culture vulture

English

WOTD – 6 March 2024

Etymology

From culture +‎ vulture.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌlt͡ʃə ˌvʌlt͡ʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌlt͡ʃəɹ ˌvʌlt͡ʃəɹ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cult‧ure vult‧ure

Noun

culture vulture (plural culture vultures) (informal)

1. (humorous) A person with a rapacious, sometimes inauthentic, interest in the arts. [from early 20th c.]
   • 1958, The Canadian Historical Review, volume 39, Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 241:

     […] —unless of course "culture" is thought to be something decoratively added when all else has been accomplished, the fairy on the Christmas tree: an approach which opens wide the way for culture-vultures and peddlars of arty gentility, upon whom "culture" sits (to misuse an image of T. S. Eliot's) like a silk hat upon a Bradford millionaire.

   • 1970 March 9, “The Culture Vulture’s Swoop through Dry Dock Country [advertisement]”, in New York, volume 3, number 10, New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13, column 1:

     Around 59th and Lexington, where Dry Dock Savings Bank is located, pickings are lush for the purple-pantsuited culture vulture.

   • 1983, Walter Hinck, “Man of the Theatre”, in Elizabeth M[ary] Wilkinson, editor, Goethe Revisited: A Collection of Essays, London: John Calder; New York, N.Y.: Riverrun Press, published 1984, →ISBN, page 158:

     Leaving aside for a moment the problem [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe was touching on with his vivid image of a play 'fresh from the pan', we can see that this is a man of the living theatre who was not interested in a culture-vulture audience.

   • 2001, Christine [Olga] Kiebuzinska, Intertextual Loops in Modern Drama, Madison; Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, →ISBN:

     [A] failed composer who thinks himself to be [Anton] Webern's successor, and his pretentious wife, a culture vulture.

   • 2004, Susie Whalley, Lisa Jackson, “Get Set for Success”, in Running Made Easy, London: Robson Books, →ISBN, page 41:

     Be a culture vulture by going to the ballet, opera or a classical concert.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, “Enter Yerkes”, in Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube, London: Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 151–152:

     A through northbound service to Finsbury Park […] was the 'Theatre Express'. It was meant to serve theatre-goers who lived on the main-line stops beyond Finsbury Park – say, Enfield. […] But there weren't enough culture vultures in places like Enfield to justify the service.

2. (sociology, derogatory, slang) Someone who engages in cultural appropriation; a cultural appropriator. [from c. 1990]
   • 2020, Thomas Reed, “A Critical Review of the Native American Tradition of Circle Practices”, in Robin Throne, editor, Indigenous Research of Land, Self, and Spirit (Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies Book Series), Hershey, Pa.: Information Science Reference, IGI Global, published 2021, →ISBN, page 135:

     However, a different indigenous researcher sees the use of restorative justice circles by nonindigenous people as being more of culture vultures and taking culture applicable to them and ignoring a brutal history of abuse, oppression, and genocide.

   • 2022, Mike D’Errico, “Plug-in Cultures”, in Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Sonic Architectures), page 43:

     Similarly, plug-in culture participates in a long history of cultural appropriation related to the construction of the male neoliberal subject. Think about Diplo, EDM producer-DJ and oft-accused "culture vulture," whose modus operandi involves applying Western, Eurocentric, and Americanized EDM styles to samples from global dance music communities.

Alternative forms

• culture-vulture (dated)

Translations

person with a rapacious, sometimes inauthentic, interest in the arts

• Finnish: kulttuurihaukka
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

someone who engages in cultural appropriation — see cultural appropriator