Culture as process assumes that human communication in and through performance is active; all that makes us human is ever-changing, ongoing, and not static. Culture is the sum total of all that we are; a way of life; a blueprint for maintaining traditions; how we celebrate occasions, make memories, ritualize events, and understand the ordinariness of everyday life in our families and communities. Culture also provides the possibility for creating and discovering new ways of crafting and negotiating meaning of the world. Culture is embedded  in human communication and is an aspect of all humans. Human behavior is performative when the act is telling a story, creating reality, critiquing society, or remembering history through oral communication, the primacy of the spoken word. A theory of cultural performance illuminates how humans participate in political and cultural aspects of everyday life in creative and expressive ways. For example, oral history performance creates opportunities to understand how culture, identity, and discourse are situated within a historical context of the times. For Africans living in America, for example, various forms of ritual served as a way to articulate the ways in which cultural differences are created  between cultures, while illuminating meanings that are contested, as well as the tensions, the complexities, and the commonalities of human existence  and meaning making within the context of social  interaction.

Littlejohn, Stephen W and Karen A.Floss. (2009). Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.USA:SAGE.654

Penanggungjawab naskah :

Gayes Mahestu
Edwina Ayu Kustiawan