culture and identity Flashcards
what is culture
- the ongoing negotiation of learned and patterned beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviour
- negotiation: it is fluid, rules stay and change based on the types of people
- learned and patterned e.g. Korean kids bowing out of respect
levels that cultures exist at
- from macro to micro
cultural institutions, standpoints, speech communities
cultural institutions
culture defined by nationality, religion or ethnic heritage
- expansive -> difficult to escape
- but you can choose to immerse in a different culture and change your nationality
- macro
standpoints
culture defined by shared life experiences
- a shared position from which people see the world based on their society
- can be created based on people’s age / economic class by access to education / jobs
- micro macro
speech communities
developed among people with regular contact with each other and have shared norms and values
- similar ways of interpreting and using symbols
- arises when people live, study or work together -> shared experiences, norms and communication practices
- can be considered subcultures
- develop when people communicate with each other directly
how cultures form and change
selectivity
- cultures are distinct because cultural groups have selected different behaviours, beliefs and practices as meaningful
shared with new members
- “socialisation”: the process by which newcomers come to understand a culture’s assumptions and guidelines
changes over time
- ways of thinking, feeling, behaving that define a culture evolve overtime
- “invention”: development of new cultural practices (e.g. revolution, experience like covid)
- “diffusion”: when a society adopts the cultural practices of another group
classifying culture: power distance index
high
- acceptance of a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification
low
- people strive to equalise the distribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power
classifying culture: individualism vs collectivism
individualism
- a preference for a loosely-knit social framework
collectivism
- tightly-knit framework in society
classifying culture: masculinity versus femininity
masculinity
- preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for success
femininity
- stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life
classifying culture: uncertainty avoidance index
high
- maintains rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas
low
- societies maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts more than principles
classifying culture: long term orientation versus short term normative orientation
high
- pragmatic approach, they encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future
low
- societies prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion
culture shapes communication
speech code
- culturally grounded system of symbols, rules for interpretation and assumptions that people create to accomplish communication
- created through social interaction and within particular situations, their meanings are both complicated and flexible
- “Communication as a local practice instilled with and guided by the cultural particularities of a given speech community.”
communication reflects culture
messages people create reveal their culture → acts of communications reflect a cultural group’s way of thinking, assumptions about human relationships and strategies for living
boundary marker
- messages that indicate when an action is inappropriate or off-limits within the cultural group
myths
- sacred stories about heroes or villains that embed cultural themes
rituals
- carefully scripted performances that mark culturally significant events
intercultural communication
occurs when interaction is guided by the participants’ memberships in different social groups, rather than their unique qualities as individuals → changing the way you communicate based on your knowledge or stereotypes about a partner’s cultural group
communication accommodation theory
describes how cultural group memberships influence interpersonal interactions
- characteristics of the participants’ speech can become more similar to each other ⇒
reflect a desire to increase connection, signal willingness to bridge cultural gap - characteristics of the participants’ speech can become more distinct to each other ⇒
reflects a desire to decrease connection
barriers to effective intercultural communication
ethnocentrism
- tendency to seeing one’s own cultural beliefs and practices as more correct, appropriate, or moral than those of other cultures
uncertainty and anxiety
- uncertainty refers to a lack of knowledge about the person’s traits, expectations and customs; anxiety is a negative emotional state that arises when you feel uneasy, worried or apprehensive
anxiety/uncertainty management theory
marginalisation
- tendency to treat less dominant groups as inferior or unimportant
- influential cultural groups have the power to determine the communication norms and values for the whole society
- marginalisation makes cultural differences more pronounced (they are magnified by power differences) hence it is a barrier to effective intercultural communication
- when marginalised members of a society communicate with members of the dominant group they are forced to adapt to the very values and norms that marginalise them
how to create a single story
show this person as one thing and one thing only, over and over again
impossible to talk about a single story without the word “power”
power: to tell the story of another person and to make it the definitive story of that person
the single story creates stereotypes: incomplete
communication between men and women
sex: whether a person is biologically male or female
gender: one’s internalised psychological orientation toward masculine or feminine traits, or
how one is socialised to be a man or woman (Internalised through social institutions; “learned”)
men and women have different life experiences that can foster distinct cultural values and practices
- from infancy and childhood – mothers and fathers talk more or less and talk differently to their sons and daughters, choosing to use harsher or gentler language; young children prefer to socialise with peers of the same gender
- dating – men and women are expected to play distinct roles in the mating game (e.g. men are expected to initiate first dates, plan activities, drive, pay for expenses, and initiate sexual intimacy); men and women have different ways about how they talk about their dating relationships to others
- work relationships – men and women confront unique communication challenges (encounter different expectations) and perceive meanings differently at work (e.g. women expected to be submissive polite and other-focused; men expected to be assertive, use their dominance to influence decisions and provide leadership, and to talk about their own strength)
race
is it biologically determined or just a social construct?
biological basis
- some biological differences among human in genes, melanin accumulation, skull shape, etc
- differences exist on a continuum
- regardless of race, 99% of DNA is same
Social construct
- many argue that race is a social construct, not a biological one
- product of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances
- becomes a marker around the time of European colonial expansion in the 1500s, Western Europeans travelled met those different from them
- perceived differences used as justification for colonialization, enslavement, genocide, exploitation
- “Categories” may not be biological
cultural relativism
refers to not judging a culture to our own standards of what is right or wrong, strange or normal. Instead, we should try to understand cultural practices of other groups in its own cultural context
