Major Traits of a Culture

Language• Languages – sounds,

intonation, inflection, accents.

• Dialects can vary by region, class standing, etnicities.

• Writing – can be simple or complex, involve pictographs or phonetic alphabets, and can be dependent on the technologies for saving information.

Technology

Tools influence all styles of development, from food production to architecture, to medicine – all have impacts on culture, many with unexpected results.

Plows

African house

Family

The nature of a family is grounded on the structure (nuclear-2 generations/multi-generation/clan) and on the power relationships (patriarchal, matriarchal, etc.)

Social Structure

• Elaborately structured with castes

• Loosely structured, competitive

Institutions A society’s institutions include its style of government,

its laws and moral values, its educational systems, its

arrangements for such public needs as defense, trade

(including money), transportation, sanitation,

communications, and religious beliefs.

The Ten Commandments summarized the institutions

of early Jewish society. The institutions in British

colonies evolved from a foundation of British law and

changed through adaptions made by immigrant groups.

Customs and Beliefs

Long-established practices, holidays, faiths, and customs usually passed from one generation to the next

Challenges of Diversity

Old world traditionsusually mandated that

astate (kingdom)embraced the religionof the monarchy. TheBritish colonies inNorth Americadiscarded this traditionearly on.

Cultural Expressions

Music, literature, poetry, art, architecture, dance, folklore, films – all contain expressions of cultural values.

All these forms of expression become controversial if cultures are undergoing CHANGE.

“There is a certain relief in change; it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.” - early American writer Washington Irving.

Three American Examples

•The value of democracy (majority rule with protection of minority rights).

•The value of national growth (territorial expansion, technology, wealth).

•The primary focus on the individual.

1. Democracy “To-day, of all the weary year, a king of men am I.To-day alike are great and small, the nameless and the known.My palace is the people’s hall, the ballot-box my throne!Whittier – “The Poor Voter on Election Day”

George Caleb Bingham – The County Election (1852)

Novels, poems and short stories abounded in tales of new lands (James Fennimore Cooper), steamboats (Mark Twain), whaling (Melville) railroads, industries, and national expansion. Early photographers concentrated on evidence of growth. Even music – “I’ve been working on the railroad, all the live-long day.”

3. The Individual and society

“Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.”

“You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.”

Louisa may Allcott, Little Women, passages concerning Josephine March.

Rise of the Modern World:

1885–1914

The early-twentieth century was marked by great changes in history and technology. Artists were deeply affected by the many innovations around them and made these innovations the subjects of many of their artworks; many artists began exploring new forms of representation, and new subjects.

New Ideas Reflected

in Art“We are now committed to an unqualified art, not illustrating outworn myths or contemporary alibis. One must accept total responsibility for what he executes. And the measure of his greatness will be in the depth of his insight and his courage in realizing his own vision.” – Clyfford Still (American abstract expressionist)

Much of the material for this section has been appropriated from the MoMA’s Modern Teachers Guides for Educators Series. http://www.moma.org/modernteachers/guides.html

Robert Delaunay. (French, 1885-1941). The Tower. (1911) (inscribed 1910). Ink and pencil on paper. 21 1/4 x 19 1/4" (53.9 x 48.9 cm). Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund.

The Eiffel Tower was designed for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris by French engineer Gustave Eiffel. At the time it was built, the tower was the tallest structure in the world and gave Parisians a view of their city they had never seen before.

Roger de La Fresnaye. (French, 1885-1925). The Conquest of the Air. 1913. Oil on canvas. 7' 8 7/8" x 6' 5" (235.9 x 195.6 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund.

The work’s title refers to the era’s advances in aviation. La Fresnaye was a French artist who took great pride in France’s contribution to aviation history.

Fernand Léger. (French, 1881-1955). Propellers.

Léger was greatly influenced by his experiences as a soldier during World War I (1914–18), of which he wrote, “I discovered the meaning of machines through artillery and through the engines of war. The breech-block of a 75mm cannon lying out in the sun did more for my development as a painter than have all the museums in the world. There I was really able to grasp the object.”

Marcel Duchamp said of Bicycle Wheel, “In 1913 I had the happy idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool and watch it turn.” Bicycle Wheel is a kinetic sculpture that depends on motion for effect. Although Duchamp selected items for his “Readymade” art, without regard to their so-called beauty, he said, “To see that wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting . . . I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace.” By encouraging viewers to spin the Bicycle Wheel, Duchamp challenged the common expectation that works of art should not to be touched. Rules were being discarded

New Visions of the World:

1914-1928

In 1914, World War I broke out in Europe, followed, in 1917, by the overthrow of Russia’s Romanov dynasty and the October Revolution. A curtain of war was drawn across Europe. Millions died and 3 empires fell – the Russian Tsarist, the German, and the Turkish. Even the victors – Britain and France were damaged beyond full repair.

With the “old order” of Europe destroyed, artists began to discard the old ideas of cultural expression – seeking new meanings in chaos.

Jakob Steinhart (a Polish artist) completed this woodcut in 1923. The Prussian solders have been transformed into part-demons, part-clowns.

Max Ernst, a German artist involved in both Dada and Surrealism. Like Dalí, Ernst, who created many dreamlike images, was also interested in Freud’s writings on psychology.The title of the work is inscribed at the base of the image -- Two children are threatened by a nightingale.

The grooves in the wood contain an eye, a nose, a bird’s head, a menacing nightingale, a spinning top.

Rayograph was made by Man Ray, an American artist who was well-known for his portrait and fashion photography. Man Ray transformed everyday objects into mysterious images by placing them on photographic paper, exposing them to light, and oftentimes repeating this process with additional objects and exposures. Often he chose layouts by chance.Just as chance determined who lived and died, Man Ray was making photograms by chance.

British artist Adrian Allinson did a series of “colonial” posters in the late 1920s. In these posters he used art deco techniques to defend British colonies in Africa – building roads, providing power, jobs and medicine. The message was clear – Britain “civilized” its territories.

Expressionist poster for Oskar Kokoschka’s art-play “Murderer, The Hope of Women,” a 1909 critique of many conventional ideas, including German colonial rule in Africa.

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Man with a Guitar (Braque)and “Ma Jolie,” (Picasso) are representations of the human figure. Both paintings were inspired by the vibrant café culture of early-twentieth-century Paris, in which artists, dancers, musicians, and celebrities would all gather in cafés.

At another level both also suggest the ‘anomie’ of urban life.