Hunting and Organizing Patterns Out of the Elusive Isolate (Part Five)

Hunting and Organizing Patterns Out of the Elusive Isolate (Part Five)
Review of the Silent Language (Edward T. Hall) 1959

Hall determines that isolates of culture are abstractions or phantoms simply because their presence is similar to organic molecules which can only be postulated theoretically and upon close examination in the format of analysis of sets or markers which quickly become perceived to exist as sets of and upon themselves. As structural components, cultural isolates exist as building blocks without perceptual structure. This is all exemplified most simply by the examination of words being composed of sets of sounds, in sets intelligible as words, but independently consisting as unintelligible, culturally homeless verbalizations. Thus precison in the study of cultural isolates is described as, "one can only be precise on one analytical level at a time and then only for a moment."

Isolates reveal themselves as being more like discreet categories of sets, for example that there are systems of sound recognition on language to language comparisons which are binding standards of communication which thoroughly applies to cultural boundaries. Hall expresses the influence these boundaries play out over time as significant as the effects of learning a first language and immersion in a first culture will play upon learning new languages or further perspectives or immersions in foreign cultures. He claims the first language and culture invariably accents subsequent languages and cultural immersion.

What binds or is boundary in culture therefore is not the pervasive sets themselves but in the melding of isolates and patterns which are exactly difficult to analyze which scientifically denotes theoretical development and empirical elements in the study of cultural patterns. However from an analytical perspective, what is required is structural points of reference around which behaviour clustering occurs, through which normal members of a culture may distinguish comparative or contrastive distinctiveness between dissimilar events such as A or B. Hall makes clear all that is required to distinguish certain patterns of cultural behaviour is for normal participants to be able to identify similarity or comparison-like differences in discreet sets, such as making the simple distinction of "same" or "different". This is a simple process of making cross-cultural comparisons on a scientific level which has proven useful.

Hall skirts around the theory of isolates, as they are an abstraction, to describe them fairly as the building blocks of culture, necessarily few in number, but in their congruity with sets, exist seemingly on an infinite variation of sets. All of these sets are then bound within systems, becoming sets only when they are removed or studied independently. Furthermore, while sets may be examined and compared across cultures, their meaning is only relevant within original cultural contexts which contain them. Hall notes that it is not the sets, but the isolates of culture contained within them that make differentiation between cultural patterns possible.

In Chapter Eight, Hall examines "The Organizing Pattern" of cultures and makes particular resounding statements about the meaning of experience. Most important, perhaps secondary to his studies on time, are his points of view on experience. Hall notes that experience is an abstract reference which cannot be fully excised from its dependancy on culture. In fact, that individual experience itself is perceived to be understood among others. But that its dynamic is based clearly upon perception, and the variation of perception of experience is as various as there are living members of a culture and any individual perceptions on any particular experience are invariably linked to cultural precepts and values. Hall may be quoted, "Experience is something humans project upon the outside world as they gain it in culturally determined form."

Perhaps as a result of western cultural perceptions of the freedoms of the individual, one might suspect that the results of enlightenment theories and the perceived freedoms of the individual as a result have merely developed more and more individuals who claim to know more and more about their own personal perspectives perhaps at an intrinsic cost, a blindness to the boundaries of culturally bound experience. As a result, it only appears that collectively, more and more individuals seek to espouse individual dynamics of culture on an informal level with the intention of formalizing those amorphous, abstract principles of behaviour or ethics upon the culture at a more formalized level through force of will, which is not quite possible. However culturally bound experiences prevent such a shift from taking place. Perhaps this is a failure of individuals to perceive experience as being culturally bound, tied, or intimately, infinitely linked to cultural patterns, laws, order, selection, and congruence as Hall posits, inbuilt within their own psyches.

Hall further explains that once one becomes aware that these boundaries exist, one may in some way, become liberated from their ties. In particular, his example regarding a man's attraction to a woman is interesting. Such a man may want to invite her out on a date. Under such circumstances there are various dynamics at play, such as choice of language, gifts he may give to her, hours he may call upon her, clothing he may wear, and the ultimate say generally residing on the woman's preferences which are fairly limited as choices that he may make. His only real choice is to act on his attraction and initiate his desire for a date.

However in many cultures, the actions of a single woman implicate more than the individuals. A family's honour may rest on a woman being virginal or chaste until marriage, thus a possible implication of her accepting such an invitation might be death. So differences in behaviour, even in what is commonly perceived as dating in some cultures might have dynamically different consequences in another culture. Thus Hall exemplifies that the conventions of culture are often existant without individual choices or informal variations but exist so constantly that these are not even recognized as rules.

Hall exemplifies his theories with reference to Benjamin Whorf who used language to explain deep rules which implicate thoughts and behaviour. Similarly Geert Hofstede refers to culture as the programming of the mind. Both namely support the conclusion that culture actually is resoundingly experience, and that experience does not really exist outside of that relationship. As a result Hall doubts that experience is actually ever shared between individuals or that there are any constants of experience which may be measured or, most importantly, judged on individual comparisons. That cultures, carefully review this relativists, as it appears to be correct, cultural values are only relative on patterns levels. http://www.google.com/search?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=%22Benjamin%20Whorf%22&sa=N&tab=iw

Relativists should really read deconstructionists like Derrida simply to see how ridiculous over-reliance on relativity tends to be. Hall examines the evidence to suggest that all of humanity has nearly completely limited or absolutely no contact with direct experience. That direct experience is merely a set of patterns which stream consciousness and thoughts to codify reactions, while individuals with different sets of patterns and cultural values will react differently under the same conditions. http://www.google.com/search?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=derrida&sa=N&tab=iw

Hall quotes Whorf:

"...we all hold an illusion about talking, an illusion that talking is quite untrammeled and spontaneous an merely 'expresses' whatever we wish to express. This illusionary appearance results from the fact that the obligatory phenomena within apparently free flow of talk are so completely autocratic that the speaker and listener are bound unconsciously as though in the grip of a law of nature." (Hall: 1959, 120)

Hall defines three types of hierarchical patterns existant and examinable cross-culturally:

1. Order/ 2. Selection/ 3. Congruence

Quite simply, does one really ever experience anything without first filtering through cultural values? According to Hall, it is simply impossible to deconstruct experience from hard-wired for life cultural programming.