Hi Soumya
Thanks for your example. I quite agree with you and yes this kind of thing is not unknown in the West! I think there may be different cultural idioms at work. For example, Scottish Widows, an insurance company, promotes itself through using an attractive woman in mourning attire, thus marketing itself on the idea that there is life and security post the demise of a male spouse. I have never seen the opposite case positively valorized although this could change as different kinds of pension schemes become available to working women.
'Family values', are often promoted through figures of health professionals setting a 'good' example. I don't know how well you know UK history but in the eighties it went through a climate of intense individualism best expressed in Margeret Thatcher's slogan 'there are no more societies, only individuals and their families'. Anyhow, this went along with a kind of political scapegoating of anyone who did not fit a certain ( fairly dysfunctional?!) model of what a family was. Single parents got a realy hard time, the eligibility to vote got tied to ability to pay council tax ( which disenfranchised vast amounts of travelers) At the same time, it became increasingly evident that the model of 'family values', about the only thing that Thatcher had to put in the place of 'community' just did not work in a multicultural country with very different kinds of family unit. Anyhow, a lot of advertising, as well as the plethora of police and hospital dramas and soaps here, work to crea!
te a sense of being in a fictional community. Leaving aside the hyperbole of christmas, these are 'profane' rituals that are monotonously repeated, but are never to be underestimated, powers in the fabric of everyday life. And, of course, they are good at creating icons that advertising can latch on to.
That's my really oversimplistic account- before anyone pounces on me for lack of historical specificity, its the end of term and I'm knackered! Would love to hear more about how values are ritualised where you but will be offlist from tomorrow till Jan 2.
Speak to you in the New Year
Ruth.C
N.B thanks Michael for the Cannetti reference-that's one I know but its worth going back to re these debates
>>> Soumya Guhathakurta <[log in to unmask]> 12/20 5:12 am >>>
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for streching the discussion to the market for this is very
important for a third worlder like me.
To give an example,
Married ladies in India (generally & traditionally) sport vermillon in the
parting of their hair. This is a symbol which since repeated daily has
become a ritual. It ought to be noted that post demise of her spouse the
practice is discontinued. Here enters Prudential, a life assurance company
that is entering the Indian market. Their ad campaign uses the symbol of
vermillon on married women as a signifier of security - and that is what a
life assurance company is supposed to provide.
The market economy therefore often uses rituals and symbols to emphasise
attributes which it wants to grow upon for its own narrow interests. Maybe
it helps perpetuate the symbols and rituals. I am sure that such things do
happen in the West. Perhaps Frank Capra's movies on Christmas Eve
perpetuate the goodliness of a happy family.
!
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