Contemporary Culture Essay

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UNIVERSITY OF KENT

CONTEMPORARY

CULTURECOURSEWORK 4/4/2012

STUDENT: VAN HIEU NGUYEN

SEMINAR LEADER: KAMILLA PAWLIKOWSKA

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TOPIC: ‘The hu!" #$%& '( e((e")'!**& +u*)u,!*,!)he, )h!" "!)u,!*-. D'(+u(( ')h ,ee,e"+e )$+$")e$,!,& )e+h"$*$'+!* !"% e%'+!* !%3!"+e(-

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The human body is an organization which is always on the highest level of complexity. More

than 20,000 years from the dawn of the modern humanity, we are yet on the last step of the

evolution. However, the changes tae place not because of the adaptation, but because of

culture. !ulture is a product of evolution, undoubtedly, as human"s nowledge creates culture.

The evolution in terms of the present time is not the ad#ustments to the changes of the

environment$ nowadays, one maes the changes to loo normal to #oin the society. The fact that

it is more and more easy to modify the body is the reason to argue that the body is essentially

cultural rather than natural. %o people concern more about how their appearance or it is the

standard of the society has been raised that body modification must be met to be ordinary, to be

normal when waling down the street& This essay will loo at how the cultural body has

changed in time, from naturally constructed to culturally affected and attempt to verify the

cultural inclination of postmodern human.

'irstly, the creation of culture came when human started to have the cognition of its own

existence and the world. The diversity of the language is one thing contributes to the complexity

of culture. (ased on the different of the natural construction, language is not the same around

the world from the beginning of modern spoen language. )ven the different dialects in one

language show a part of the sophistication of culture. !ostumes of different ethnics are also the

expression of the significant variance of culture. !ommunicating and dressing *or in the case of

consumer culture, fashion+ create a basic protocol for everyone to follow$ also are two distinctive

features that distinguish Homo sapiens from other species. eople care about how to tal to

others, care about how they loo and the appearance plays a big role in the everyday life as

well as communication.

-econdly, the uses of the natural body used to be merely for the need of existence. 'rom the

ancient time when lie any other species, human had to survive and reproduce. hen the brain

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size increased and human"s nowledge had developed to a higher level, the natural body is

/given" higher abilities as well as authorities. The creation of civilisation was a milestone in the

development of human body. t showed that the cognition of the abilities and authorities had

been upgraded, human found itself in possession of /power". The medieval age was a transition

of the notions of surviving, hunting and illing to ruling and obeying. The dominant of the

feudalism gave the dominant class, the ing in this case, the highest possible power. The use of

the body is not solely surviving, it is also used to /express" the /power". 1s said above, the

medieval time was still literally cruel, for those who are affected by the ing of course. %eath

penalties were imposed easily it was showed that the body could express power not only by

fighting but also by giving commands. /ower" is an abstract concept which in this case is not

related to masculinity but refers to authority, the ability to do anything as desire was an

embodiment of absolute power. The higher class had the power on the lower ones, though

sounds sociological and political but the notion of the lower class exploitation was cultural. t

was originally from the desire for a good life, without having to wor hard and possess large

amount of property, people developed a want of taing control of others. (ecause humans are

carnivore, the tendency to see violence and slaughtering is one of the original habits and so it

can be said that the natural origin shaped the cultural evolution in various ways.

1lso, the social standards were raised in the Middle 1ge, for instance eating with appropriate

euipment instead of bare hands was a /must" or the improvement of hygienic habits 3. eople

showed the courtesy of putting on not only clothes but beautiful, high uality clothes to indicate

their social level *e.g.4 a high5class person should loo better than a farmer, etc.+, hence created

the concept of fashion. !lothing has three basic principles4 utility, hierarchy and attraction 2.

Those are fundamental purposes of clothing which can be seen easily for example different

clothes are for different types of activities, hence the utility. More beautiful and pricy costumes

indicate the social level which is also the hierarchy. 1ttraction occurs as people put on appealing

clothes to /get the eyes of the opposite sex". However, fashion itself is paradoxical, as it is a part

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of culture. f the three fundamental principles of fashion was uite vague the pre5Middle 1ge,

fashion becomes more significant in the modern time. !lothing styles distinguish sex, age,

social level and even characters. 6eferring to 'oucault"s famous theory, fashion is a medium for

discourse to have effects on people. 1lthough discourse does bend people into many types of

different social reaction, it is also the reason for the existence of subculture. Tattooing and

piercing are considered fashion, using which people can express the want to be different,

emerge from the popular culture without relying on clothes. t is also an argument of 'oucault,

that the body can at the same time express the resistance to the dominant ideology, in this

case, the popular culture.

opular culture can be seen as the dominant ideology because in which people behave the

same and have similar attitude toward the one thing or another. The concept of consumer

culture is elevated as a social movement, a drive for economic development, a moral doctrine

and a means for demarcating social status7. eople are always affected by the surrounding$

they follow the social movement and by that become a part of the society. Those who do not

follow the trend or are not entirely dominated by the social convention see ways to be different.

n some way, culture has effect on subculture and vice versa. The base of subculture is culture

and people do find the alternative more interesting than the regular. Tae female as an example

for this. 'emale on the anatomical scale is associated with femininity or in other words, the

weaer sex. %espite the lac of physical advantages against male, female uses the body as a

tool to attract and dominate male. (ody modification is used when the body construction is lac

of desired properties. lastic surgery for example, is used by women in order to have the

attention of men and be more competitive when finding male companions against other women.

(ecause of the effect from the surrounding, women have the incentive to change the natural

body, it is not entirely the nature of human to want a change on the body, it is the sudden

* Consu+r Cu"tur, htt#--n./."o#!$r!n3$org-!rt."s-#!gs-4&%0-Consu+r'

Cu"tur$ht+"&

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.htmlhttp://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.htmlhttp://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.htmlhttp://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.html


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91ll men are created eual.:5Thomas ;efferson *3+, there is no big different between

human and cyborg, as long as the foundation is human. (ecause the body is more in the

culture, as culture is created and inherited by studying, it is not difficult to populate the notions of

cyborgism. However, as long as there is no enormous technological revolution in human

enhancement #ust yet, the natural bodies are still yet to be itself and changing the cultural

perspective on posthuman transition and cyborg remains a dilemma.

ord count4 3?>7

Bibliography:

(. @onghurst, et al, *200=+, Introducing Cultural Studies, earson.

Consumer Culture, http4AAencyclopedia.#ran.orgAarticlesApagesA>8=0A!onsumer5!ulture.html

History of Language, http4AAwww.historyworld.netAwrldhisAlainTextHistories.asp&

historyidBab37

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http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.htmlhttp://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.htmlhttp://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13


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M. 'eatherstone, M. Hepworth C (. Turner, *3DD3+, The Body: Social Process and Cultural

Theory, -age.

E. (ostrom, *200?+, A HISTO! O" TA#SH$%A#IST THO$&HT,

http4AA www.nicbostrom.comApapersAhistory.pdf , 'aculty of hilosophy, Fxford Gniversity.

Performer gets third ear for art, http4AAnews.bbc.co.uA3AhiAhealthA

Contemporary Culture Essay

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