School Size/Class Size -- Local Culture - Preserved

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 153004

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ffred Clegg" <manawydan at ...> wrote:

> Ffred:
> 
> The only other thing that we have to factor into any discussion
> about the proportion of wizard vs muggle-born is acculturation.
> 
> If there was a large enough proportion of muggle-born children
> coming into the WW each year, ...they would all ...have friends, 
> relatives and acquaintances who had come from that milieu.
> 
> In fact that doesn't happen. The _majority_ of wizarding folk, 
> even ... Arthur, ..., really have very little knowledge of the
> other side.
> 
> I'd conclude that the number of muggle-borns has to be 
> sufficiently small vis a vis the number of wizard borns to not
> make a difference to WW culture.
> 
> hwyl
> 
> Ffred

bboyminn:

I do agree with you in principle, but I think there are more factors
than you are taking into consideration. If I move to England,
Scotland, Ireland, or  Wales, the process of acculturation begins. In
time, if my American family came to visit me, they would find me very
changed. I will have, to a small by noticable degree, taken on the
language/slang/idioms and culture of the local country. In a sense, I
will have incorporated the local culture into my own.

Now, if we are talking about Muggles, if an American muggle child
moves to Enlgand to go to school, he will bring a certain degree of
his American culture with him, and that will influence the kids at the
local English school. Partly because the world seems fastinated with
all things American. Though in the modern world with Internet and
cable TV, world-wide music and movie distribution, 'all things
American' are not that hard to come by any more. 

But Hogwarts is a very different school. JKR was wise when she made
muggle electronic devices NOT work at Hogwarts. The imposes a degree
of cultural isolation on the school and it's students. Certainly
muggle kids can talk about movies, TV, and music, but with no working
examples, I would guess those topics would get old very fast. 

Further, muggle kids, like the Creevey Brothers, are thrust into the
infinitely fastinating world of magic at Hogwarts. I think magic,
moving photos and portraits, and other fantastic stuff, plus the
demands of school work, would be enough to push Jesse McCartney and
Hillary Duff out of their minds.

So, in a way, Hogwarts imposes a kind of cultural isolation onto
muggle kids. Their own hip-hop, hoodie, baggy pants, rock and roll
frames of reference are left behind, and they are immersed into the
wizard world.

The Weasleys are, to some extent, a unique case. Arthur is fastinated
by muggle and their world, but he view it from the outside. He views
it, in a limited way, like an anthropologist rather than a
participant. Being a pureblood, his only functional frame of reference
it the somewhat dated, stodgy, and traditional wizard world. So,
Arthur's study of the muggle world is like my study of Britain, it's
done from the outside, with few direct cultural frames of reference. 

Now the Weasley kids are less culturally pure, they have no problem
dressing in common, but basic rather than trendy or stylish, clothes.
Fred and George, as I have always suspected, have no problems
wandering down to the local muggle village and chatting up cute girls,
who more than likely find the Twins very interesting, but very much
out of touch with the modern world. So, the muggle world isn't so
foriegn to the Weasley kids, but their frame of reference is certainly
dated and unhip.

Finally, just west of Charing Cross Road in the vicinity of
Shaftesbury Ave, you will find London's Chinatown, an enclave of
Chinese culture within the bounds of London's very UN-Chinese England.
Here is an example of an integrated society that has also isolated
itself from the local culture. Many, exspecially older, Chinese who
emigrate to England spend their lives immersed in their own culture
by, to the extent possible, living exclusively in Chinatown where
everyone shares a common culture and language. I see the Magic world
operating very much like Chinatown. They are an isolated culture
surrounded by a completel foriegn culture, and they maintain their
isolated existance over many many generations.

So, in a sense, it's not that hard for one culture to isolate itself
in another culture. Of course, it's is not /pure/ isolation; there is
always a degree of cross-cultural contamination, but the local
dominant culture always overwhelms the broader culture. So, in
Chinatown, Chinese culture tends to dominate even as it incorporates
aspect of London culture, and while I as an American may move to
England, it is much more likely that England will transform me, than
for me to transform England.

After all that rambling, I guess what I am saying is that given the
unique circumstances, I can see how the Wizarding Culture dominates
and is preserved even as younger wizards incorporate aspects of the
/foriegn/ muggle culture into their society. The Wizard World in
general and Hogwart especially are very isolated, and that tend to
preserve the local culture. 

A lot of rambling and a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn