Six Dartmouth faculty panelists and more than 100 audience members met in the Rockfeller Center for the Social Sciences last night to try to answer the question, "Is there an 'American' culture?"
Although the participants in the event, which was moderated by College Chaplain Gwendolyn King, were unable to give a concrete answer to the posed question, they debated with audience members about a variety of issues related to defining and understanding culture in the United States.
Each of the six panelists, English Professor William Cook, Freshman Dean Peter Goldsmith, Native American Studies Professor Christopher Jocks, Sociology Professor Deborah King, History Professor Annelise Orleck and Geography Professor Frances Ufkes, approached the subject in a different direction in brief opening speeches.
Goldsmith stressed the need to define culture before discussing if it exists. He posed the question, "How do we know when we are dealing with a discreet culture?"
Goldsmith, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology, said the presupposition is that American culture is made up of discreet cultures that in anthropology are defined by how people behave and what they say, write and manufacture.
He said problems arrive when asking, "Which differences are the important ones?" He questioned whether ethnic differences are the most important classifying factors and if class differences should even be considered when dividing people.
Jocks defined culture for an individual as "that which enables [the individual] to grow."
He also said it is impossible to have an American culture before there is a reconciliation between races for past violations. He explained that because all Americans do not share a common history, defining culture would be seen as racism without an agreeable starting place.
Cook said a definite yes or no answer to the question of the existence of an "American" culture is necessary. He answered "each of us, like the U.S., is multi-cultural ... We are never, it seems to me, monocultural."
King said, "We may sample different cultures like we sample different foods," but we are not multi-cultural.
One member of the audience suggested an overriding concept of justice may be the American culture. The audience member said this concept provides a safe haven for the members of a multi-cultural society.
The discussion was organized by the Interracial Concerns Committee, which encourages discussion of such matters at its weekly meetings.
