This text is relevant to better understand the Autognosis and, consequently, to better understand my music.
R. Williams has defined the word “culture” as “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”[1]. This difficulty arises from the enormous diversity of meanings the word can carry.
In a broader, and perhaps structural, reading, “culture is everything” as defined by R. Williams. Or, in the words of P. Gielen “culture is ubiquitous, which sometimes makes us forget that we are dealing with culture”[2]. Culture may be regarded as common, ordinary, and shared, and, from this viewpoint, it is neither elitist and compartmentalised, but rather a constant negotiation of power through encounters, texts, and ideas[3]. Therefore, we can say that culture is always in constant change, developing and adapting throughout the times.
Also in “Culture is Ordinary”, R. Williams defends that culture should be defined both as a whole way of life with its common meanings and as the processes of discovery and creativity in the arts and learning. R. Williams splits this concept - “that culture is ordinary” - into two distinct parts: “the known meanings and directions, which its members are trained to; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested”[4].
According to this perspective, we can state that culture is the foundation of our societies, “a mode of group living”[5]. In the words of G. Róheim, “human groups are actuated by diverse group ideals, led on by dominant ideas, which may be supremely important for them but incomprehensible or devoid of value for their neighbours” [6]. Therefore, from an anthropological viewpoint, “culture means mankind because even the most elementary conditions of human existence such as the regarded as the beginnings of culture” [7]. Barend van Heusden also presents an 'anthropological' definition of culture, relating it “to the ways in which humans give form and meaning to their life and environment”. “In view of distinguishing human from animal cultures, it has been argued that the uniqueness of human culture resides in the fact that humans not only are able to learn things - this being an ability shared with quite a few other species - but are also able to interpret the world intentionally”[8].
With this perspective as a background - in which culture is everything, part of humankind - we can add some steps to this notion, adding a different meaning to culture linked to ‘collective beliefs’, or ‘customs’, or ‘ways of doing things’ (‘traditions’)[9]. In this way, culture design and shape social common or community, and, consequently, it develops our living together. It is, thus, an essential pillar of social cohesion since we express through cultural values and beliefs, highlighting differences and similarities, providing meaning to our lives. Rudi Laermans (2002), stated that culture is a socially shared reservoir or repertoire of signs, assuming this not only “as a formal semiotic game of similarity and differentiation, but also to assigning meaning as a sense that gives direction and reason for existence to both people and societies”[10].
Thus, ‘culture’ functions as a collective form of self-knowledge. Arts, religion and ideology are included in culture, as well as historiography and philosophy[11].
Ultimately, ‘culture’ can also mean ‘cultivated’, if we look from the word’s origin of the Latin (colere). In this way, “people are ‘cultured’ or not”[12]. This concept has a “temporal dimension (...) but also a clear hierarchy” [13]. This definition presents us with ‘culture’ as “a product of education”[14], and therefore a cultured person is considered an educated person. According to Naema Tahir and Andreas Kinneging, “culture, the product of education, is equal to civilization and virtuousness, as opposed to barbarism and viciousness”[15]. Thus, a cultured person “is no longer the person he once naturally was, but has acquired a second nature, a better nature. Culture is thus the improvement of human nature. Culture, in this sense, is important for every human being, but it is supremely important for those who rule over other human beings, since due to their august position in society they are much more capable of doing evil than the average man”[16]. Therefore, the word culture can be used as a synonym for high culture, in contrast to low culture, which I expect to develop later on.
R. William, in “The Analysis of Culture”, organises ‘culture’ in three different categories:
i) ideal: “culture is a state or process of human perfection, in terms of certain absolute or universal values”, referring to “lives, works and values”, within a timeless order;
ii) documentary: culture is “the body of intellectual and imaginative work where human thought and experience are variously recorded”, or, in other words, “the activism of criticism”;
iii) social: regarding a “particular way of life”.
In my opinion, we can categorise 'culture', dividing its meanings into three levels: first, culture is everything; second, culture as a pillar for the transmission of our beliefs, values, which allows us, human beings, to create self-reflection; finally, culture as a synonym for high culture.
In addition to the meanings of ‘culture’, it is also important to talk about its implications.
Firstly, culture “helps individuals to become integrated in a specific social, political and economic order”[17]. Thus, it is, as central role, a pillar of society, since culture “teaches people existing ways of acting and being within a particular society and in doing so it lends meaning to people’s lives in that society” [18]. It is also through culture that values such as solidarity and equality are presented and transmitted to us[19]. Also linked with this “socializing role”, culture works as a “provider of meaning both in a formal and in a deeply existential sense. It consists of a game by which people, groups and societies give meaning to their existence”[20]. Based on this anthropological point of view, culture, as “way of life”, is the foundation of societies[21]. A crucial aspect of culture is the act of sharing meanings and values, as well as the interaction and between people[22].
Culture also provides us with answers to existential questions. “My self-image and individual autonomy depend on how I define myself as part of and in relation to a certain shared culture. The Belgian psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe calls this process of identification and separation (Verhaeghe, 2012). Putting too much emphasis on either of the two carries a risk: it could lead to a culture of sameness (resulting in exclusion) or to culture of isolated and lonely individuals, respectively. Through the process of identifying with and separating from certain cultures, these cultures maintain themselves and continue to develop”[23].
The actions of human beings mould culture, and it is kept alive by us, “by repetition, adaptation, actualization, interpretation and criticism - and is therefore continuously in development”[24]. This is done by “assigning meaning and it tells us something about what we think is of value in life and how we view the world” [25].
Lastly, culture implies a continuous process of evaluation of “what is vital necessity or not”[26], and of “what is deemed important or not” [27]. This process of qualification “defines in relatively measurable terms the skills, knowledge and competencies that are required to be part of a culture or at least be able to function reasonably well in it” [28].