Editing Culture of France (section)

==Problem in defining "French" culture==
{{Essay-like|section|date=June 2017}}
{{See also|Deconstruction|Relativism}}
Wherever one comes from, "culture" consists of beliefs and values learned through the socialization process as well as material artifacts.<ref>Jary, D. and J. Jary. 1991. ''The HarperCollins Dictionary of Sociology'', page 101.</ref><ref>Hoult, T. F, ed. 1969. ''Dictionary of Modern Sociology'', p. 93.</ref> "Culture is the learned set of beliefs, values, norms and material goods shared by group members. Culture consists of everything we learn in groups during the life course-from infancy to an old age."<ref name="Society in Focus">{{cite book | last = Thompson | first = William |author2=Joseph Hickey | year = 2005 | title = Society in Focus | publisher = Pearson | location = Boston, MA | isbn = 0-205-41365-X}}</ref>

The conception of "French" culture however poses certain difficulties and presupposes a series of assumptions about what precisely the expression "French" means. Whereas [[Culture of the United States|American culture]] posits the notion of the "[[melting-pot]]" and [[cultural diversity]], the expression "French culture" tends to refer implicitly to a specific geographical entity (as, say, "[[metropolitan France]]", generally excluding its [[overseas departments]]) or to a specific historico-sociological group defined by ethnicity, language, religion and geography. The realities of "Frenchness" however, are extremely complicated. Even before the late 18th–19th century, "metropolitan France" was largely a patchwork of local customs and regional differences that the unifying aims of the [[Ancien Régime in France|Ancien Régime]] and the [[French Revolution]] had only begun to work against, and today's France remains a nation of numerous [[French dialects|indigenous]] and foreign languages, of multiple ethnicities and religions, and of regional diversity that includes French citizens in [[Corsica]], Guadeloupe, [[Martinique]] and elsewhere around the globe also in America.

The creation of some sort of typical or shared French culture or "[[cultural identity]]", despite this vast heterogeneity, is the result of powerful internal forces – such as the [[French educational system]], mandatory military service, state linguistic and cultural policies – and by profound historic events – such as the [[Franco-Prussian war]] and the two [[World Wars]] — which have forged a sense of national identity over the last 200 years. However, despite these unifying forces, France today still remains marked by social class and by important regional differences in culture (cuisine, dialect/accent, local traditions) that many fear will be unable to withstand contemporary social forces (depopulation of the countryside, immigration, centralization, market forces and the world economy).

In recent years, to fight the loss of regional diversity, many in France have promoted forms of [[multiculturalism]] and encouraged cultural enclaves (''communautarisme''), including reforms on the preservation of regional languages and the decentralization of certain government functions, but French multiculturalism has had a harder time of accepting, or of integrating into the collective identity, the large non-Christian and immigrant communities and groups that have come to France since the 1960s.

The last 70 years has also seen French cultural identity "threatened" by global market forces and by American "[[cultural hegemony]]". Since its dealings with the 1943 [[General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade|GATT]] [[free trade]] negotiations, France has fought for what it calls the ''[[Cultural exception|exception culturelle]]'', meaning the right to subsidize or treat favorably domestic cultural production and to limit or control foreign cultural products (as seen in public funding for [[French cinema]] or the lower [[Value added tax|VAT]] accorded to books). The notion of an explicit ''exception française'' however has angered many of France's critics.<ref>see, for example, [[Jonathan Fenby]]: ''On the Brink: the Trouble with France'' Warner Books London, 1998, {{ISBN|0316646652}}</ref>

The French are often perceived as taking a great pride in national identity and the positive achievements of France (the expression "[[chauvinism]]" is of French origin) and cultural issues are more integrated in the body of the politics than elsewhere (see "The Role of the State", above). The [[French Revolution]] claimed [[universalism]] for the democratic principles of the Republic. [[Charles de Gaulle]] actively promoted a notion of French "grandeur" ("greatness"). Perceived declines in cultural status are a matter of national concern and have generated national debates, both from the left (as seen in the anti-globalism of [[José Bové]]) and from the right and far right (as in the discourses of the [[National Front (France)|National Front]]).

According to [[Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory|Hofstede's Framework for Assessing Culture]], the culture of France is moderately individualistic and high Power Distance Index.

Now, the [[Multiracial|interracial]] blending of some native French and newcomers stands as a vibrant and boasted feature of French culture, from popular music to movies and literature. Therefore, alongside mixing of populations, exists also a cultural blending (''le métissage culturel'') that is present in France. It may be compared to the traditional US conception of the [[melting-pot]]. The French culture might have been already blended in from other races and ethnicities, in cases of some biographical research on the possibility of [[Ethnic groups of Africa|African]] ancestry on a small number of famous French citizens. Author [[Alexandre Dumas, père]] possessed one-fifth black Haitian descent, and [[Empress Josephine]] [[Napoleon]] who was born and raised in the [[French West Indies]] from a plantation estate family.
We can mention as well, the most famous French-Canadian singer [[Celine Dion]] whose grandmother was a North African from [[Kabyle people|Kabylie]].<ref>Aïcha Saïd Ben Mohamed (1876–1930) was born in [[Kabyle people|Kabylie]], ''Généalogie Magazine, N° 233, p. 30/36''</ref>

For a long time, the only objection to such outcomes predictably came from the far-left schools of thought. In the past few years, other unexpected voices are however beginning to question what they interpret, as the [[New Philosophers|new philosopher]] [[Alain Finkielkraut]] coined the term, as an "Ideology of [[miscegenation]]" (''une idéologie du métissage'') that may come from what one other philosopher, [[Pascal Bruckner]], defined as ''[[The Tears of the White Man]]'' (''le sanglot de l'homme blanc''). These critics have been dismissed by the mainstream and their propagators have been labelled as new [[reactionaries]] (''les nouveaux réactionnaires''),<ref>Le Point, 8 February 2007</ref> even if [[Racism|racist]] and [[anti-immigration]] sentiment has recently been documented to be increasing in France at least according to one poll.<ref>{{cite news | title=One in three French 'are racist' | date=22 March 2006 | access-date=3 May 2006|work=[[BBC News]]|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4832238.stm}}</ref>