Reply to Takeitup

[Guest guest]

I promise this is my last word on the

subject.<br><br>You're right of course. I've been in Manhattan and I've

been in the Utah desert fifty miles from the nearest

paved road, and they're not the same. Of course 250

million people have a very wide range of diverse

experiences. <br><br>But there still is such a thing as

"American culture" - maybe more noticeable to an outsider -

which is part of why I find the USA such a fascinating

place and love visiting it.

[Guest guest]

Right you are: of course there is a thing as an

American culture (without quotation marks) - just as there

is a thing as a European culture, which is noticable

not just to outsiders.<br><br>My guess is that

there's also something like an American Astanga Yoga

culture - and a European one. America is awash with

Astanga - fortunately for them. In Europe, the Astanga

Yoga scene is patchier (I spotted Britain, Italy and

Finland - possibly also France & Belgium - as the main

centres of the European Astanga culture). The enthusiasm

though may be the same on both sides of the big pond.

[Guest guest]

American culture these days is pretty much Puritan culture. We keep getting

tidier and tidier.

[Guest guest]

Yes. May we venture further?....then there are

the subcultures of each studio - it seems some

qualities of the teacher pervades the studio, and the

students assimilate it ( or like attracts like or a bit of

both). For instance an uptight city with a teacher

priding themselves to sticking doggedly to exactly this

or that produces students who go around announcing

to others with a certain brittle satisfaction how

accurately their practice may represent how things ought to

be.<br>It is as though the harshness or gentleness of the

town and teacher gets represented in the local

subculture.