Vol. 2 · No. 3 · Fall 2002

The transcultural phenomenon, and the transculturation of architecture

Felipe Hernández

Download full article (125 KB) [subscribers only]

Abstract

Transculturation has proved to be a particularly polemical notion among Latin American scholars. The term was coined by the Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in the early 1940s, and was created to explore in a critical manner the cultural dynamics in operation between Cuba and metropolitan centres. Since then the concept has been applied to the whole of Latin America, and, latterly, it has also been used as a generic term in order to examine issues relating to the cultural economy between peripheries and centres. Given the complexity of the various processes of cultural formation constantly at work in Latin America, the notion of transculturation is used in order to defy the assumption that cultures develop taxonomically and unidirectionally. Transculturation refers to a multidirectional and endless interactive process between various cultural systems that is in opposition to unidirectional and hierarchical structures determined by the principle of origin that is always associated with claims for cultural authority. Thus, the term 'transculturation' places the theorization of processes of cultural exchange between peripheries and centres on a more democratic basis. Moreover, transculturation is the antithesis of the notion of acculturation, which implies the supremacy of one cultural system over another, thence the ultimate elimination of non-dominant cultures.