A review by poorlywordedbookreviews
Culture: A new world history by Martin Puchner

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Culture is created. Culture is lived. Culture is a process, a dimension. Culture is recycled, borrowed, expanded, cannibalised. It is not static, nor linear. Cultural purity is a myth and cultural preservation (in its live form) stagnating, often futile. 

   

In this wide ranging book (it’s truly global in its examples, and covers from ancient Egypt to modern K-Pop) the author presents a lot of really interesting stuff about cultures you may not know well - and how cultural aspects did/may have been exported and adapted. It is well written and very accessible. I found the sections on more ancient and non western cultures more engaging, but there’s definitely something for everyone; from how Akhenaten & Nefertiti’s monotheistic beliefs may have influenced early Judaism, to Nigerian reinterpretations of western literary and theatre traditions to build independent nations, to the Japanese ‘wave’ and mystery pillars in the Indian subcontinent.

   

I think what this book lacks is a clearer commentary on the modern day discourse of cultural appropriation. What this book demonstrates is appropriation is a fundamental part of cultural processes; it’s normal, it’s often beneficial, and it’s sometimes the only thing that lets cultural aspects flourish or survive (via idea migration). What a less nuanced reader could take from this is that ‘cultural appropriation is not a ‘thing’, what are these woke numpties on about’… when what they really need is some context on the complexity of the appropriation issue (ie. it’s the power imbalances in appropriation between cultures that are now far more intertwined / happening on a much faster time scale). 

   

Overall thought a really interesting book, and I learnt a lot.