Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

The readings on Marxism and enlightenment got me into thinking about mankind, virtues, and morals. What is the inner drive of people that seek power through oppression of others? Are morals and virtues a result of our upbringing or rather the result of a personal argument with ourselves, asking who do I want to be, how do I want to be when in company with others, how do I want to express myself, where is my place in the world and what is my calling? As a big fan of the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant I felt the need to look up the English translation of his famous work, the categorical imperative. "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." I liked Mani's writings on feminist scholarship in the age of multinational reception. I find similarities between both her and I, as I am also a scholar that has lived in the the US for 5 years, yet doing research on the effects of culture on sexual behavior i...

I realized my reactions will be different for week 2 because sitting in on class and discussing the readings definitely has an influence on your thought process and eventually on your response, anyway, here we go... On performances…I believe as much as every person has their preferred channel of expressing themselves to the outside world (e.g. acting, painting, singing, writing, or through communication), we also have our preferred way/channel of receiving the expressions from others. An example of this might be that an individual loves to read plays by Shakespeare, yet, going to see a play acted on stage is just not their cup of tea. In the context of health and illness and with an individual expressing their true feelings, I think it is crucial, that more than one way of expressing/ receiving exists. Like that, more people have the chance to comprehend the content of one's inner feelings and this opens another "door" to engage in dialogue. On politics...when I was young...

Culture. Identity. Politics. Health. Four different concepts and ideas and yet they are so intertwined. What is culture? Although this question may sound simple to many people, social scientists consider this to be one of the key questions in the field. Many social scientists have tried to define this in their own way, but have failed to come to any solid conclusion. Interestingly, I had this long debate with someone recently about how many people it needs to create a 'culture.' I agreed with the author (cannot remember the name right now) who said that it only takes two people to create a culture. But my 'opponent' did not agree with me and she resisted this notion of at least two people strongly. Her opinion was that such a concept can perhaps (and only) define a sub-culture, as those two people will have many things in common with other 'major' cultures. I tried to convince her that, just as Airhihenbuwa (2007) says, any culture cannot be entirely unique of ...

Increasingly, a new generation of health communication scholars are drawing our attention to the performative nature of health communication. In our experiences of health and illness; in our interactions with our loved ones in a variety of health contexts; in our interactions with healers and health care providers; in our sharing of our stories of health, illness, healing, and dying with others in our communities; in our participation in social and political processes that seek to address issues of healthcare, we continually perform ourselves. Performance in this sense is both public and private. We perform our selves in health communication interactions; and perform often for others, for the purposes of understanding, sharing, creating community and bringing about change. It is through our performances that we co-construct stories of health that articulate the violence inflicted by oppressive social structures, and suggest avenues for social change.

Narratives are the stories that we create to construct our identities...who we are...and sometimes who we would like to be. Narratives played an important role in my thesis research as it was the stimulus material used to assess people's willingness to become an organ donor. These narratives ranged from short to long, stories of death and dying, to stories of rebirth. Never had I really thought about the complexity through which such stories were developed nor the significance that such retelling of one's story might have. These narratives we re collected from people who had had experiences with organ donation either from the donating side wherein a family member had to make the tough decision to donate a loved one's organs or from the recipient side wherein the individual received another's organs or lastly from the perspective of an individual that is still waiting for a life-saving transplant. All narratives were compelling but some narratives in particular stu...

In a Business Week story, the writer says that  "identity" replaces "experience" as the next big con cept in design and media thinking. People create their own identities interacting with products and services and so the business world should look at the rapidly shifting identity of the consumer. Indeed, the "smart" folks are spot on!! Identity and experience shape response and behaviour of an individual and is intertwined with the meaning and creation of the person's culture. I will examine some of my experiences and how they have contributed to my identity and thus my articulations. Arihihenbuwa(2006) noted that the study of culture is a study of ideas and values. I was reminded of my initial days in Bangkok when I wa s looking at everything with wonderous eyes and trying to understand the Thai culture. One morning while taking a walk (yes, you can take a walk yearlong, unlike midwest!!), I saw an image of Lord Buddha in the park. Most of Thailand is...

C u ltural interpretations are both occasioned by and enter arenas of ideological conflicts. As is evident from the initial readings and the different blog posts,  its also about horizons and perspectives. Its about ontologies and epistemologies and what the person subscribes to or has been schooled in or maybe has found a comfort zone in, to live his/ her life.  Spivak brings out some aspects in her essay on politics of interpretation. Her account of Said's mothers' experience with the British authorities highlights a critical point...of interpretation, of your ideology and where you stand. Further, the comments made on her possible reasons for her inclusion/participation, in the Chicago symposium on "The politics of Interpretation" also underscores the cultural politics. In last semester, I mentioned very confidently about FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) in front of my African faculty who exploded in a burst of anger and corrected me passionately saying that I had n...