Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!dgp.toronto.edu!elf
From: elf@dgp.toronto.edu (Eugene Fiume)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Canada: one or two cultures?
Message-ID: <1989Jul24.085326.28706@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Date: 24 Jul 89 12:53:25 GMT
References: <615662921.9256@myrias.uucp> <568@UALTAVM.BITNET> <604@philmtl.philips.ca> <89Jul19.104948edt.18727@me.utoronto.ca> <609@philmtl.philips.ca>
Distribution: can
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
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In article <609@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel J. Tremblay) writes:
>
>I dont know how you can talk about 'our (canadian) culture' without using
>plurial.  Canada like many other countries (Swiss, Belgium...) do not have a 
>true culture but is composed of a many cultures.  ...

I'm not sure what any of you people mean by "culture", but any way you
slice it, the Swiss and Belgians have distinctive ethno-social traditions
(call them "cultures" if you want).  There are lots of them, granted.  But a
Swiss-German is not a German, and a Swiss French is not French.  Swiss
Italians are a slightly different story, but in any case, it is inaccurate
to think that this thing called "culture" can be grouped  by linguistic
equivalence classes.  Sometimes language is used to partition different
groups (as in the many dialects spoken in Italy, for example), but I don't
believe it is the first cause.  Just look at the different sets of values
that a vanilla "big-city" Canadian has from a vanilla "small-town"
Canadian.  Language is an over-rated cultural factor.

I don't believe distinctive "cultures" are possible in young countries, at
least not like the cultures that have developed elsewhere over many
centuries.  I consider this a blessing.  There are seedier sides to
maintaining one's "culture", such as xenophobia.  A "culture" is just
a big club, which reminds me of the Groucho Marx quip (-: .
--------
-- 
Eugene Fiume
Dynamic Graphics Project
University of Toronto
elf@dgp.toronto.edu