Plague Journal, Culture
A few days ago, while preparing to sit down for the evening meal, I had thoughts about culture. What is culture, and how is culture created? Culture is not an aspect of Nature. We never expect to come upon culture in the wild. We find instinct prolific. Animals instinctively fight or flee when feeling danger, they mate, they migrate with the change in season. Culture by contrast is something that is made, that has a meaning apart from utility. Something may be very useful, and concurrently have an additional deeper meaning.
These thoughts came to me while taking note of the dishes placed on the table top. The serving bowls were not placed randomly, nor was the content of each dish a matter of indifference as to appearance. From the photograph the care taken is obvious in the variety and combination of colors, and in the spatial arrangement of dishes, and serving implements. This is culture. Meaning is dynamically expressed, using medium of the joint consumption of food at mealtime, to show what has been learned over the years, — indeed what has been received from generations alive now only in memory. Culture is ritual, the orchestration of activity to demonstrate our understanding of what it means to be human.
I was thinking, appreciating the beauty of the dishes on the table top, and subsequently recognized how profoundly the need for quarantine and social distancing interrupts these kinds of activities. Culture is a joint creation, rituals that bind us together often in a wordless way. It is essential that we gather together to celebrate, to explore the wonder of being alive, of being human. Culture is inherited; culture is jointly made; and culture is passed on.
I recommend this podcast by the New York Times. The Daily is a 15 to 20 minute presentation by the Times journalists of some aspect of life, currently lived by us Americans. In this podcast James Poniewozik a TV critics speaks of the ritual of watching television with family members. Consonant with my reference to food, Tejal Rao the Times restaurant critic talks about viewing food scenes in movies. She describes watching The Big Night movie, starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub. How important is the luxury, the intimacy of having others cook for us, eating together; how superlative when a restaurant 
achieves a moment of magic in the kitchen and dining room. I know that you will enjoy the podcast. Reruns, Rituals, and Restaurants podcast.
The final photo is to highlight the point of all culture. Our grand daughter is to be the recipient of all that we find precious entailed in the word: Culture.
2 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Culture”
Wikipedia defines culture as the following:
“Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.”
In addition, I ran across a graphic depicting culture (that I can’t seem to place into this writing, but will send to you in an email).
What seems to be apparent is that culture is a rather amorphous term that can be applied to a wide variety of human (and in some cases, non-human) endeavors. As noted, what we define as culture is not relegated solely to our species. There are learned ritual behaviors found throughout the animal kingdom and in particular many bird behaviors. The Bower Bird, for instance, decorates its nest with all kinds of found objects. The Birds of Paradise in the New Guinea rain forests indulge in amazing ritual behavior as well, all for the sake of attracting a mate.
Ultimately, as you mentioned, this behavior in Homo sapiens seems to be a way of tying us all together, allowing us to communicate with one another and to have reference points, along with a way to expressing feelings in both a verbal and non-verbal format. In that context your blog and the philosophy group are forms of culture that help define the human experience.
Tobin, no question that our use of the term is like a swiss-army knife, with many nuances of meaning. Without question some species clearly make use of rituals, and we surely are able to recognize only a few. Does the Bower Bird “appreciate” the color and shape of it’s nest decoration? I think there is a continuum between the Bower Bird, and human consciousness…..
As the days and weeks pass I realize how much I miss the privilege of being in touch with others outside of my immediate family, that there is a large penumbra of meaning that is shared in the routine of normal life. We give and receive from others in ritualized ways, according to the customs of a place and time. It seems to me that nothing is more important that the restoration of that humanizing privilege.