interpretations of their cultural contributions. The SFF blurs the boundaries of both museum and tourism presentations that rely on clear demarcations between viewers and viewed. This book examines how the themes of public sector folklore culture brokering, cultural tourism, ideas about multiculturalism, the role of tradition in national image making, and the impact of cultural intervention on local communities converge in the SFF. It also raises important questions about the stakes surrounding the politics of tradition and multiculturalism while highlighting the importance of looking critically at the ways peoples and places are represented through cultural agencies.Less

Sounds Regional: The World in Breton Folk Music

Jonathyne Briggs

in Sounds French: Globalization, Cultural Communities, and Pop Music in France, 1958–1980

This chapter shifts from the Paris-centric French music scene to illustrate how globalized cultural forms helped to reinvent regionalism in 1970s Brittany. Brittany had long resisted the ... More

This chapter shifts from the Paris-centric French music scene to illustrate how globalized cultural forms helped to reinvent regionalism in 1970s Brittany. Brittany had long resisted the centralization efforts of the French state, and this resistance played out in the cultural realm as well. The music of folk musicians became increasingly dynamic in character, integrating American and British rock music into Breton folk-music conventions. Artists such as Alan Stivell and Tri Yann were interested in using this new cultural hybrid to change Brittany’s image to that of a modern urban environment. They also stressed the problems that developed from postwar modernization, which had profoundly affected life in the region. By comparing the music of Stivell and Tri Yann with audio recordings of the Dastum (a folk-music archive in Rennes), this chapter illustrates the efforts of musicians to express a new form of regionalism in Brittany.Less

Reinvention: Miss Antoinette K-Doe and Her Baby Dolls

Rachel Carrico

in Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans

Antoinette Dorsey Fox K-Doe (1945-2009)—known to most New Orleanians as Miss Antoinette—played an important role in the history of the Baby Doll tradition. In the last years of her life, she fostered ... More

Antoinette Dorsey Fox K-Doe (1945-2009)—known to most New Orleanians as Miss Antoinette—played an important role in the history of the Baby Doll tradition. In the last years of her life, she fostered a Baby Doll revival when many feared that the practice might become relegated to memory. On Mardi Gras Day, 2004, she debuted the interracial and inter-generational Ernie K-Doe Baby Dolls, named in honor of her late husband, rhythm-and-blues singer Ernie K-Doe. This essay summarizes Miss Antoinette’s contributions to the Baby Doll tradition as a community pillar dedicated to cultural preservation and innovation. Long before she donned a Baby Doll dress, Miss Antoinette constructed many effigies, tributes, and monuments as part of her unique form of community organizing. Her Baby Doll revival can be seen in this context, as a revival that both preserved the past and (re-)invented a present.Less