American Cultural Heritage Research Articles

The Consequences of Democratizing Knowledge: Reconsidering Richard Hofstadter and the History of Education

IN HIS PULITZER PRIZE WINNING WORK, Anti-intellectualism in American Life, Richard Hofstadter set out to trace the social movements that altered the role of intellect in our society from a virtue to a vice. In so doing, he explored questions regarding the purpose of education and whether the democratization of education altered that purpose and reshaped its form. In considering the historic tension between access to education and excellence in education, Hofstadter argued that both anti-intellectualism and utilitarianism were consequences, in part, of the democratization of knowledge. Moreover, he saw these themes as historically embedded in America's national fabric, an outcome of her colonial European and evangelical Protestant heritage. Anti-intellectualism and utilitarianism were functions of our American cultural heritage, not necessarily of democracy. Hofstadter came to recognize the connection between utilitarianism and anti-intellectualism as his work in the history of education evolved. His initial concern with the role of the university and the intellectual in society developed into a powerful critique of the present purpose of education and the state of public education in the United States. The role of the intellectual in society and of anti-intellectualism in American culture are not burning issues at present. In fact, Americans

Language Socialization Practices and Cultural Identity: Case Studies of Mexican-Descent Families in California and Texas

This article explores the relationship between language and cultural identity as manifested in the language socialization practices of four Mexican-descent families: two in northern California and two in south Texas. The analysis considers both the patterns of meaning suggested by the use of Spanish and English in the speech and literacy performances of four focal children as well as family and dominant societal ideologies concerning the symbolic importance of the two languages, the way language learning occurs, and the role of schooling—all frameworks in which the children's linguistic behaviors were embedded. All four focal children defined themselves in terms of allegiance to their Mexican or Mexican American cultural heritage. However, the families were oriented differently to the Spanish language as a vehicle for affirmation of this commonly articulated group identity. The differences are emblematic of stances taken in a larger cultural and political debate over the terms of Latino participation in U.S. society. Parents in all of the families endorsed Spanish maintenance and spoke of the language as an important aspect of their sense of cultural identity. Only two of the families, however, pursued aggressive home maintenance strategies. Of the other two families, one used a protocol combining some Spanish use in the home with instruction from Spanish-speaking relatives, whereas the family that had moved most fully into the middle class was the least successful in the intergenerational transmission of Spanish, despite a commitment to cultural maintenance.

Towards the Poetization of the "Field of Manners"

In awarding 1993 Nobel Prize for literature African American novelist Toni Morrison, Swedish Academy called Morrison literary artist of first rank whose work is unusually finely wrought and cohesive, yet at same time rich variation. The Academy statement then applauded Morrison's linguistic achievement by proclaiming that writer delves into language itself, a language she wants liberate from fetters of race. As Paul Gray correctly observes, Academy made an honorable choice Morrison, but for at least one wrong reason. Her purpose, Gray notes, is the blackness of her characters and bestow them an abstract that can understand. It is, instead, insist upon particular racial identities of her fictional people - black women and men under stresses peculiar them and their station U.S. - and to break through limitations and prejudices of those lucky enough read her fiction (Gray 87). Indeed, what is so problematic about Swedish Academy's statement is that search for abstract universalities only justifies, but also necessitates, what British scholar Raymond Williams calls of essential. Williams posits that traditional notion of typicality literature is in effect a rendering of 'universals,' those characteristics which purport be permanently important elements of human nature and human condition (101). The problem with upholding traditional definition of typicality, Williams suggests, is that, instead of looking at social and historical reality as a dynamic process, people, seeking out permanent elements of human social situation, gravitate toward not only recognition of essential but through this recognition . . . its desirability and inevitability (102). African American feminist scholar Mae G. Henderson sees problem of the rhetoric of universality be as cultural as it is political. Rather than canonizing any voice, including African American voice, Henderson would prefer the privileging of difference, or multiplicity of 'interested readings,' order resist the totalizing character of much theory and criticism - readings that can enter into dialogic relationship with other 'interested readings' - past and present. Henderson remains concerned that the rhetoric of . . . has excluded gender, race, and class perspectives from dominant literary-critical discourse as well as socio-political centers of power, and she observes that the reduction of multiplicity undifferentiated sameness . . . has empowered white feminists speak for all women, black men speak for all blacks, and white males speak for everyone (156).(2) Indeed, contrary what is suggested Swedish Academy's statement about Toni Morrison's achievement with language, best writings African American literature are those that use languages that transcend African American experience, but those which are inspired by what Morrison calls huge silences literature, things that had never been articulated, printed or imagined (M. Brown 6A). The best writings African American literature challenge cultural, political, and social configuration of literary voice America with their insistence on celebrating African American cultural heritage. As Morrison once told a reporter from New York Times, My world did shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger.(3) To understand ethos of contemporary African American literature is, therefore, reappropriate our understanding of dialectical relationship between specificity and and between marginality and centralization; appreciate contemporary African American writers' accomplishments is understand importance for African Americans achieve what Houston A. Baker, Jr. …

THE MOTHER CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF CONCEPTION, MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL — THE UNFINISHED STORY

(1992). THE MOTHER CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF CONCEPTION, MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL — THE UNFINISHED STORY. Studies in Conservation: Vol. 37, Conservation of the Iberian and Latin American Cultural Heritage. Summaries of the Posters at the Madrid Congress, 9-12 September 1992., pp. 24-24.

RESTORATION OF THE GOTHIC PANELS OF THE ST MICHAEL ALTARPIECE AND ITS DIDACTIC RECONSTRUCTION

(1992). RESTORATION OF THE GOTHIC PANELS OF THE ST MICHAEL ALTARPIECE AND ITS DIDACTIC RECONSTRUCTION. Studies in Conservation: Vol. 37, Conservation of the Iberian and Latin American Cultural Heritage. Summaries of the Posters at the Madrid Congress, 9-12 September 1992., pp. 18-18.

A CASE STUDY OF THE CONSERVATION OF THE POLYCHROMED WOODEN CHOIRLOFT OF THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CHURCH AT CARABUCO, BOLIVIA

The restoration of the seventeenth-century adobe church at Carabuco, Bolivia, offers a model of how to conduct the preservation of the Latin American cultural heritage at remote sites. This paper details the conservation of the church’s polychromed wooden choirloft, which had previously been restored in 1765-66 after this and other portions of the church collapsed. The choirloft is made oflocally grown eucalyptus wood painted all over with a tempera-based medium. It was executed by a local artist whose style draws on local folk-art traditions while reinterpreting European Renaissance decorative schemes. The choirloft conservation project had two goals: to guarantee its structural integrity and to stabilize the decorative paint layers. These goals were accomplished in a four-month conservation project which formed part of a larger effort to restore the church.

A COOPERATIVE PROJECT FOR THE CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF BOOKS IN THE MERCED LIBRARY, QUITO

(1992). A COOPERATIVE PROJECT FOR THE CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF BOOKS IN THE MERCED LIBRARY, QUITO. Studies in Conservation: Vol. 37, Conservation of the Iberian and Latin American Cultural Heritage. Summaries of the Posters at the Madrid Congress, 9-12 September 1992., pp. 11-11.

The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community

This article focuses on the church as a social institution and examines how it interacts with and influences two other important social institutions in society (as identified by Moberg, 1962)-the family and the school. Historically, the church, the family, and the school are the three most critical institutions whose interactions have been responsible for the viability of the African American community (Roberts, 1980). The strengths of these three institutions are due in large measure to their function as expressions of the most basic values of the African American cultural heritage. These values include spirituality, high achievement aspirations, and commitment to family as enduring, flexible and adaptive functional mechanisms for survival (Billingsley, in press). We pursued this study using a holistic perspective inspired in part by DuBois (1898). This perspective recognizes that all three aggregations-the church, the school, and the family-operate within the domain of the larger society as socializing agents and are shaped by their own historical foundations. In this article we discuss the church's role in assisting families in need and in supporting educational institutions. The data presented herein are based on an ongoing, nationwide, multi-year study of the family-oriented community outreach programs that Black churches sponsor to assist those in need. Preliminary findings from a representative sample of 315 Black churches in the northeastern region of the country will be presented. Before turning to the details of this study, however, a brief discussion of the nature of these principal institutions will be set forth.

Civic Illiteracy and the American Cultural HeritageThe Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students.Allan BloomCultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.E. D. Hirsch, Jr.What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know? A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature.Diane Ravitch , Chester E. Finn, Jr.American Memory: A Report

The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students. By Allan Bloom. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. Pp. 392. $18.95 cloth, $7.95 paper.) Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. By E. D. Hirsch, Jr. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Pp. xi, 250. $16.95 cloth, $4.95 paper.) What Do Our 1 7-Year-Olds Know? A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature. By Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn, Jr. (New York: Harper and Row, 1987. Pp. ix, 293. $15.95.) American Memory: A Report on the Humanities in the Nation's Public Schools. By Lynne V. Cheney. (Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Humanities, 1987. Pp. vi, 29. $2.00.)

Cross-Cultural Counselling in Perspective with Recommended Areas for Training

Based on a review of the literature, this article presents different elements one must be sensitive to when entering into a counselling relationship with individuals who do not share North American cultural heritage and values. More specifically, the authors review ten factors and attitudes which they believe have a significant impact on the counselling process and outcome. In addition, the article recommends training areas for professional counsellors planning to provide counselling services to ethnics and minorities. Finally, the article stresses that providing services to cultural and minority groups is a complicated and involved process. Not only is it necessary to provide services in the language of the clients but it is also essential to examine and possibly change counsellor attitudes and behavior in order to provide efficient counselling services.

Negro Teen-Age Culture

There are over three million Negro teen-agers in the United States, three-fourths of whom live in the South. Their position in the American social structure is decisively conditioned by race, inferiority, deprivation, and youthfulness. Within Negro society, they are differentiated into high-prestige and low-prestige categories on the basis of contrasting cultural heritages. Negro teen-age culture is a melange of general adolescent patterns and unique ethnic practices. Two modes of aggression tend to distinguish this group of teen-agers. Low-prestige youths exhibit unusual personal aggression; the college teen-agers have created the racial protest movement. Racial protest takes several forms and constitutes one of the most positive elements of current American teen-age culture. Negro teen-age behavior is an indigenous part of the American cultural heritage. Future developments, like current mani festations, are likely to be conditioned by social trends already in evidence. Among other things there will be measurable increase of the protest theme. It is to be hoped that the protest will continue to be disciplined and constructive.

For the Study of the American Cultural Heritage

For the Study of the American Cultural Heritage