Cultural Heritage

Rajesh: http://kriticulture.blogspot.com/
We have been witness to universities mindlessly renouncing their true vocation, the pursuit of critical thinking, and reinventing themselves instead as factories of 'human resources' for an economy hurtling from crisis to crisis. More recently, projects have been undertaken to 'conserve' the Punjabi cultural heritage by video-recording the folk dances and songs (it is another matter if the dancers and singers happen to be university students). Do not such attempts to 'conserve' culture constitute a disavowal of the imperative to think culture in these difficult times? Moreover, by taking recourse to such conservation projects, do we not confine culture to enclaves? If we believe we can 'save' our culture by consigning it to the magnetic/laser tracks on discs, we are being cowardly and dishonest in the face of the challenge to think. Loads of disks may bury our guilt but cannot deliver us from it.
Sukhdev: http://languagecultureideology.blogspot.com/
The projects to video-record folk dances & songs may be attempts to document not to conserve the Punjabi Cultural Heritage.Secondly, folk dances and songs are part of intangible cultural heritage and the intangible heritage of a community is likely to change faster, more so if the given community is at the receiving end in the situation of a close cultural contact (read conflict). Every community (social group) lives within a cultural stream; it is often a smooth renewal of the past showing familiar texture. But the modes, methods & perspectives of development in the recent past have been such that the cultural diversity is threatened. In the age when we are talking, walking, and living globalization & consumerism, the cultural fabric, both tangible and intangible (buildings, sites, languages, robes, food, and everything), is changing very fast. So we as a community are in a flux. However it doesn't mean, we have no culture and we are not 'thinking culture'. What is happening is we are moving away from our cultural heritage but we are not living without a culture.
We may call it a cultural shift. The pressures of emerging life styles as a result of the operative methods & strategies of development moving us into the cultural shift and much of it is happening without any consent of the individual members of the community. That is the existential crisis of 'to be or not to be'; the crisis is not of those only who are on the margin but those also who are at the centre. Yes, the difference is there i.e. some are getting returns while facing the crisis but others are only facing the crisis.Whatever the differences, it is the similarity that has created the 'imperative to think culture'. Now the culture in which we are living, an imperative of our socio-economic development models, 'thinks' even the conservation of cultural heritage as a commodity or an avenue for employment. And as we live in a culture we have to follow its dynamism and paradigms of doing things. To preserve or conserve our cultural heritage is a way of relating, contextualising, not living it. We can conserve the tangible heritage but we can only document or archive our intangible heritage.But the documentation must be authentic.

language & cognition

Language is not just a way of representing the reality, it is also a way of understanding & evaluating the reality. Learning a language, therefore, involves learning about language as well as learning through language, and of, course, learning to do things with language.
In all processes of education and literacy, language is the pivot of human experience & cognition.
sukhdev

Language is a Pillar of Cultural Diversity

Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and the planet. Yet, due to globalization processes, they are increasingly under threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression – valuable resources for ensuring a better future are also lost.
In this context, it is urgent to take action to promote multilingualism, in other words to encourage the development of coherent regional and national language policies which give the opportunity for an appropriate and harmonious use of languages in a given community and country. Such policies promote measures allowing each speaker community to use its mother tongue in private and public domains of language use and enabling the speakers to learn and use additional languages: local, national and international. Mother-tongue speakers of national or international languages should be encouraged to learn and use other languages of the country and regional and international languages.
Courtesy: www.unesco.org/en/languages

Comment:

Languages are in competition and struggle for survival under the pressures of conteporary politico-economic and development policies. Which languages will survive and which languages will die will depends on our ideologies and choices. Langauges can survive only if used and langauge use depends on our economic, and socio-cultural policies.

UNESCO celebrated 2008 as the year of languages and 21 February as the International Mother Tongue day.

Let us talk more about it. Silence is the death of langauge and articulation is a sign of life.

sukhdev

Learning a new language

Herman Wasserman
University of Sheffield, England, H.J.Wasserman@sheffield.ac.uk

Under apartheid, the mainstream Afrikaans media served as vehicles for the ideology of apartheid. Since democratization, they have attempted to rid themselves of this ideological baggage, and instead embraced a free-market ideology in which race has ostensibly disappeared. This repositioning has seemingly benefited the Afrikaans media sector, with an increase of the number and type of media, operating under the proclaimed banner of non-racialism. The discourse within which this repositioning has taken place, is that of a celebratory consumerism coupled with acknowledgement of majority rule. Yet this apparent move away from ideology towards a market logic where consumers are addressed as individuals rather than racial or ethnic groups, obscured its role within post-apartheid identity politics. Afrikaans media constructed the Afrikaans language as a commodity that can be used to its speakers' economic advantage if they recognize the pragmatic necessity of acknowledging the political transformation in the country. At the same time, the economic status of Afrikaans speakers could provide a bargaining chip in the negotiation of minority language rights. Crucially, Afrikaans media are therefore playing an important role in creating a link between consumption and cultural identity — to their own strategic commercial advantage. •

Language as life

by sukhdev
Language is the most powerful and direct mode of symbolic communcation; no, not an instrument of commucation; it's itself communication. You can't really separate language from what it does i.e. communication. But the most problematic aspect of its existence is its cultural corelate. When people within the same linguistic community actually want to communicate, language fails them because they can not corelate the cutural paradigms of their relations: the interlocutors remain at a distance when they might be actually trying to come closer. Yet, the issue is that langauge remains the only system which can fill this void.
Int he twenty first century we have more voyages across cultures physically, and linguistically. When people meet they do not just exchange view, material goods and services but most importantly they exchange language as a system.
contd...

A father to daughters

Dear Friends,

Following is the text of a letter written by Barak Obama to his daughters. Let's see how you will read it as language laden with ideology:

Dear Malia and Sasha,

I know that you've both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably shouldn't have let you have. But I also know that it hasn't always been easy for you and Mom, and that as excited as you both are about that new puppy, it doesn't make up for all the time we've been apart. I know how much I've missed these past two years, and today I want to tell you a little more about why I decided to take our family on this journey.When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me-about how I'd make my way in the world, become successful, and get the things I want. But then the two of you came into my world with all your curiosity and mischief and those smiles that never fail to fill my heart and light up my day. And suddenly, all my big plans for myself didn't seem so important anymore. I soon found that the greatest joy in my life was the joy I saw in yours. And I realized that my own life wouldn't count for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness and fulfillment in yours. In the end, girls, that's why I ran for President: because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation.I want all our children to go to schools worthy of their potential-schools that challenge them, inspire them, and instill in them a sense of wonder about the world around them. I want them to have the chance to go to college-even if their parents aren't rich. And I want them to get good jobs: jobs that pay well and give them benefits like health care, jobs that let them spend time with their own kids and retire with dignity.I want us to push the boundaries of discovery so that you'll live to see new technologies and inventions that improve our lives and make our planet cleaner and safer. And I want us to push our own human boundaries to reach beyond the divides of race and region, gender and religion that keep us from seeing the best in each other.Sometimes we have to send our young men and women into war and other dangerous situations to protect our country-but when we do, I want to make sure that it is only for a very good reason, that we try our best to settle our differences with others peacefully, and that we do everything possible to keep our servicemen and women safe. And I want every child to understand that the blessings these brave Americans fight for are not free-that with the great privilege of being a citizen of this nation comes great responsibility.That was the lesson your grandmother tried to teach me when I was your age, reading me the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and telling me about the men and women who marched for equality because they believed those words put to paper two centuries ago should mean something.She helped me understand that Americais great not because it is perfect but because it can always be made better-and that the unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us. It's a charge we pass on to our children, coming closer with each new generation to what we know Americashould be.I hope both of you will take up that work, righting the wrongs that you see and working to give others the chances you've had. Not just because you have an obligation to give something back to this country that has given our family so much-although you do have that obligation. But because you have an obligation to yourself. Because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.These are the things I want for you-to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world. And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have. That's why I've taken our family on this great adventure.I am so proud of both of you. I love you more than you can ever know. And I am grateful every day for your patience, poise, grace, and humor as we prepare to start our new life together in the White House.

Love,

Dad

The language & ideology of silencing voices. Ugh..h..gh

Can we live , and can we art-i-culate? are not two but is one question. Yes, only one which sure has many answers, more than one explanation; but the question is one and inseparable one.

Loss of articulation is the loss of life and the loss of life is the loss of articulation and this is an endless with many an ends. That is where language is ide-o-logi (ideology) laden. What you and I say and (dis)agree on is not the idea but its logic or logistics. You and I live in the same material world but we do not share the same material world. That is the real difference and irreal similarity.

Then your experience and my experience co-happen, co-exist, and may co-relate but may not co-ordinate. This difference of (in)equality requires different articuation by art, by language, by physical action. Although physical action, as a principle should be the first in order, in the postmdern 'civil' society of indirectness physical action[the most impulsive one] the most natural one is the last choice. Language is, therefore, in the middle of the most direct and most indirect and symbolic; langauge is then life itself , living itself, art itself and at the same time, is none of these in the post modern.

The silence is the end of life, end of language, end of logic, end of every thing. In the postmodern the question is -to speak or not to speak!

sukhdev