DALAM KAJIAN

PASCAKOLONIAL

The Concept of Culture

1. Culture refers to the patterns of

behavior & belief common to

members of a society.

It is the rules for understanding & generating

customary behavior.

It includes: beliefs, norms, values,

assumptions, expectations & plans for

action.

The Concept of Culture

2. Culture is learned.

It is not an innate characteristic of the

individual.

People learn to divide the color spectrum

into red, orange, yellow, green, blue,

indigo & violet. (This is the case with time

& space & people & every aspect of what

is so-called “reality”)

The Concept of Culture

3. Culture is shared.

Members of the same society came to

share certain customs & tend to agree on

the basic characteristics of reality.

The Concept of Culture

4. Culture is an adaptation

Cultures do not arise fortuitously.

Cultures develop always to understand particular environments & to cope with the problems environments present.

Culture defines the situation for every people in the world & provides economic & social solutions.

Cultures are adaptations to environments, but there is no guarantee that adaptation will last/ prove advantageous in the long run.

The Concept of Culture

5. Every culture is a dynamic system that

changes continuously over time.

Changes can also be dramatic & extensive.

Cultural changes which derive from changes

in technology are often far-reaching.

6. The most difficult culture to study is your

own.

Values & World View

1. Values are conceptions of what is desirable.

As assumptions about what is & what ought to be they shape every aspect of people’s lives.

e.g.:

• the differences between male & female in some countries.

• the separation of male & female + the ascription of symbolic value to each in New Guinea Highlands

• the enculturation of growing up male & female in the U.S. + some other countries in the world.

Values & World View

2. The sum total of a culture’s values produces a particular world view, a total framework which provides an integrated conception of reality. A value takes a meaning only when it is related

to other values in particular.

Often a single value will be so central to a world view that its presence influences all other values.

e.g.: A core value in the U.S. (Francis L.K. Hsu)

self-reliance; taken from the European’s core value ‘individualism’

Values & World View

3. Values are often explicit, as anyone who has attended school knows. But never are all of culture’s values out in

the open. Some are hidden or denied because they do not square with other ideals; others are simply not recognized. Since everyone holds them, no one questions them.

Values & World View

4. Values may function to integrate

society.

The diverse institutions of family,

workgroup, legal system, political system

& religion might work against each other if

there were no underlying set of values

which gave meaning to each institution.

Values & World View

5. Values may also function to

create/ represent conflicts in a

society.

It happens when different sectors of

culture & society change at different

rates of speed.

e.g.: the disputes between the Ku

Klux Klan & the Negroes in the U.S.

Kebudayaan

“… pengetahuan manusia sebagai makhluk

sosial, yang isinya ialah perangkat-perangkat

model-model pengetahuan, yang secara selektif

digunakan oleh para pendukung/ pelakunya

untuk mengintepretasi dan memahami

lingkungan yang dihadapi, dan digunakan

sebagai referensi atau pedoman untuk bertindak

(dalam bentuk kelakuan dan benda-benda

kebudayaan) sesuai dengan lingkungan yang

dihadapi.” (Suparlan, 1986: 106)

Cultural Politics The connection between politics and culture

becomes particularly apparent when we take a macro view of the former: politics is comprised of developments occurring within the state, within society, and between state and society.

Since culture constitutes a society’s shared symbols, expressions and values, it has an intimate connection with politics.

Cultural politics deals with the political dimensions of culture, or, more specifically, with the influence and role of culture within politics.

Cultural Politics Culture, no doubt, is an important element in

political conduct. But it is one of the elements

at work.

“In the new world”, Huntington claims,

“cultural identity is the central factor shaping

a country’s associations and antagonisms . .

. [It] defines the state’s place in world politics,

its friends, and its enemies.”

Cultural Politics

Culture is, no doubt, an important element in

influencing domestic politics and regional

and international alignments.

It is not, however, the phenomenon that

overwhelms and/or determines politics,

whether domestic or international.

Cultural Politics State policies, to take one example of what

belongs to the domain of politics, can and often do influence the formulation and expression of public preferences and prejudices (culture), which in turn shape elite or mass purchasing habits (economics).

This flow of influence can go from any direction within and between these and other related disciplines, and the possibilities of mutual interaction, interference and influence are limitless.

Cultural Politics

There are two cultures, local and global, and

each has its own adaptive and material sub-

components.

How deeply cultures converge or differ from

one part of the globe to another is as much a

product of scientific advancement and know-

how as it is a result of state policies and

agendas.

Cultural Politics There is no cultural universalism, no

impending clash. What determines where we

go culturally, who we identify with more

closely and with whom we have less in

common, our symbols, our tastes and

preferences, all depend on the politics of

culture, on how those in power indirectly

influence or perhaps directly package and

sell domestic and imported cultural products.