Hidden Culture - Concealed, Silenced and Unnoticed

Authors

  • Pirjo Korkiakangas, PhD, Professor University of Jyväskylä
  • Jason O'Neill

Abstract

The activity of humans as cultural beings is bound to conventional customs, praxis and communally accepted values. ln order to act as a cultural member a human must also strive to abide by these rules. Culture is on the one hand visible and on the other hand contains elements and parts that are concealed and hidden. Culture and its attendant aspects do not open up and reveal themselves the same way for everyone. As some things are only known by a rare few, some cultural elements can also remain concealed, unnoticed and forgotten. They can also be purposely concealed within, for instance, political, social or canonized cultural values and defended as such. However, culture and its values and customs are not static and should therefore not be evaluated solely from a current perspective. Nonetheless, the unravelling of a hidden culture can - and this usually requires temporal distance - promote the understanding of past events that have previously been seen as contentious and contradictory.

Section
Editorial

Published

2006-12-31

How to Cite

Korkiakangas, P., & O’Neill, J. (2006). Hidden Culture - Concealed, Silenced and Unnoticed. Ethnologia Fennica, 33, 3–5. Retrieved from https://journal.fi/ethnolfenn/article/view/66223