Transmitting Culture

Rating:
Summary: An insightful reading
Review: For those interested in understanding cultural processes, Regis Debray's Cultural Transmission is a must-read. This underestimated book begins with the question why the Christian faith, and not any other among the Eastern religious movements that competed for converts in Roman times, became the dominant religion of the Western world in the aftermath of pagan Rome. Debray asks a similar question regarding the different destinies of Anarchism and Marxism, the two revolutionary movements of the industrial era. However, Debray's historical concerns rest more on the side of an anthropological history of religion. He notes how the parallelism between the angelic cult of the early faith and the organizational patterns of the early Church contributed to its historical survival. The book ends with a critical appraisal of the theoretical fashions of our epoch. Along the journey Marshall McLuhan encounters Walter Benjamin in an original, remarkable, insightful, and ironic account of how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next. If you have not discovered them yet, Cultural Transmission will let you to the works of André Leroi-Gourhan and Bernard Stiegler. Contrary to the contemporary view that has language and discourse as the dominant entities by which social organization and cultural transmission happen, mediology - the discipline that aims at challenging the dominant theoretical view of culture - focuses on how the means of cultural transmission (e.g., rituals, books, films, Internet web sites, etc.) modify the cultural meanings that are being transmitted. The main argument of this book is aimed at formulating a critique of the ubiquitous theory of discourse that has become the trademark of poststructuralist circles. Debray argues that discourse is always predicated on the technological and organizational means that make it possible its transmission. More important, mediology is aware and critical of both the determinism and the cultural optimism that have been typical of much of the Anglo-Saxon tradition regarding technology. Following André Leroi-Gourhan, Debray sees technology as mediating between the human mind (e.g., ideas, language, etc.) and the human body (e.g., behavioral reflexes, cultural skills, etc.). From this perspective Debray examines a gamut of contemporary and influential theoretical positions about culture. Debray is particularly critical of the sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu. Debray also argues against cognitive theories based on a narrow biological interpretation of human cognition. This book represents an encompassing and stimulating contribution to the understanding of culture.