Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
3
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Learning Objectives
Students should be able to:
1. show the relationship between language and
culture
2. explain how language distinguishes man from
animals
3. enumerate the characteristics of culture
4. Identify the communication, behavioral, cognitive,
and material components of culture
5. understand and explain cultural relativism
Communication and
Language
• Types of communication
Verbal refers to use of language
Non-verbal refers to the use gestures, facial expressions and other body
movements
- Edward Sapir
CULTURE
• the set of learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes,
values, and ideals that are characteristics of a
particular society or population (Ember, 1999)
• the learned norms, values, knowledge, artifacts,
language, and symbols that are constantly
communicated among people who share a
common way of life (Calhoun, et. al., 1994)
• the sum total of symbols, ideas, forms of expressions,
and material products associated with a system
(Allan Johnson, 1996)
CULTURE
• complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of
society (E.B. Taylor in Panopio, 1992)
• an organization of phenomena that is dependent
upon symbols, phenomena which include acts
(patterns of behavior); objects (tools and things
made by tools); ideas (beliefs, knowledge); and
sentiments (attitudes and values). (Hunt et. al., 1998)
CULTURE
• consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for
behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievement of human
groups, including their embodiments in artifacts
(Hofstede, 1997)
Why do cultures differ? :
History
Educational Backgrounds
Social backgrounds
Ethnic
Religion
Ecology
Technology
Various cultures in India
Characteristics
1. Culture is learned.
of Culture
2. Culture is shared by a group of people.
3. Culture is cumulative.
4. Cultures change.
5. Culture is dynamic.
6. Culture is ideational.
7. Culture is diverse.
8. Culture gives us a range of permissible behavior
patterns.
Components of Culture
A. Communication
Language
Symbols
B. Cognitive
Ideas
Knowledge
Beliefs
Values
Accounts
C. Behavioral
Norms
Mores
Laws
Folkways
Rituals
D. Material
Tools, Medicines
Books
Transportation
Technologies
Components of Culture
A. Communication Component
1. Language
Language defines what it means to be human. It forms the
core of all culture. When people share a language, they share
a condensed, very flexible set of symbols and meanings. That
makes communication possible, at least communication
beyond grunts and hand signals, and provides the basis for
symbolic interaction, along with non-verbal communication
and symbols.
2. Symbols
Along with language and non-verbal signals, symbols form the
backbone of symbolic interaction. They condense very
complex ideas and values into simple material forms so that
the very presence of the symbol evokes the signified ideas
and values. A symbol is anything that carries a particular
meaning recognized by people who share culture. Symbols
serve as the basis for everyday reality. Symbols vary within
cultures, cross-culturally, and change over time.
Symbols
• Mickey Mouse
• Clothing (baseball hats worn sideways, belly shirts,
etc.
• Behavior (ritualized behavior)
B. Cognitive Component
1. Ideas/Knowledge/Beliefs
Ideas are mental representations (concepts, categories,
metaphors) used to organize stimulus; they are the basic
units out of which knowledge is constructed and a world
emerges.
Knowledge is the storehouse where we accumulate
representations, information, facts, assumptions, etc.
Beliefs accept a proposition, statement, description of fact,
etc. as true.
2. Values are defined standards of desirability,
goodness and beauty, which serve as broad
guidelines for social living.
3. Accounts are how people use that common
language to explain, justify, rationalize, excuse, or
legitimize our behavior to themselves and others.
C. Behavioral Component (how we act)
1. Norms
• rules and expectations by which a society guides
the behavior of its members.
• can change over time
• reinforced through sanctions which take the form of
either rewards or punishment
• standards that define the obligatory and expected
behaviors of people in various situations
Types of Norms
1. Mores are customary behavior patterns which have taken
on a moralistic value.
2. Laws are formalized norms, enacted by people who are
vested with government power and enforced by political
and legal authorities designated by the government.
3. Folkways are behavior patterns of society which are
organized and repetitive. They are commonly known as
customs.
4. Rituals are highly scripted ceremonies or strips of
interaction that follow a specific sequence of actions.
Ceremonies (graduation, baptism, funerals, weddings, birthdays)
Holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas)
Everyday public rituals (handshake, greeting, kissing, walking)
Bonding rituals (parties, gift-giving, holding hands, exchange cards
Signal rituals (eye contact, holding the door)
D. Material Component
• refers to physical objects of culture such as
machines, equipment, tools, books, clothing, etc.
• Its form and function is an expression of culture and
culturally-defined behavior often depends on the
presence of specific objects
The Organization of Culture
• Cultural traits are simple units or elements, either of
a material or non-material culture, represents a
single element or a combination of elements
related to a specific situation.
• Clusters of culture traits are known as culture
complexes which, in turn, group together to form
cultural pattern.
How is Culture Transmitted
1. Enculturation
the process of learning culture of one’s own
Ex. Learning the folkways, mores, social traditions, values and beliefs
of one’s own group.
2. Acculturation
the process of learning some new traits from another culture
Ex. When students from the rural areas migrate to the urban areas or
city and gradually learn some urban customs, they become
acculturated.
The interaction of Filipinos with Americans in the Philippines
3. Assimilation
the process in which an individual entirely loses any awareness of his/her
previous group identity and takes on the culture and attitudes of another
group.
Ex. An Ilocano moves to a point where he/she speaks only Visayan
and assumes the folkways of the local group.
Importance and Functions of Culture
1. Culture helps the individual fulfill his potential as a
human being.
2. Through the development of culture, man can
overcome his physical disadvantages and allows
him to provide himself with fire, clothing, food and
shelter.
3. Culture provides rules of proper conduct for living
in a society.
4. Culture also provides the individual his concepts of
family, nation and class.
Cultural Relativism
• Is an essence, an approach to the question of the
nature and role of values in culture (Rosado, 2003)
• Is an anthropological approach which posits that all
cultures are of equal value and need to be studied
in a neutral point of view (Glazer (1996).
• Practices considered immoral or taboo to a certain
group of people but are accepted by other groups
with a different cultural orientation.