S2 Cultural iceberg and conflict Flashcards
One characteristic of culture : evolutionary
It can change, incorporate elements from other cultures, and abandon others, even if, in general, it has a lasting character and remains fairly stable and anchored in the collective unconscious to be transmitted for several centuries.
Cultural iceberg
Analogy of culture with an iceberg :
- The visible part = easiest and most superficial part of a culture, the one that we see and understand immediately, like the beautiful ones (arts, language, cooking).
- The hidden part = the deep culture that most people are unaware of. This hidden part which is also the largest would consist mostly of the interpretation of abstract things (concept of righteousness, sin, friendship, what is honest and what is immoral)
Hidden part of the iceberg
The most difficult and the longest to know and understand, the source of most of the cultural shocks, discomforts and misunderstandings in negotiations with foreign interlocutors.
“Cultural iceberg” concept, 1976 Edward T. Hall
Culture is analogous to an iceberg in that only about 10% of the iceberg is visible at any given time and that a large part of it is hidden beneath the surface.
Culture has components that are external facing or above the surface and visible, and the majority of culture, about 90%, is hidden below the surface.
Edward T. Hall
“Culture hides more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants”
Proxemics and chronemics
- Proxemics: refers to the study of how people use space in communication, including personal space and physical distance in different social settings. ex : how close or far you stand from someone during a conversation can convey different meanings depending on the culture.
- Chronemics: Study of how time affects communication. It includes attitudes toward punctuality, waiting, and how people structure their time (whether they prefer to focus on one task at a time or multitask), which can vary across cultures.
Image of an iceberg
The external, or conscious, part of culture is what we can see and is the tip of the iceberg and includes behaviors and some beliefs.
The internal, or subconscious, part of culture is below the surface of a society and includes some beliefs and the values and thought patterns that underlie behavior.
Internal
- Implicitly learned
- Unconscious
- Difficult to change
- Subjective knowledge
External
- Explicitely learned
- Conscious
- Easily changed
- Objective knowledge
The Silent Language, Edward T. Hall
“One of the most dramatic and revolutionary of Freud’s achievements was his elaborate analysis of the role of the unconscious …. After Freud it became common to think of ourselves as beings who existed on a number of different levels at once.”
“Freud also relied heavily on the communicative significance of our acts rather than our words. Freud distrusted the spoken word, and a good deal of his thinking was based on the assumption that words hid much more than they revealed. ”
For Hall, Freud was the key in understanding beyond the spoken words.
Brake : division of the iceberg
- Surface culture : part of the culture, but which only represent the tip of the iceberg : laws, customs, rituals, gestures, clothing, food, types of greetings and farewells…
- Deep culture : the predominant elements of culture are those that lie below the surface of everyday interactions : the “normative orientations” (the fact of preferring certain results to others)
Unspoken rules
Some rules are explicitly stated in handbooks, procedures. But other rules are left implicit (unwritten) for people to decode on their own.
Those who do not have the utensils to access this labyrinth of “unwritten rules” and the important knowledge these rules provide remain left out, no matter how capable they are.
Interactions with other people are governed by a complex set of rules, of which we are mostly unaware.
Inglehart-Welzel World Cultural Map 2020
Situates countries studied along to axes :
- Ranging from traditional values to modern rational values
- Ranging from values of survival to values of expression
Inglehart considers that post-materialist values of “self-expression” and creativity lead to prioritizing protection of the environment, to tolerate cultural diversity, to ask for participation in political, economic and ethical decisions, to get involved in the education of children, to approach debates in a tolerant manner, to cultivate interpersonal confidence. Human development therefore shifts from constraint (bottom left) to choice (top right).
Cultural conflict
Conflict is usually defined as involving a perceived or real incompatibility of goals, values, expectations, processes, or outcomes between two or more interdependent individuals or groups. Very damaging phenomenon.
Intercultural conflict VS interpersonal conflict
Intercultural conflict is of a different nature: it is based on a lack of understanding between two cultures whose values and uses differ. Every culture has its own different set of values, and beliefs as to what is right or wrong.
Ex : someone who places a great deal of value on time may even see time as money and resent people who waste their time. If you put this person with someone who doesn’t place value on time, then this can provide fertile ground for intercultural conflict.
