Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Einführungskurs: “Introduction to Cultural Studies”
Winter Semester 05/06

‘Culture’ is the same as ‘Ideology’

February 8, 2006

by

Daniela Deubler

Englisch, Geographie, Spanisch (LA Gym)
Amerikanistik, Kulturwissenschaften der engl. Länder, 
Kulturgeographie (M.A.)
3rd Semester

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION  3

2. IDEOLOGY  4
2.1. DEFINITION OF IDEOLOGY  4
2.2. IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE  5

3. CULTURE  6
3.1. DEFINITION OF CULTURE  6
3.2. CULTURE AND IDEOLOGY  7

4. CULTURE AND IDEOLOGY: DIFFERENT OR THE SAME?  7

5. CONCLUSION  9

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY  10

1. Introduction

Culture and ideology. On hearing these two words nobody really knows precisely what they mean. Both of them are very hard to define. The more books and dictionaries you consult in regard to the exact definitions of those two words, the harder it gets to understand what culture and ideology really means and the more confused you get.

I have been asking various people who are not involved into Cultural Studies or anything the like at all, what spontaniously comes to their mind on hearing ′culture′ and ′ideology′. The various responses have been quite different.

One of the definitions of ideology was the "way of thinking from someones perspective. Usually perceived negatively and has to do one way or an other with forms of power or religion" whereas somebody else told me that it "unfortunately makes me think of people who are fanatical about their personal philosophy, whether it is religion, politics, whatever. I realise that is not the textbook definition. It seems to me one can have ideas, but as soon as it becomes formal enough to be Ideology, intolerance steps in."

In regard to the word ′culture′ they came up with the following definitions: "Related to different tribes, ethnicities or any social populations. Their traditions and ways of life. The way they dress, music, food, language, habits, humor and behavior. E.g. I paid lots of money to travel and get to discover and feel diverse cultures" and there is already the ′problem′ with the second person who cannot really define the word culture with just one definition but who has "two thoughts. Art, Music, Architecture, marking the development of Western civilisation. Or more generally, culture in the sense of a social culture. I.e. our Greek migrants have a different culture (=way of living) than we do. Our "family culture" when the children were little incorporated simplicity: not too much TV, no theme parks, home made food, story books on my lap at bedtime."

As we can see the ideas which are linked to ideology and culture are quite diverse and in the following essay I am going to have a further look on the definitions of ideology and culture and whether those two notions are the same or differ from each other in any way.

2. Ideology

2.1. Definition of Ideology

As I have already mentioned before, the definition of ideology is not quite clear. “The word ‘ideology’, one might say, is a text, woven of a whole tissue of different conceptual strands; it is traced through by divergent histories…” (1) ¹. Terry Eagleton, for instance, describes in his book “Ideology – An Introduction” sixteen different meanings of this one word, all of which are quite different. How one defines the word ideology can depend on, from which aspect one wants to see it. Whether political, institutional, economical, religious, philosophical, scientific etc..

The word ideology was founded in 1796 by the philosopher Antoine Destutt de Tracy who referred to ideology as “an ostensibly ‘neutral’ science of ideas that sought to trace how ‘sensation’ became thought” ². This meaning of ideology has after some time been replaced by some other meanings. Later on, according to Eagleton the two main concepts of ideology were Marx ´s idea of “true and false cognition, with ideology as illusion, distortation and mystification” (3) and “the function of ideas within social life” (3). But then, I ask myself whether all ideas within social life are ideological, for example the way somebody is taking a shower is not ideological at all although he follows certain ideas to wash himself in a certain way. Whereby for somebody elses personal philosophy - what this clearly is to me - means ideology as seen in the introduction and to me this is not ideological at all. What might help in judging whether something is ideological or not is “that in any particular situation you must be able to point to what counts as non-ideological for the term to have meaning” (9).

[....]

1 Terry Eagleton, Ideology – An Introduction (London: Leaper & Gard Ltd, 1991). All parenthetical references follow this edition.

2 James M. Decker, Ideology (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) 10.