Page 161 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

JAMES LULL

Deterritorialization
Civilizational cultures endure when their members are deterritorialized too
– when they live outside their places of geographic and cultural origin. Such
cultural persistence can take the form of connections between diasporas and
the homeland. ‘Overseas Chinese’, for instance, can consummate business deals
in China much more effectively than Westerners can. Diasporic popular cul-
ture and media encourage cultural unity and comfort. At the extremely popu-
lar Club Miami in San Jose, California, for instance, a Mexican house band
plays famous Puerto Rican and Colombian pop standards to unite and please
the Peruvians, Venezuelans, Brazilians, Dominicans, and Salvadorans (as well as
the Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Colombians) in attendance. Marisa Monte
and Ricky Martin make Latinos everywhere proud – not of a place necessarily,
but of a cultural style that emerges sensually from the Latin American
civilization.
Deterritorialization, of course, is often very unpleasant. Cross-civilizational
immigration is particularly difficult. Immigrating groups from the same civil-
ization have a much better chance of ‘fitting in’ with the dominant cultural
assumptions and legal system of the host civilization. Parents and teachers in
many Asian nations, for instance, routinely spank, even bruise, the bodies of
children when they lie, steal, skip school, or become involved with ‘bad
influences’. When Asian families immigrate to Western civilization nations,
however, they often face tremendous di fficulties adjusting to the new cultural
and civilizational realities – particularly the concept of individual rights –
which even grants children the right to hold their own parents legally
responsible for abuse. In California, parenting classes are now being taught by
acculturated Vietnamese-Americans to new immigrants from Vietnam so they
can better understand life in the unfamiliar civilization.
Like all the cultural resources discussed in this chapter, civilizations function
not only as material entities (real people in real physical places) but as discursive
ideological and cultural spheres which people draw upon to establish and main-
tain their cultural identities, activities, and relationships. Mass and micro media
contribute much to help keep the civilizations alive, despite the disruptions of
geographical relocation.

Nation
The differences among us should be respected, but the shared values
are more important.
(Bill Clinton in a public speech, 1997)

We live under one flag and it must fly supremely.
(African-American political leader Jesse Jackson arguing
for government intervention to save ‘affirmative action’)

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