C-CS

Cultural Configurations

ABSTRACT

Persons have innumerable "private" configurations that play significant roles in their lives. We are concerned, however, with public configurations, that is, ones that are easily recognized in a given culture—the tea ceremony ritual. It is important to remember that such cultural configurations are mediated. They do not belong to any one individual but are shared by many persons. Cultures are made up, in large measure, of configurations. They establish and maintain our cultural institutions. In certain respects they may be considered "myths."

Persons have innumerable "private" configurations that play significant roles in their lives. Most if not all persons have a parent, an uncle or aunt, a friend, or someone they know from a distance whom they admire and wish to be like. The impulse to want to be like someone, accompanied by imitating what they do, is a configuration but one that is unique to an individual. In C-CS, we are concerned with "public" configurations that are easily recognized in a given culture—for example, the tea ceremony.

the tea ceremony

Consider a situation in which a government is sending a dignitary to another country about which the official knows next to nothing about its customs. It would not be unusual for the protocol officer to place the dignitary in a virtual situation in which he or she could experience a particular custom or ritual and practice how to behave when they arrived in the actual situation. Let’s take the “Japanese tea ceremony”as our instance.

The ceremony takes place in a room designed and designated for tea. The guests are shown into the waiting room. Here, the assistant to the host offers them the hot water which will be used to make tea. While here, the guests choose one of their group to act as the main guest. Then the assistant leads the guests, with the main guest directly behind, to a water sprinkled garden devoid of flowers. It is called dew ground. Here the guests seat themselves on the waiting bench, anticipating the approach of the host who has the title house master. Just before receiving the guests, the master fills a stone basin, which is set among low stones with fresh water. Taking a ladle of water he purifies his hands and mouth then proceeds through the middle gate to welcome his guests with a bow. No words are spoken. The master leads his assistant, the main guest and the others (in that order) through the door which symbolizes the entry between the coarse physical world and the spiritual world of tea. The guests and the assistant purify themselves at the stone basin and enter the teahouse. Since the door is only thirty six inches high, all who enter have to crouch down and bow their heads. This configures the belief that everyone at the ceremony are equal, regardless of their social status. The last person in latches the door.

The room is devoid of any decoration except for an alcove where a scroll painting hangs carefully selected by the host, which reveals the theme of the ceremony. Each guest admires the scroll in turn, then examines the kettle and hearth. They then are seated according to their respective positions in the ceremony. The host seats himself and greetings are exchanged, first between the host and principle guest, then the host and other guests.

In the tea ceremony, water represents yin and the fire in the hearth yang. The water is held in a stoneware jar and symbolizes purity. It is touched only by the host. The tea is kept in a small ceramic container which is in turn covered in a fine silk pouch which is set in front of the jar. The occasion will dictate the type of stand used to display the chosen utensils. If tea is served during the day a gong is sounded, in evening a bell.

The host enters with the tea bowl which holds the tea whisk, the tea cloth which is a bleached white linen cloth used to dry the bowl, and the tea scoop, a slender bamboo scoop used to dispense the tea, which rests across it. These are arranged next to the water jar which represents the sun (symbolic of yang); the bowl is the moon (yin). Retiring to the preparation room, the host returns with the waste water bowl, the bamboo water ladle and a green bamboo rest for the kettle lid. He then closes the door to the preparation room. Using a fine silk cloth, which represents the spirit of the host, the host purifies the tea container and scoop. Deep significance is found in the host's careful inspection, folding and handling of the silk cloth, for his level of concentration and state of meditation are being intensified. Hot water is ladled into the tea bowl, the whisk is rinsed, the tea bowl is emptied and wiped with the tea cloth. Lifting the tea scoop and tea container, the host places three scoops of tea per guest into the tea bowl. Hot water is ladled from the kettle into the tea bowl in a quantity sufficient to create a thin paste with the whisk. Additional water is then added to so the paste can be whisked into a thick liquid consistent with pea soup. Unused water in the ladle is returned to the kettle. The host passes the tea bowl to the main guest who bows in accepting it. The bowl is raised and rotate in the hand to be admired. The guest then drinks some of the tea, wipes the rim of the bowl, and passes the bowl to the next guest who does the same as the main guest. When the guests have all tasted the tea the bowl is returned to the host who rinses it. The whisk is rinsed and the tea scoop and the tea container cleaned. The scoop and tea container are offered to the guests for examination. A discussion of the objects, presentation and other appropriate topics takes place.

The fire is then rebuilt for thin tea. This tea will rinse the palate and symbolically prepares the guests for leaving the spiritual world of tea and re-entering the physical world. Smoking articles are offered, but rarely does smoking take place in a tearoom. This is but a sign for relaxation. Cushions and hand warmers are offered. To compliment thin tea, dry sweets are served. At the conclusion, the guests express their appreciation for the tea and admiration for the art of the host. They leave as the host watches from the door of the teahouse.

- Description is based on Tea, Heaven on Earth by William Woodworth (1994) http://www.holymtn.com/tea/Japanesetea.htm

This is a very complex ritual and a guest at such a ceremony might easily insult his host by behaving in an inappropriate manner. In such circumstances, it would not be unusual for a prospective guest to be provided with a film of a tea ceremony in order to prepare him or her for the event. Watching the film would NOT be an actual tea ceremony. It could only be a virtual one. However, the film of a tea ceremony could provide a virtual experience in a simulated world that approximates the actual world in which tea ceremonies occur.

For the dignitary in our example the Japanese tea ceremony is a null experience. To prepare himself for the actual event, he watches a film of a tea ceremony. Of the figures in the film, the host, his assistant, and the guests, he is likely, given his status, to assume the role of the main guest. Thus, in watching the film, he would be likely to identify with the figure of the main guest in the film. If he transposes his perspective with that figure and loses consciousness of his actual situation, he configures the tea ceremony and the film thereby becomes a configuration of that ritual.

[The Tea Ceremony] [Cultural Configurations have private & public meanings] [Configurations Enable Culture] [Configurations Establish & Maintain Cultural Practices] [Mythos & Stories]

cultural configurations have private as well as public meaning

This may seem to be a straightforward instance of the experience of a configuration. However, the fact that the configuration is mediated introducing a number of additional factors into the model. First, the film media presents its audience with a perspective by design owing to the camera angles. The director of the film may not take the main guests perspective. He may take the host’s perspective or a neutral “onlooker’s” perspective. He may switch perspectives, alternating between the host and the main guest. This emphasizes the circumstance that the configurer deploys his imagination to reconstruct the scene presented to him. Thus the configuration is invariably in the mind of the configurer. As a consequence of the fact that configurations, although inspired by what is seen directly or through some media, are imagined virtual worlds. Thus, aside from one’s personal experiences of configurations, the meaning of a configuration for an individual remains private. The Japanese Tea Ceremony is designed to configure the recognition that “every human encounter is a singular occasion which can, and will, never recur again exactly.” Whether a film of the ceremony can induce this recognition depends largely upon the emotions it generates.

The most important aspect of a configuration is that it generates a “curve of emotion” that matches the identifying desire of the self-figure and hence provides motivation for re-enactment. When we are dealing with personal configurations, they are “equipment for living,” and provide the requisite motivation to carry out a specific agenda in a particular situation. A simple example is visualization. Prior to important events, persons often visualize them in advance in order to have more control over their actions and emotions during the actual event. Athletes employ visualization techniques regularly. Success in sporting events depends upon emotion to a great degree. Basketball players look to be “in a zone,” meaning that they have a feeling that every shot they take will go in. Before football games begin, the players on a team huddle together and chant sayings that will get them in the appropriate emotional groove. Configurations are much like rituals.

Returning to the tea ceremony, it is obvious that the ceremony is a ritual that is designed to evoke particular emotions and reinforce specific beliefs. “Since the door is only thirty six inches high, all who enter have to crouch down and bow their heads. This configures the belief that everyone at the ceremony is equal regardless of their social status.” Obviously it is entirely possible to enter the tea house without feeling that the other guests are social equals. There is no guarantee that a dignitary watching a film of a tea ceremony will believe that everyone there by virtue of being there are equals. In fact it may be quite difficult, especially if the film is shot from a neutral onlooker’s vantage point, to feel the requisite emotion toward the other figures in the film. The experience of the actual ceremony may generate this feeling in a dignitary who did not experience it while watching the film. Thus, a second caution about configuration is that the emotions and beliefs built into them my not accompany the transposition.

In considering understanding persons unlike us (for instance, an American citizen born in the states visiting Japan and trying to understand Japanese persons), the two cautions about configurations are quite important—what is understood, what is believed, and what is felt in configuring is private. Configurations are in a sense personal configurations. Nonetheless, the public meanings attached to cultural configurations frames the private responses. Though a person may not believe that everyone at the tea ceremony is an equal, in experiencing crouching down to enter the teahouse, he or she is aware of its cultural significance. Configurations can be configured in both private and public ways. As in the example of women watching instances of the film noir genre, configurations are configured selectively. Cultural configurations are designed to elicit shared beliefs but individuals may reject them or partially accept them.

[The Tea Ceremony] [Cultural Configurations have private & public meanings] [Configurations Enable Culture] [Configurations Establish & Maintain Cultural Practices] [Mythos & Stories]

Configurations enable culture

Although configuring is inescapably private since it takes place in someone’s mind, cultural configurations are often assigned meanings and are designed to elicit corresponding emotions. This is probably most evident in religious configurations such as the crucifixion or the nativity in Christianity. The story of the nativity, for example, is the central configuration at Christmas time which has its rituals. Gift-giving is a primary instance. Giving gifts to persons generates emotions such as joy and gratitude. The music associated with Christmas is intended, as retailers are well aware, to induce the feelings gift-giving engenders. Though not everyone responds in the same way, just as the participants in the Japanese tea ceremony recognize, certain emotions are appropriate to the experience. When cultural critics complain that Christmas has been “commercialized,” they object to the changing emotional tone of the event that advertising introduces.

Advertisers successfully employ configurations to associate the consumption of particular products with particular emotional outcomes. Most TV commercials are mediated configurations whose stories invite viewers to assume a particular perspective and identify with a self-figure in the virtual experience presented in the situation portrayed. Beer commercials are good examples. The most straight-forward quasi realistic configurations tell about friends enjoying each other’s company through the agency of a particular brew. Less realistic ones tend to be fantasies eliciting the desire to “have a beer” in order to enjoy a particular kind of relationship.

Cultural configurations repeatedly prescribe beliefs and generate correlative emotions. The hallmark of a cultural configuration is endless repetition. By dint of countless repetitions of the story and its themes, the configuration comes to be widely shared by persons willing to participate in configuring it. This process of “incantation” is palpable in situations wherein singers performing a song with a chorus invite the audience to sing along. It usually begins with a few persons joining in the chorus after the second verse and swells to the point where most of the audience joins in. Persons unfamiliar with the Lyrics soon learn them and by singing are affected by the emotions the music tends to produce. Singing “we shall overcome” at a political rally engenders emotions as strong as those engendered by bagpipes leading soldiers into battle.

The incantatory process by which cultural configurations spread brings persons who experience it together in beliefs and emotions. In this manner configurations enable culture.

[The Tea Ceremony] [Cultural Configurations have private & public meanings] [Configurations Enable Culture] [Configurations Establish & Maintain Cultural Practices] [Mythos & Stories]

configurations establish and maintain our cultural institutions

Little Red Riding Hood is an easily recognized figure in our culture. Her story is well known.

   Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. Whenever, she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood. One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go to visit her grandmother as it had been awhile since they'd seen each other.
"That's a good idea," her mother said. So they packed a nice basket for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her grandmother. When the basket was ready, the little girl put on her red cloak and kissed her mother goodbye.
   "Remember, go straight to Grandma's house," her mother cautioned. "Don't dawdle along the way and please don't talk to strangers! The woods are dangerous."
   "Don't worry, mommy," said Little Red Riding Hood, "I'll be careful."
   But when Little Red Riding Hood noticed some lovely flowers in the woods, she forgot her promise to her mother. She picked a few, watched the butterflies flit about for awhile, listened to the frogs croaking and then picked a few more.   Little Red Riding Hood was enjoying the warm summer day so much, that she didn't notice a dark shadow approaching out of the forest behind her... Suddenly, the wolf appeared beside her.
   "What are you doing out here, little girl?" the wolf asked in a voice as friendly as he could muster.
   "I'm on my way to see my Grandma who lives through the forest, near the brook," Little Red Riding Hood replied. Then she realized how late she was and quickly excused herself, rushing down the path to her Grandma's house.  The wolf, in the meantime, took a shortcut... The wolf, a little out of breath from running, arrived at Grandma's and knocked lightly at the door.
   "Oh thank goodness dear! Come in, come in! I was worried sick that something had happened to you in the forest," said Grandma thinking that the knock was her granddaughter.
   The wolf let himself in. Poor Granny did not have time to say another word, before the wolf gobbled her up! The wolf let out a satisfied burp, and then poked through Granny's wardrobe to find a nightgown that he liked. He added a frilly sleeping cap, and for good measure, dabbed some of Granny's perfume behind his pointy ears. A few minutes later, Red Riding Hood knocked on the door. The wolf jumped into bed and pulled the covers over his nose.
   "Who is it?" he called in a crackly voice.
   "It's me, Little Red Riding Hood."
   "Oh how lovely! Do come in, my dear," croaked the wolf.
   When Little Red Riding Hood entered the little cottage, she could scarcely recognize her Grandmother.
   "Grandmother! Your voice sounds so odd. Is something the matter?" she asked.
   "Oh, I just have touch of a cold," squeaked the wolf adding a cough at the end to prove the point
   "But Grandmother! What big ears you have," said Little Red Riding Hood as she edged closer to the bed.
   "The better to hear you with, my dear," replied the wolf.
   "But Grandmother! What big eyes you have," said Little Red Riding Hood.
   "The better to see you with, my dear," replied the wolf.
  "But Grandmother! What big teeth you have," said Little Red Riding Hood her voice quivering slightly.
   "The better to eat you with, my dear," roared the wolf and he leapt out of the bed and began to chase the little girl. Almost too late, Little Red Riding Hood realized that the person in the bed was not her Grandmother, but a hungry wolf. She ran across the room and through the door, shouting, "Help! Wolf!" as loudly as she could. A woodsman who was chopping logs nearby heard her cry and ran towards the cottage as fast as he could. He grabbed the wolf and made him spit out the poor Grandmother who was a bit frazzled by the whole experience, but still in one piece.
   "Oh Grandma, I was so scared!" sobbed Little Red Riding Hood, "I'll never speak to strangers or dawdle in the forest again."
   "There, there, child. You've learned an important lesson. Thank goodness you shouted loud enough for this kind woodsman to hear you!"
   The woodsman knocked out the wolf and carried him deep into the forest where he wouldn't bother people any longer. Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother had a nice lunch and a long chat.

Not only is the story well known but so is its lesson, “don't talk to strangers!” The moral of the story applies to young children. The story is told to children when they reach an appropriate age and are likely to go beyond their homes alone. It is not told to children before that time because it is a frightening story. The Grimm Brothers’ version is much grimmer than the American version since little Red Riding Hood is not rescued by a woodsman but eaten by the Wolf as is her grandmother.

The story is intended to configure a cultural practice suitable to children. It’s effect depends upon the child who hears it identifying with Little Red Riding Hood. From that perspective, the wolf is a dangerous creature who reveals himself at the point when he bears his teeth and announces that he intends to eat Red Riding Hood. A child listening to the tale, would learn to believe that she needs to follow her mother’s advice “not to talk to strangers” lest terrible things happen to her. This realization is accompanied by fearing the wolf, the belief is reinforced.

Adults reading the tale to their children no longer configure it in this way. Their perspective on the situation has changed and they probably identify with the “mother” rather than with Little Red Riding Hood. Simply reading the tale does not make it a configuration. It is only when reading or listening to it the reader or listener configures the tale by identifying with a self-figure in it, that the tale becomes a configuration. By itself, the tale is not a configuration. Stories have to be “culturally activated,” so to speak, by the act of configuring (identifying and transposing perspectives with a self-figure) before they function as configurations. Literary critics, who believe that the meaning of the text, is “IN” the text, may argue that the theme of Little Red Riding Hood is available to any reader or listener. Though I would not agree that the meaning is “in” the text, I would not dispute this claim. Nonetheless, comprehending the theme of Little Red Riding Hood is not the same as configuring the tale. The difference lies in the virtual experience. As a cultural configuration, Little Red Riding Hood involves the experience of being afraid that a stranger like the “wolf” may harm you and so you must be very careful in dealing with him. This virtual experience produces the emotion of fear and motivates a cultural practice.

A parallel example of the difference would be a literary critic who analyzed the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins without sharing his beliefs. As a Catholic priest, Hopkins infused his poetry with the religious beliefs he held. To comprehend the ideas with which the meaning of the poems can be summarized is quite a different matter than to virtually experience the emotions that the beliefs they embody evoke. The latter experience enables a Catholic religious culture whereas the former does not. We have noticed this difference with the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Merely to be present at such a ceremony without experiencing the emotions the ceremony is designed to inculcate does not enable you to better understand Japanese culture.

[The Tea Ceremony] [Cultural Configurations have private & public meanings] [Configurations Enable Culture] [Configurations Establish & Maintain Cultural Practices] [Mythos & Stories]

mythos and stories

Dan McAdams regards life stories, which are drawn from various cultural templates, as personal myths. And, in the sense that stories, even life stories, are largely fictional (more what we wish to believe about ourselves than fact), it is not inappropriate to call them "myths." In the case of cultural configurations, beliefs are paramount but they are shared beliefs, that is, stories that are shared by members of a culture. We can think of them as cultural myths even when they are contemporary. But, to avoid the resistance usually occasioned by the term, "myth," I use the term, "mythos."

The mythos of a story is created the moment someone retells it. A story’s mythos is not a permanent or fixed structure. Once a story is retold, not merely repeated in the same words as a previous version, the elements common to the telling and the retelling(s) are its mythos. When the story is retold in different words with the same motives, states, and acts that change the initial state into a final state, then its mythos reveals itself. However, the mythos is dynamic in the sense that the mythos can evolve as the retellings shift to suit different situations. This is reflected in the circumstance that stories associated with particular titles can be shown to have very different story structures. A named story may be told initially as one in which the hero dies in the end and then later retold (retaining many of its story elements) but in which the hero lives. When the mythos of a named story changes substantially, a different story is being told even if it carries the same name as other tellings.

Although a mythos may exist as the result of single retelling, from a cultural perspective, numerous retellings over periods of time establish it as a cultural “mythos” or “configuration.” From the point of view of contemporary media, TV shows with formulaic plots that survive for years with significant ratings are by partial definition mythoi. The fact that audiences want to enjoy a story formula, however trite, is corroborating evidence of its identification with some of the figures in the story. The principal evidence for such identifications would, of course, be the testimony of members of the audience by word or deed (e.g., dressing like the figure in the show).

Configuring a story involves arranging the elements of a shared story structure (mythos) in the pattern of one’s experiences. (See "The Elements of a Configuration") In these remarks we are concerned with the ways in which we build possible worlds and share them. We create possible worlds by stringing together stories, that is by arranging figures in positions relative to each other in a particular place at a particular time to describe a particular interaction (situation) that is analogous to our experiences but is not a factual report of them. In short we imagine scenarios and link them to each other in space and time to create a possible world.

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[The Tea Ceremony] [Cultural Configurations have private & public meanings] [Configurations Enable Culture] [Configurations Establish & Maintain Cultural Practices] [Mythos & Stories]