The concept of Santa Claus is a particularly helpful example of the differences between knowledge of the outside world and cultural knowledge.
We are all quite certain that Santa belongs firmly in the cultural realm. If any of us were actually to see a fat man dressed in red emerging from our fireplace, we would either try to recognize Uncle Alfred under the padding, or we would call the police.
On the other hand, most of us are ex-believers.
There was a time, when we were very young, that we failed to make the distinction between outside reality and cultural reality where Santa was concerned. There was a time when we believed Santa was a real part of the outside world, and then there was a time when we began to doubt.
Remember the time when that doubt first arose. You had been told that Santa was real by the most reliable authority in the world—Mom and Dad. The story had impeccable references.
It was (often, anyway) tied up with guilt. Santa rewards good little boys and girls with gifts (and punishes bad little boys and girls by withholding them). What child is completely certain of their own worthiness? And isn't it just possible that not believing might make you less good? Mom and Dad obviously want you to believe.
Given the circumstances, what kind of evidence could you use to determine whether Santa is a cultural figure, or a part of the outside world?
The first test I advanced in the previous post falls flat on it's face in this regard. If you ask the question "what would happen if Santa ceased to exist, but everybody continued to believe he existed?" it gets you nowhere.
If you are inclined, for whatever reason, toward belief, the answer is that the presents would stop coming.
The first test is really a way of clarifying one's thinking. If the thinking itself is confused, then it doesn't really work.
The second test fares a little better.
If you ask what the idea of Santa is used for, the answer is a bit more instructive. It is not, on the whole, used to navigate or manipulate the outside world. No one mounts an expedition to the North Pole to meet Santa. No one investigates the properties which make his reindeer fly.
On the other hand, Santa is used to instill a certain kind of feeling in people, and is also used to encourage children to "be good". On the whole, the second test comes down on the side of cultural knowledge.
Of course, there is one exception—those pesky presents. You have no way of knowing that they don't come from Santa, and they are definitely part of the outside world.
One test fails completely, and the other is a mixed bag.
This is not entirely due to the fact that you are being lied to by Mom and Dad. (Isn't it odd that we will find it kind to do to children what we would strenuously object to, if it were done to us? There seems to be some sort of age restriction on the golden rule.) Most of your dilemma would remain if your source of information were friends who really believed.
So how do you proceed, now that the second test has inserted some doubt into the picture?
There are several other indications that Santa is a cultural entity:
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Santa is unique. There is only one of him. This is often the case with things in the cultural realm. We speak of the alphabet, the president, the queen, the number two. There is only one Batman, one Spiderman, one Santa Claus.
On the other hand, things in the outside world come in multiples. There are many rocks, many cows, many people, many houses, many stars. - Santa is different. He is a person, and yet he can do things that other persons in the outside world cannot. He knows when you are sleeping, and whether you've been bad or good. He can travel the globe, delivering toys, in a single night. Like Superman or Spiderman, he violates the structure of the category he fits in.
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Santa is inaccessible. He lives in a place you cannot get to. You can write him letters, but there is no way to check if he got them or read them.
And, if you're smart enough to recognize Daddy's handwriting, or to sneak down the hall on Christmas eve, you will discover that even the feedback that does exist (the thank-you note for the cookies, the gifts marked "Santa") is mediated. It doesn't come directly, it is done by normal people "on behalf of" Santa—the way a social security check is actually written and delivered by normal people "on behalf of" "the government". - Finally, the very question of belief is itself a tip off. We don't ask whether we believe in airplanes, or garlic, or South America. If belief is an issue, there is a very good chance we are in the cultural realm.
Santa is a cultural entity. He is a way that we organize our lives. Without him, some of the ritual of the holidays would vanish, fewer parents would have the experience of staying up half the night assembling toys, some of the magic of the season would be lost.
But this magic is the magic of ritual and culture—it is not a trick, it does not depend on "believing" that Santa exists in the outside world.
In fact, that very belief diminishes the magic, by replacing the cultural reality with a deception about the outside world—and, ultimately, with disappointment.
The distinction between cultural knowledge and "outside" knowledge is important. And, if we are willing to question and test, we can generally discern the difference.
