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What is cultural infrastructure in other countries? Is it just religion / worship?

sasaf5 5y ago
Thousands of years of history, local legends unaffected by foreign religions, carefully maintained genealogy trees, archives of state decisions from eons ago etc... To be fair with the US, they have formed a pretty neat legend around the founding fathers and the constitution. I would consider that cultural infrastructure.
rayiner 5y ago
It’s not just religion. In Bangladesh, where I’m from, there’s a whole bunch of social norms and practices enforced by your mom talking about you to your aunties and your dad talking with your uncles. In fact, my family was quite non-religious, but we still had all this cultural infrastructure. Two concrete examples. Families have strong involvement in marriage. This isn’t just “here’s your spouse take it or leave it.” It’s a process by which people who have been married a long time and coach a young person about what qualities to look for in a marriage partner. (I remember my wife remarking 8 years into our American-style marriage that she was surprised by how inconsequential her dating preferences at 25 turned out to be. “Who cares what kind of music your husband likes at 2 am when the baby is crying?”) There’s also a lot of active coaching in marriage. I remember my dad being dispatched by the aunties to fly to another state to coach a young couple going through a rough patch.
aerosmile 5y ago
It would be the concept of "tradition," which means very different things in the US and Europe. First and foremost, there's the pure frequency in which that term is used. Good luck spending a day in Europe and not being exposed to one tradition or another. It's kind of cute in a superficial way (the way that people dress up for balls in Vienna), and very counter-progressive in others (the way that doctors are more respected than programmers). I would also wage to say that the pure interpretation of the term is a bit different. In the US, using the term "traditionally" in a sentence could have a positive connotation (eg: "traditionally, we celebrate new launches with some drinks") or a negative connotation ("those traditional companies are usually lacking in technology"). In contrast, invoking the term "tradition" in a sentence in, let's say Germany, would be to describe a near-religious ritual that cannot and must not be changed or even questioned (eg: "for Oktoberfest, people dress in traditional outfits that include lederhosen and dirndls.") I struggle to think of a frequent context in Germany in which the term traditional would have a negative connotation. All this is to say that tradition is a wonderful thing if your circumstances lead you to invoke as little change as possible. But for those seeking social mobility and other types of change in their lives, I would argue that traditions can be very negative.

Thousands of years of history, local legends unaffected by foreign religions, carefully maintained genealogy trees, archives of state decisions from eons ago etc... To be fair with the US, they have formed a pretty neat legend around the founding fathers and the constitution. I would consider that cultural infrastructure.

rayiner 5y ago

It’s not just religion. In Bangladesh, where I’m from, there’s a whole bunch of social norms and practices enforced by your mom talking about you to your aunties and your dad talking with your uncles. In fact, my family was quite non-religious, but we still had all this cultural infrastructure. Two concrete examples. Families have strong involvement in marriage. This isn’t just “here’s your spouse take it or leave it.” It’s a process by which people who have been married a long time and coach a young person about what qualities to look for in a marriage partner. (I remember my wife remarking 8 years into our American-style marriage that she was surprised by how inconsequential her dating preferences at 25 turned out to be. “Who cares what kind of music your husband likes at 2 am when the baby is crying?”) There’s also a lot of active coaching in marriage. I remember my dad being dispatched by the aunties to fly to another state to coach a young couple going through a rough patch.

aerosmile 5y ago

It would be the concept of "tradition," which means very different things in the US and Europe. First and foremost, there's the pure frequency in which that term is used. Good luck spending a day in Europe and not being exposed to one tradition or another. It's kind of cute in a superficial way (the way that people dress up for balls in Vienna), and very counter-progressive in others (the way that doctors are more respected than programmers). I would also wage to say that the pure interpretation of the term is a bit different. In the US, using the term "traditionally" in a sentence could have a positive connotation (eg: "traditionally, we celebrate new launches with some drinks") or a negative connotation ("those traditional companies are usually lacking in technology"). In contrast, invoking the term "tradition" in a sentence in, let's say Germany, would be to describe a near-religious ritual that cannot and must not be changed or even questioned (eg: "for Oktoberfest, people dress in traditional outfits that include lederhosen and dirndls.") I struggle to think of a frequent context in Germany in which the term traditional would have a negative connotation. All this is to say that tradition is a wonderful thing if your circumstances lead you to invoke as little change as possible. But for those seeking social mobility and other types of change in their lives, I would argue that traditions can be very negative.