Page 60 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

RETHINKING THE FOUNDATIONS OF CULTURE

problem. The traditional conception of culture draws a route to interpret
cultural phenomena that moves from the group to the individual, ruling out
the alternative that moves from the individual to the group. In cultural anthro-
pology, the group takes precedence over anything; the individual becomes an
epiphenomenon.
But from the Darwinian conception of life, the view is di fferent. The set of
collective representations defining culture is just a model generalized from the
point of view of individuals. Therefore culture cannot completely bind them.
At best, culture opens up individual possibilities. The conclusion is that the
individual organism will make use of collective rules, subverting them, distort-
ing them, turning them around, deceiving competitors, negotiating relation-
ships, making whatever is necessary, even delivering honest and true signs, just
to impose its selfish interest.
The tension between selfish interest and cultural norm is too valuable to be
discarded with the unfounded claim that animal societies and human groups
are totally excluded from one another. As we have seen in this chapter, it is
feasible to interpret human cultures without a rigid line separating nature and
culture.
With its emphasis on collective representations, stable, and more or less pre-
determinant of individual interaction, anthropological theories of culture can-
not grasp the individualistic wave that will wash our shores in this age of the
global circulation of messages. It is easy to see that there are instances of nation-
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alistic and local resistance or backlashes. But gradually we will recognize that
gone are the days when societies could effectively isolate themselves from mes-
sages, ideas, influences, and expectations coming from strangers. Soon, there
will be no societies flagellated by outside and marginal predation. Predation
will just come from within.
Without great cultural chasms around them, like the waters where schools of
fish swim, societies will not tighten themselves with organic solidarity, forging
the impression of stability and permanence so enchanting to anthropological
monographs. Whether we like it or not, singular cultural systems are presently
preyed on with information and messages that sprout and leap suddenly not
from the rims but from their core. There are no parochial limits to the inter-
national media networks, much less to the computerized communication
exchanges happening on the Internet. The tendency is to have communication
rings that are hopelessly without boundaries.
In this panorama, geographic distance is not a hedge against cultural inter-
action and influence. Individuals are now able to interact without regard for
national boundaries. In fact, global clashes will not be between nations but
between conflicting cultural ideas. Perhaps even cultural particularities will be
dramatically toned down. Individuals will become more empowered because
they have more and more means to choose, with fewer restrictions, what
cultural products to consume.
The effect of the action of new communication networks is quite similar to

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