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 CHAPTER 4

Culture Beyond Art My deliberations on the nature of art as a branch of culture were both difficult and easy. They were difficult because the subject is quite mysterious, and they were easy because the arts are the most typical representative of culture. Moreover, the peculiarities of the arts reveal a lot. Now the question is: What about other areas of human life and activities? Can culture reside in any of these?

The first answer I can offer is that because culture is defined as creativity and dialogue, we come face to face with culture whenever we encounter these. Let us see how this really works.

Thinking about the subject, I once surprised myself when I found that creativity may emerge even in the least creative case, such as production of some simple, well-known goods. When you produce something, you use materials, spend time, and implement ideas. Even in a case where you produce, or participate in the production of, an article created by others, your own ideas are still utilized. Why? Because creativity is a necessary element of any human activity unless this activity is totally automated. Even in less creative processes, you can and normally do use your own ideas. Lots of ideas from different people have been collected over the course of history and implemented in even the simplest of contemporary products.

This sounds reasonable. . . . But can creativity be part of a non-creative process? . . . This sounds weird. Although I did not get too far in my analysis of the subject, I did not need to worry. My fellow researchers had developed considerable muscle in the course of our previous conversations. Hence, I decided it was possible to start with a direct generic question.