cultural
Pronunciation: 'k&lch-r&l, 'k&l-ch&-
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1864
1 : of or relating to culture or culturing
2 : concerned with the fostering of plant or animal growth
- cul•tur•al•ly /-r&-lE/ adverb
... strange sound squiggles & forceful rhythms ... Sounds, 1983
'CULTURAL AMNESIA: Having appeared on several compilation tapes - Cause For Concern and Sterile - there are plans afoot this year to release a vinyl representation of their strange sound squiggles and forceful rhythms.'
Dave Henderson, Sounds, 7 May 1983. Reproduced in Brian Duguid, 'Prehistory of Industrial Music' (1995), EST magazine.
The name came from a fictional story in a magazine about a group of placid 'savages' who appeared to be suffering 'a kind of collective cultural amnesia'... I think I recall the line though I don't remember anything more about the story or the magazine. Some famous placid savages and cultural amnesiacs are the Eloi of H.G. Wells, but it wasn't that which I read. The term (quite widely used) was perhaps first brought into currency by the catastrophe theorist Velikovsky, though I don't think any of us had any knowledge of him at the time. (Gerard)