[HPforGrownups] School Size/Class Size -- Local Culture - Preserved

[Ffred Clegg]

No: HPFGUIDX 153036

Steve wrote:
>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.

To a degree, I'd agree. But it _is_ all about degree. If a large enough 
proportion of the intake are entirely Muggle, then you've got a constant 
reinforcement every September with a new group talking about films, tv, and 
Muggle music, to the extent that everyone becomes familiar with those (and 
indeed other) concepts. Instead of having a very small minority who have to 
conform to the WW culture in order to exist within it. if you have a large 
enough minority, the WW culture itself has to change in order to cope.

We don't see that happening. Mixed-blood children of course are normally 
already familiar with the WW before they arrive at Hogwarts, and know what 
to expect and how their lives are likely to be in the WW when they graduate. 
The others soon come into line because their frames of reference (eg Dean 
calling for a red card) are met with blank incomprehension.

>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.

Another good example was the Welsh valleys in the 19th century. Their 
language was Welsh. Many people moved there from England and Ireland to work 
in the coal industry but to get along, they had to learn Welsh in order to 
communicate. At the beginning of the 20th century, the pace of change 
increased, and the number of English people rose dramatically, about a 
quarter of a million moving in. The change on that scale meant that they no 
longer needed to learn Welsh, instead the locals changed to conform and 
speak English with the incomers, thereby changing the local culture 
dramatically.

I suspect that the same would apply with someone marrying into Chinatown.

>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.

and there we'd both agree.

hwyl

Ffred