visagrunt wrote:
Tequila wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
What is UK culture?
English law; a pint of foaming cool, real ale and on a warm day; British pubs generally (I've never been anywhere else that can rival a good British pub, which is probably why they're in such decline here); Lord Nelson; English literature; Anglicanism; the English language itself; St. George's Cross; football; fish and chips; haggis; Cheddar cheese; bagpipes; our beautiful landscape; clotted cream; the Palace of Westminster and the Clock Tower; the Union Jack; the 12th July; William Shakespeare; our castles and stately homes; our tolerance the British Crown; our "get on and do" mentality; Robert Burns; St. David; the White Cliffs of Dover; the beautiful Scottish higthlands; the beautiful landscape of the Lake District; folk music; our fabulous array of curry restaurants and our fresh fish (sadly in deep decline due to the CFP)... need I go on?
There is no such thing as English law (it is the Law of England and Wales), which is foreign to Scotland. Cricket is certainly an English invention, but derives its name from Dutch. And again, has little to do with Scotland. Irish authors have likely made a disproportionate contribution to English literature. If by "Anglicanism," you mean the Church of England, then it is the Established Church in England--but not in Scotland, Northern Ireland (nor, indeed, in Ireland during most of its Union), whereas the Anglican Communion is not British at all--in fact the majority of adherants to Anglicanism are found outside the UK; the English language is, first of all, English, but it is not the native language of Scotland, Wales or Cornwall. St. George's cross is English, but it is not unique to England, and it is not the flag of Scotland, Wales or Cornwall. Football is no more British than a ball, and ball games date back at least to classical antiquity. Haggis was invented by the Romans. While Cheddar is properly English, the practice of cheddaring is no so universal that approximately 50% of all cheese made in the world is now cheddarred. Bagpipes were invented by the Irish. Clotted cream likely had its origins in the Near East and was introduced into the West Country by the Phonecians. The 12th is an observance almost unique to Protestants in Northern Ireland, and is not an official or cultural holiday in the UK, generally. Shakespeare was most certainly English, but only half of his work is unambiguously British--and the bulk of those are the history plays. Many castles and stately homes are of foreign influence (especially Italian). Your tolerance is an interesting question--there are many who might claim that this is an element of British culture that has all but evaporated in the last 60 years. As for your "get on and do" mentality, that has not been much in evidence since the Second World War. Robert Burns is no more an aspect of UK culture than the Church of England. Indeed, the "last bastion" of Scots culture is no longer found in Scotland--it is found in Canada. As for your fabulous array of curry restaurants, I think credit belongs to the cultures that created that cuisine (though you do get Chicken Tikka Masala) and your fresh fish largely comes from international waters, and you have no greater a culture of seafood than any other maritime nation.
I'll will give you Lord Nelson, fish and chips, your landscape (including the cliffs of Dover, the Highlands and the Lake district), the Palace of Westminster, the Union
Flag (for heaven's sake, give it its proper name), the British Crown and folk music. Saint David was well chosen, being along with Saint Piran the only British patron saints who were actually British.
What this serves to demonstrate is that there is no such thing as a singular culture in a modern, industrialized nation. England was the most multicultural nation in Europe and London the worlds most multicultural city from the late middle ages. Much of British preeminence in the 17th through 19th centuries is directly attributable to her multicultualism.
While, as my previous shows, I agree with you in general, I think it is unfair to say that something is not part of a given culture because it was influenced by or borrowed from other cultures. Association football is part of British culture as well as of Brazilian culture, even though only the former can lay a claim on its inception. St. George's cross was used by the Genoan republic, the archbishopric of Trier, the Order of the Temple and England, and others, (+ a red cross on a white field is not exactly inspired imagery), but that doesn't mean neither can claim it. (Of course, it still makes it an English symbol, not a British one.) It is entirely normal that cultures borrow from each other and from common sources.
In the same way, it could be said that the English language is not truly English at all, because it based on Anglo-Saxon, a Germanic language, with a large input of Old French lexicon (probably Celtic influences, I imagine, but I don't know about that); or because it is the first language of the USA, Canada (kind of), Australia, New Zeeland, etc. -- of course the British are an absolute minority in the practice of some elements of their culture (like the Anglican Church), because there are many more people in British ex-colonies than in the mainland. The English language is the common language of the United Kingdom as a whole, and it is a unifying factor in British culture, even though it is not the "native" language everywhere, understood as the language that different people living in the same area once spoke. What is important when analyzing such objects is not where they comes from, but how they are understood in fact; not what they are, but what they mean.
Using your method, we come to inadmissible results. If the mere fact that the name of something comes from another language excludes it as part of a given culture, then four provinces and many cities (including the capital) are not part of Canadian culture. In general, we can quickly eliminate maple products (borrowed from the Native Americans), most of our political institutions (copied from the British), hockey (inspired by many games, on ice or not), Canadian football (American), lacrosse (Native American), Vimy Ridge (on European soil, and under European command), winter life (similar in other cold countries), etc. As well, as a Quebecer, I cannot claim Saint-Jean-Baptist (Christian holiday, borrowed from pre-Christian ones, themselves linked to an astronomical phenomenon), French language, or even Quebec French (it has its roots in regional French dialects), the Patriot rebellion (technically, nothing to do with Quebec, but it is reconstructed in collective memory as a precedent of Quebec nationalism), pâté chinois (inspired by other dishes), a Catholic heritage, the Fleurdelisé (French and Catholic symbolism), so this leaves... madame Bolduc, the Saint Lawrence river, a complex of inferiority towards English-speaking North America and, arguably, poutine.
01 Jul 2012, 10:09 am
