Australia - The Discussion (1 Viewer)

ur_inner_child

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Enlightened_One said:
Culture is, when it is broken down, a form of stereotyping. Often stereotypes arise out of an outsiders perception of their culture.
It's true that an outsider can give us a good idea of our culture, but culture is not simply that.

How do people then mean (in regards to semi-recent events) when they say to accept our Australian Culture or leave?

They don't mean to drink beer and have bbq's do they?
 

Comrade nathan

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Culture is, when it is broken down, a form of stereotyping. Often stereotypes arise out of an outsiders perception of their culture.
Are they always true? No.
 

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

i think its really hard for us to actually identify what our culture is, when it is ingrained in us, in some aspects I think it would be easier for someone who is an 'outsider' to say, that behaviour or mannerism or whatever is part of the 'australian culture'.
 

Crestwood's_G

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Nesty said:
uhuh.. try asking my dad.. typical chinese.. who i dun enjoy talking to him about aussie cultures.. he thinks:
  • best aussie food is meat pie (which in his opinion taste really shit) and vegemite (yes eww)
  • rugby is for apemen
  • beer tastes real shit
  • anzac day is just another day off work (and crowded shopping centres afterwards) along with christmas and easter
and yep that's about it..

now you see why i dun like talking to him
i think your dad's an idiot...sure we dont have much food and chinese food is better than roasts...but...rugby is not for apemen...beer is found any country so its not really australian and finally...china wouldnt exist if we didnt hold of the japanese in PNG...and christmas and easter...yeah i agree...but still he shouldnt be dissing peoples religion...because a lot of people here are muslims...
 

Crestwood's_G

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

not being racist or anything...but a thought just came to me...americans dont have culture, british dont have culture...

this is what is thought...maybe because our culture is so common it is perceived as non-existant...i mean corporate businesses are a european culture...where the english started it...the industrial revolution...basically technology is same thing...the asians only changed to western style because of americans forcing them to...
 

_dhj_

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Crestwood's_G said:
we dont have much food and chinese food is better than roasts
correct
rugby is not for apemen
sort of correct
beer is found any country so its not really australian
correct
china wouldnt exist if we didnt hold of the japanese in PNG
incorrect
and christmas and easter...yeah i agree...but still he shouldnt be dissing peoples religion...because a lot of people here are muslims...
:confused:

The fact that they are heavily commercialised detracts from their religious significance
 

Iron

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Crestwood's_G said:
not being racist or anything...but a thought just came to me...americans dont have culture, british dont have culture...

this is what is thought...maybe because our culture is so common it is perceived as non-existant...i mean corporate businesses are a european culture...where the english started it...the industrial revolution...basically technology is same thing...the asians only changed to western style because of americans forcing them to...
Many’s the time we’ve heard otherwise sane men bewailing the loss of some semi-mythic culture in the anonymity of the modern world. As though thousands of years of accumulated knowledge and tradition can just vanish overnight. These pantywaists almost always become very enthusiastic about dopey ‘wildman’ seminars, where otherwise normal grown-ups paint themselves with mud and beat drums, in the mistaken belief that they’re getting in touch with some sort of primal manbeast within?

What a bunch of crap. The Beast Within is only a six-pack anyway. If you really need the Primitive Man experience, grab some drinking buddies, a couple of slabs, and go to the cricket. Leave the drumming and the dancing and the howling to the people who still go in for that kind of thing – like House Music freaks for example.

None of that stuff is culture, so far as you’re concerned. Your culture put men on the moon, and sent a message to the stars. Your culture has learned to harness the lightning, and to liberate the power of the sun from the heart of the atom. Your culture has thwarted disease, healed the sick and lame, and is working hard on raising the dead. Your culture, the Western Culture, has been kicking arse for thousands of years and if some shitpot little third world tyrant like Dr Mahatir thinks that’s gonna change anytime soon then he’s one sorry, self-deluded motherfucker. That being the case, the next time some tosspot waffles on about the superior spirituality of the Red Indian give them a swift clout to the head and point out that boxing is a part of your culture which goes back to the Ancient Greeks. And it has highly spiritual overtones, too, as pugilistic combats were dedicated to the Gods of Olympus…

The thing is, Western Culture is so gigantic, so vital, so aggressive and overwhelming that many people have lost sight of the fact that it’s a culture in the first place. And yet, a culture it most certainly is, replete with myths and stories, makers of art and music, and thinkers of the first water. Just because your culture has left behind the need to paint itself blue and huddle round the fire to keep the evil spirits at bay doesn’t make it any less valid.

-John Birmingham
 

Nesty

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Crestwood's_G said:
i think your dad's an idiot...sure we dont have much food and chinese food is better than roasts...but...rugby is not for apemen...beer is found any country so its not really australian and finally...china wouldnt exist if we didnt hold of the japanese in PNG...and christmas and easter...yeah i agree...but still he shouldnt be dissing peoples religion...because a lot of people here are muslims...
yeah he's a bit of an idiot.. can't disagree with that
 

Crestwood's_G

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

The_highwayman said:
:confused:

what do muslims have to do with Christmas and easter???
umm well actually a lot...seen as jesus is the most named prophet in the quaran...anyways i didnt mean that i meant that why is the persons father associating Australia with christianity??? most people here are athiest or muslim...
 

_dhj_

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Crestwood's_G said:
umm well actually a lot...seen as jesus is the most named prophet in the quaran...anyways i didnt mean that i meant that why is the persons father associating Australia with christianity??? most people here are athiest or muslim...[where did you get this idea from?]
Perhaps because most people in Australia are Christians, whereas most people in China are Buddhist/Athiest...
 
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Generator

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Crestwood's_G said:
anyways i didnt mean that i meant that why is the persons father associating Australia with christianity??? most people here are athiest or muslim...
Ah, what the bloody hell?

Please, visit this link.
 

sparkl3z

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

i think not that most people here are christians......at least they are not the traditional ones, that follow all the original themes of christianity.
 

Not-That-Bright

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

by the way, no religion does not equal atheist.... the amount of people whom actually call themselves atheists on such a census is like .04%
 
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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Crestwood's_G said:
umm well actually a lot...seen as jesus is the most named prophet in the quaran...anyways i didnt mean that i meant that why is the persons father associating Australia with christianity??? most people here are athiest or muslim...
But muslims dont believe jesus was crucified? Hence: No affiliation with easter.
And Christmas, as far as i have been educated, is a purely christian festival...:confused:

and like _dhj_ and generator said/showed, Chrisitanity is the most common religion is Australia, not Islam or atheism...
 
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theoneme

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

the truth said:
does australia have a culture? its that simple
im not sure if australia does have a definate culture. when you think of countries such as india, china etc you have a defined picture in your mind which reflects the culture of the country.
is the view of australias culture still the wife beater shirt stubbies thongs and a vb or has it changed ... im sure it has
it is difficult to define exactly what culture is, but the way i see it, it is how society looks. so basically, everything. do you live in the same way as people in india? no, you don't. and therefore australia has a culture. one who isn't like anything else. when you live in a country you become blind in a way, cause everything around you is normal, therefore countries like india seem so much more interesting.
 

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

This whole non-existant Australian culture debate is the product of left wing acdemics trying to make the whole concept too complex..

The fact remains that culture does not have to be defined by material assests such as food, dress or decorative features. When an overseas visitor comes ot Australia, very rarely to they understand parts of our language, humour and obsessions. Further, even in comparing the way Australians generally live, the kind of nonchalante, laconic, 'she'll be right' approach to life, foreigners find that very different and often difficult to comprehend.

Our history is another aspect that sets Australia apart from other major nations. How many other nations formed a viable and thriving nations out of the combination of penal and free settlement? The life and culture of those who resided in those times has derived of much of the way in which Australian life has been shaped. The distinctiveness of our literature, art and thinking has all been influenced by the history that preceded it. Even todays music and film and television industry produces uniquely Australian productions; all we have to do is look at how many programmes play upon the traditional Australian portrayal (The Castle, Muriels Wedding, Blue Heelers, Home and Away, John Williamson...etc etc.. this list is expansive and could go on and on) . Like it or not, this is all part of culture; culture in the sense of living, not prescribed by some academic definition.

Now that does not mean that every Australian conforms to those features, as is the case in any country. But it is a distinctive trait of Australian living that sets it apart from the rest of the world. I for one have had many friends and relatives who have received a massive culture shock in even going to England. The difference in they way they live and generally do things really is extremely different despite what many say..

There has been a huge debate over the existence of Australian values and the like. However, the academics seem to be contradicting themselves yet again. So often, their definitions of culture incorporate the 'learning of specific values and norms' through socialisation and other means. Yet whenever this debate seems to arise, they reject this philosophy and attempt to prove that values and beliefs are distinctly universal and common to all cultures; the usual contradictory and absurd assumptions by the world of social scientists and commentators.
 
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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Nesty said:
uhuh.. try asking my dad.. typical chinese.. who i dun enjoy talking to him about aussie cultures.. he thinks:

  • best aussie food is meat pie (which in his opinion taste really shit) and vegemite (yes eww)
  • rugby is for apemen
  • beer tastes real shit
  • anzac day is just another day off work (and crowded shopping centres afterwards) along with christmas and easter

and yep that's about it..

now you see why i dun like talking to him
That made me laugh (not in a condescending way, just it sounds very funny) :)

Regarding the thread, I bet if we had a national hat we wouldn't be having this discussion :(
 

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Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Of course australia has a culture. But not one that is too distinct .(eg:Ireland-leprechauns, st patrick, guiness, working class, ). I think one of the main reasons why, is that we were so dependant on and looked up to British culture that we didn't really get to develop a strong sense of our own culture. For example it wasn't that long ago that Australians still had that british accent within their speech (70s, 80's, early 90s). If u see any old australian news footage or shows you'll know what i mean.
 

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