The representation of culture is significant in defining human behavior. It forms the basis of determining the acceptable and unacceptable cultural norms within society. The social discourse is to be corrected while the desired habits are reinforced for the good of humanity. As such, analyzing and interpreting the representation of culture and power are critical in recommending a desired behavior pattern within society. The common doctrines, beliefs, and practices of the community representing culture can be defined from several perspectives and are discussed as follows.
Raymond William’s View of Culture as a Sense of Life
Raymond’s perspective of culture as a ‘whole way of life’ cannot be disputed (Raymond 1983, p. 25). The interpretation of modern civilization has been seen to extend certain aspects of social inequalities. In his view, Raymond recommends a holistic approach to addressing the social vices of every society. He states that the modern civilization’s disruptive nature undermines the personal freedom, beliefs, and ideas of people (Raymond 1983). To address the inequalities associated with the wrongful representation of culture, the larger community must reconsider all the facets of cultural norms in identifying a specific sense of life. For instance, it would be appropriate to deconstruct the current meaning of life to determine the merits and demerits associated with the misguided interpretation of what an ideal culture ought to be. An individual must be aware of their environment and learn and observe the pattern of recommended norms in testing and articulating cultural perfection. For example, Raymond pinpoints that the current education is disruptive in reflecting the art as a fundamental facet of human tradition (Raymond 1983). As a result, his ideas contravene the current practice of extending education to all children. He further opposed the endemic individualism, business, and urban growth in contemporary society. His sentiments are supported by the view that culture has been illogically defined along the narrowed perspective of the benefits of education, individualism, and urban growth.
Interpreting the human norms along these three dimensions of culture creates a social inequality between the intellects and ordinary society members. As such, the working class has a separate social institution from the larger community. When those social structures are assumed to represent the entire society, the community’s regular members will consume a wrong perspective of an ideal way of life. In such a society, the meaning of life is reproduced in the context of individual commitments and personal experiences instead of viewing the role of life as to provide a benefiting value to the entire community.
The Ideology as an Integral Part of Culture
Personal ideology reinforces human behavior as a critical element of human social engagements. Abercrombie and Turner, for instance, adopt the theory of ideology to question the ordinary view of the world. They identify the unconsciousness of the larger society as a causal factor to the many social discourses (Abercrombie and Turner 1978). He views self-consciousness as attributable to certain retrogressive cultural practices (Abercrombie and Turner 1978). For instance, many individuals manifest behavior of being driven by the unconscious mind, thereby failing to articulate their social constructs effectively and remain insensitive to other cultural representations of gestures and signifying tools. This unconsciousness has been used by certain powers to introduce a perfect substitute seen to limit the human way of questioning life, daily choices, habits, and behavior. These people are used as mere robots to achieve the interests of powerful members of the society. As such, the modern generation has remained more vulnerable to the discourse created by the current civilization. For example, the everyday use of technology has created a new form of behavior.
The use of the Internet and selfie control the current generation’s minds in a manner that has induced an emerging perception of the use of technology in forming their opinions and experiences. The unappealing nature of Internet use is merely stored within the unconscious mind. For many Internet users, conscious thinking is suppressed, and they fail to question the internal drive of their behavior. Therefore, the daily life struggles of these people are associated with their ideologies in responding to their life choices. Maintaining an open mind view of every social phenomenon will delineate one of the discourses of unconsciousness.
The Representation of Language as a Cultural Phenomenon
The notions of Ferdinand Saussure in referring to the representation of language as a cultural phenomenon are an essential idea in learning artistic representation of culture (Saussure 2011). Saussure, for instance, addresses the question of the use of signs and signifying materials to portray specific disruptive ideas in the larger community (Saussure 2011). The linguistic elements of events, objects, and people do not reflect a definite meaning in culture’s perception. Language, therefore, culturally addresses the diverging cross-culture-based opinions towards the social signifying tools. Since cultures vary from one society to another, an object may create a non-similar meaning for different cultures.
As an integral component of culture, language provides a framework for identifying the relativism between contrasting traditions (Saussure 2011). In cases of difficulty identifying an equivalent of either of the cultures, language interprets the meaning of any signifying object (Hall 1997). This addresses the diverging perceptions of one culture compared to another in a given piece of artwork. For instance, while it is considered formal to present an attractive presentation of ads in the public domain, the white and skinny women’s choice to represent the fashion and beauty advertisement images often depicts misleading information on such adverts’ racial bias (Williams 1983). Associating whites with fashion and beauty gives an impression that the black race does not have a role to play in the fashion industry.
Reference List
Abercrombie, Nicholas, and Bryan S. Turner. ‘’The Dominant Ideology Thesis.’’ British Journal of Sociology 29 (2): 149-170.
de Saussure, Ferdinand. 2011. Culture and Cultural Studies. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Hall, Stuart. 1997. “The Work of Representation.” In Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, 13-74. London: Sage Publishing.
Walcott, Derek. 1974. “The Caribbean: Culture or Mimicry?” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. Plos ONE 16 (1): 3-13.
Wang, Chih-ming. 2017. “Affective Rearticulating: Cultural Studies in And From Taiwan.” Cultural Studies. Plos ONE 31 (6): 740-763.
Williams, Raymond.1983. Culture and society. New-York, NY: Columbia University Press