Cultural interaction
Block 1: Cultural realms How and why do people organize Block 2: Cultural selves How and why do people define their
themselves culturally? cultural identity with/against others?
1. Culture as a matter of life and death 7. Selves: Self-identity vs. social identity; alienation
2. Nation-state: cultural organization based on the myth of 8. Others: Cognitive dissonance; roots vs. routes
nativity 9. Interaction between selves and others: Communication
3. World(s): cultural organization based on the desire for vs. understanding vs. translation
coherence 10. Dis/abled selves/others
4. Society: cultural organization based on a relation of 11. Animal/human selves/others: Tropes: metaphorization;
interdependency personification; anthropomorphism/animalization
5. Civilization: cultural organization based on the claim to 12. Mechanic/organic selves/others: Tools and language as
superiority prosthetics; technological cultures
6. Community: cultural organization based on the
acceptance of obligation
Defining culture
Culture as…
Form-of-life, something you live/determines how you live your daily life
Performative: something you do (to keep it alive), e.g., national holidays
Communal existence: something you do/live together with others
Affectively charged: as a distinct, partly arbitrary, and affectively charged, meaningful expression that you feel
Transferable through time and space
Weapon/shield/shelter: can produce change, can resist change, or can cope with change
Without representation, culture is invisible.
Lecture 1: Culture as a matter of life and death 11-09-2023
1.1 How is culture a matter of life and death?
Culture may be so quintessential to human beings that they cling to it as if it were life itself.
People have been willing to give lives for a culture/religion either to refuse to give in to supressive power or to give life for
the greater good;
All martyrs can be considered an example;
One of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade was not just that human beings were enslaved, but also robbed of culture
and a meaningful lifeworld;
Yet despite this depravation, they started to reshape their lives culturally in the new, enforced circumstances. The reason
was that life without culture is not possible/bearable.
Oppressed/displaced people may be driven to a point where they would rather die than give up what organises their life
meaningfully/affectively/sensibly: their culture;
▫ This does not mean a desire to die, but a willingness to risk life in a struggle for their culture;
Culture is not always a matter of life or death, but simply something they live/a form of life.
Case: Moluccans
After independence:
▫ Indonesian independence > problem for Moluccans; didn't fit into Indonesian society > migrated to the Netherlands,
but not allowed to integrate.
How is Moluccan identity articulated?
▫ In NL they were Dutch citizens, in ID they were Indonesian citizens; so, they couldn't be categorised.
▫ Legally/politically, Moluccans are either Dutch or Indonesian
To identify as Moluccan is therefore a cultural practice: to prioritize felt experience (Indonesian or Dutch) above
legal/political consensus (> passport)
- Yet, culture = political:
· Felt experience of Moluccan identity started separatist war (1950) + resulted in violent activism against Dutch
government (60s-70s) > death of Dutch and Moluccan
Lecture 2: The nation-state 18-09-2023
, 2.1 What is the paradox of self-determination?
“Almost all battles for freedom concern this opening up of an enclosed space of power into one of negotiations and
promised openness: a space of doing politics…
…Still, if the dynamic between a closed and open system of power-distribution is central to all struggles for self-
determination, we encounter a pivotal paradox:
▫ Paradox: opening up a space of one’s own also entails the closing down of that space for others.” (Korsten, 37)
- Every claim of “self” implies a claim of “others” >
- Who are the “self” and who are the “others”?
“The very idea of the determination of a collective self often entailed the forced integration, the silent subjection, expulsion
or destruction of others.”
▫ (Self-determination: a group of people claiming a space as their own and taking power into their own hands.)
▫ The moment you decide to choose someone to represent the people, some people won't feel represented by this
person.
· e.g., Europe can claim itself as Christian, taking away the rights of other religions.
2.2 Why is the nation-state culturally determined?
“The nation-state fuses a political notion (the state) with a cultural one (the “culturally determined” nation). The notion of
nation is propelled by the fiction that, as of old, people naturally and commonly belong to the places they are born and live
in.” (p. 40)
▫ State: legal-political; agreed upon
▫ Nation: cultural; “natural
- ‘Nation’ derived from Latin nasci: “to be born.”
The combination of nation and state implies that the state (a political status quo) is natural: that it was just ‘born’
- This is a fiction, because States do not magically appear. They are fought for and established, often violently, at the
cost of alternative state constructions.
- Yet: these fictions have real-life consequences
Nation-state is not only culturally determined, but also legal and political;
We need to imagine the countries in order to make sense.
Lecture 3: Worlds 25-09-23
3.1 What is the connection between culture and world
What is a world?
The world is a cultural imagination: it indicates an imagined coherence that one feels one belongs to (affective, form-of-life)
and partakes in (performative, communal).
▫ World is a cultural term: it indicates an imagined coherence that one belongs to and partakes in;
▫ One’s imagination of “the world” can lead to conflict when a different imagination is encountered.
“World” is derived from “wer-” and “-alt”’ the first meaning man(kind) and the second denoting a period in time > world
indicates the situation of a species in time-space.
▫ This is why one can speak of several coexisting worlds, perhaps even many within a given universe. (Korsten, 45)
3.2 How does culture connote a multiplicity of culture and world
Do we all live in the same world?
Is Planet Earth, or should it be, one world (> If so, who owns/runs it?) or is it a conglomeration of several worlds?
What constitutes our imagination of the world?
▫ Religion (Islam vs Hinduism) or territorial belonging...
- After the partition, millions of Muslims and Hindus suddenly found themselves to be minorities in their own
worlds > did their worlds suddenly shift place when Radcliffe drew a line on the map?
▫ ...Sex/gender or social class
- Emancipation/empowerment movements generally start from groups of people belonging to a world that has
marginalized them;
- Emancipation starts from the imagination of a different, not yet realized world, in which they are not
marginalized;
- Power is organized differently, normalcy is explained differently
Answering Q2
▫ World-images can be established as official realities through maps, laws, religion, education, history (transferable
through time and space);
Block 1: Cultural realms How and why do people organize Block 2: Cultural selves How and why do people define their
themselves culturally? cultural identity with/against others?
1. Culture as a matter of life and death 7. Selves: Self-identity vs. social identity; alienation
2. Nation-state: cultural organization based on the myth of 8. Others: Cognitive dissonance; roots vs. routes
nativity 9. Interaction between selves and others: Communication
3. World(s): cultural organization based on the desire for vs. understanding vs. translation
coherence 10. Dis/abled selves/others
4. Society: cultural organization based on a relation of 11. Animal/human selves/others: Tropes: metaphorization;
interdependency personification; anthropomorphism/animalization
5. Civilization: cultural organization based on the claim to 12. Mechanic/organic selves/others: Tools and language as
superiority prosthetics; technological cultures
6. Community: cultural organization based on the
acceptance of obligation
Defining culture
Culture as…
Form-of-life, something you live/determines how you live your daily life
Performative: something you do (to keep it alive), e.g., national holidays
Communal existence: something you do/live together with others
Affectively charged: as a distinct, partly arbitrary, and affectively charged, meaningful expression that you feel
Transferable through time and space
Weapon/shield/shelter: can produce change, can resist change, or can cope with change
Without representation, culture is invisible.
Lecture 1: Culture as a matter of life and death 11-09-2023
1.1 How is culture a matter of life and death?
Culture may be so quintessential to human beings that they cling to it as if it were life itself.
People have been willing to give lives for a culture/religion either to refuse to give in to supressive power or to give life for
the greater good;
All martyrs can be considered an example;
One of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade was not just that human beings were enslaved, but also robbed of culture
and a meaningful lifeworld;
Yet despite this depravation, they started to reshape their lives culturally in the new, enforced circumstances. The reason
was that life without culture is not possible/bearable.
Oppressed/displaced people may be driven to a point where they would rather die than give up what organises their life
meaningfully/affectively/sensibly: their culture;
▫ This does not mean a desire to die, but a willingness to risk life in a struggle for their culture;
Culture is not always a matter of life or death, but simply something they live/a form of life.
Case: Moluccans
After independence:
▫ Indonesian independence > problem for Moluccans; didn't fit into Indonesian society > migrated to the Netherlands,
but not allowed to integrate.
How is Moluccan identity articulated?
▫ In NL they were Dutch citizens, in ID they were Indonesian citizens; so, they couldn't be categorised.
▫ Legally/politically, Moluccans are either Dutch or Indonesian
To identify as Moluccan is therefore a cultural practice: to prioritize felt experience (Indonesian or Dutch) above
legal/political consensus (> passport)
- Yet, culture = political:
· Felt experience of Moluccan identity started separatist war (1950) + resulted in violent activism against Dutch
government (60s-70s) > death of Dutch and Moluccan
Lecture 2: The nation-state 18-09-2023
, 2.1 What is the paradox of self-determination?
“Almost all battles for freedom concern this opening up of an enclosed space of power into one of negotiations and
promised openness: a space of doing politics…
…Still, if the dynamic between a closed and open system of power-distribution is central to all struggles for self-
determination, we encounter a pivotal paradox:
▫ Paradox: opening up a space of one’s own also entails the closing down of that space for others.” (Korsten, 37)
- Every claim of “self” implies a claim of “others” >
- Who are the “self” and who are the “others”?
“The very idea of the determination of a collective self often entailed the forced integration, the silent subjection, expulsion
or destruction of others.”
▫ (Self-determination: a group of people claiming a space as their own and taking power into their own hands.)
▫ The moment you decide to choose someone to represent the people, some people won't feel represented by this
person.
· e.g., Europe can claim itself as Christian, taking away the rights of other religions.
2.2 Why is the nation-state culturally determined?
“The nation-state fuses a political notion (the state) with a cultural one (the “culturally determined” nation). The notion of
nation is propelled by the fiction that, as of old, people naturally and commonly belong to the places they are born and live
in.” (p. 40)
▫ State: legal-political; agreed upon
▫ Nation: cultural; “natural
- ‘Nation’ derived from Latin nasci: “to be born.”
The combination of nation and state implies that the state (a political status quo) is natural: that it was just ‘born’
- This is a fiction, because States do not magically appear. They are fought for and established, often violently, at the
cost of alternative state constructions.
- Yet: these fictions have real-life consequences
Nation-state is not only culturally determined, but also legal and political;
We need to imagine the countries in order to make sense.
Lecture 3: Worlds 25-09-23
3.1 What is the connection between culture and world
What is a world?
The world is a cultural imagination: it indicates an imagined coherence that one feels one belongs to (affective, form-of-life)
and partakes in (performative, communal).
▫ World is a cultural term: it indicates an imagined coherence that one belongs to and partakes in;
▫ One’s imagination of “the world” can lead to conflict when a different imagination is encountered.
“World” is derived from “wer-” and “-alt”’ the first meaning man(kind) and the second denoting a period in time > world
indicates the situation of a species in time-space.
▫ This is why one can speak of several coexisting worlds, perhaps even many within a given universe. (Korsten, 45)
3.2 How does culture connote a multiplicity of culture and world
Do we all live in the same world?
Is Planet Earth, or should it be, one world (> If so, who owns/runs it?) or is it a conglomeration of several worlds?
What constitutes our imagination of the world?
▫ Religion (Islam vs Hinduism) or territorial belonging...
- After the partition, millions of Muslims and Hindus suddenly found themselves to be minorities in their own
worlds > did their worlds suddenly shift place when Radcliffe drew a line on the map?
▫ ...Sex/gender or social class
- Emancipation/empowerment movements generally start from groups of people belonging to a world that has
marginalized them;
- Emancipation starts from the imagination of a different, not yet realized world, in which they are not
marginalized;
- Power is organized differently, normalcy is explained differently
Answering Q2
▫ World-images can be established as official realities through maps, laws, religion, education, history (transferable
through time and space);
