What is culture? We all have one, apparently, and the lucky ones may have several. We are well-tuned to abhor ‘cultural insensitivity’—I know that—but what is this thing called culture?

Wandering around ‘culture festivals’ doesn't seem to help me much. ‘Culture’ seems to be different kinds of music, food and dress. Not to mention the people playing it, eating it, or wearing it: they seem to have ‘culture’. I try not to be insensitive.

Wandering around in the city doesn't help much either. There seems to be some kind of ‘culture’ at the Opera House—at the concert hall—at the Belvoir Street Theatre—and even among the Rockdale Musical Society. I try to pick some up, but it doesn't seem to stick. Being sensitive is getting harder. Rock ‘n' roll seems much easier.

Language seems to be part of it. They either speak in strange tongues, or with strange accents. I, of course, speak properly. So how come they don't seem to understand me when I am in another country? I try to be sensitive. But it isn't easy when you have to shout and speak really slowly to be understood.

And customs—grabbing your wrist as you shake hands. Kissing on one cheek or two (and man-kisses too!). Who eats first, and how they do it. Who speaks to whom, and what do they say? What days or months are special? Who belongs to whom, and how do they acquire such responsibility?

It all seems so nebulous. It is there, but not there. There is a human being in front of me. But where is this thing called ‘culture’? It seems easy to listen to the person who is talking, but how do I hear their culture? I can see them, and I think I see it, but it seems to be beyond somehow—larger than any individual, and yet affecting every individual.

And yet I am supposed to be multicultural, cross-cultural, subcultural, culturally aware, culturally sensitive, and, yet, I am told, I am probably culture-bound.

Culture-bound: that doesn't sound good. Culture blinkered. Culture inescapable. Cultural slavery.

Days and weeks and years: what shall you eat? What shall you drink? What shall you wear? Law, statute and custom. Ritual, feast and festival. Do not handle. Do not taste. Do not touch. Questions of food or drink, a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Moods, methods, mores. Rules, regulations, restrictions.

Elemental spirits. Principalities and powers. Apparently the gospel liberates people from these evil beings, and from all this long list of strange things that we call culture. Apparently they are only “human precepts and teachings”, and their value is limited, to say the least (Col 2:16-23).

So what does this say about culture? Is human culture simply another vehicle for the principalities and powers?

That doesn't sound very culturally sensitive.

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