Critical Thinking Skills, Conestoga College

Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Winter 2008

Cultural Reasoning

CULTURE

The values, behaviors, practices, and assumptions we've learned from our membership in
groups that share them.

1440, "the tilling of land," from L. cultura, from pp. stem of colere "tend, guard, cultivate,
till. The question of culture concerns what we cultivate in ourselves, in our dealings with
others.
Cultures are made up of many components, for example, language, art, trash,
fetishes, care for the dead, shelter, and religion. People learn culture. That, we suggest, is
culture's essential feature. Many qualities of human life are transmitted genetically -- an
infant's desire for food, for example, is triggered by physiological characteristics
determined within the human genetic code. An adult's specific desire for milk and cereal in
the morning, on the other hand, cannot be explained genetically; rather, it is a learned
(cultural) response to morning hunger.
Culture, as a body of learned behaviors common to a given human society, acts
rather like a template (ie. it has predictable form and content), shaping behavior and
consciousness within a human society from generation to generation. So culture resides in
all learned behavior and in some shaping template or consciousness prior to behavior as
well (that is, a "cultural template" can be in place prior to the birth of an individual
person).
This primary concept of a shaping template and body of learned behaviors might be
further broken down into the following categories, each of which is an important element
of cultural systems:

systems of meaning, of which language is primary

ways of organizing society, from kinship groups to states and multi-national
corporations
the distinctive techniques of a group and their characteristic products

Culture rules virtually every aspect of your life and like most people, you are
completely unaware of this. If asked, you would likely define culture as music, literature,
visual arts, architecture or language, and you wouldn't be wrong. But you wouldn't be
entirely right either. In effect, the things produced by a culture which we perceive with our
five senses are simply manifestations of the deeper meaning of culture - what we do, think
and feel.
Culture is taught and learned and shared - there is no culture of one. And yet, culture
is not monolithic - individuals exist within a culture. Finally, culture is symbolic. Meaning
is ascribed to behavior, words and objects and this meaning is objectively arbitrary,
subjectively logical and rational. For example, a "home", is a physical structure, a familial
construct and a moral reference point - which is distinct from one culture to another.
Culture is vital because it enables its members to function one with another without
the need to negotiate meaning at every moment. Culture is learned and forgotten, so
despite its importance we are generally unconscious of its influence on the manner in
which we perceive the world and interact within it. Culture is significant because as we
work with others it both enables us and impedes us in our ability to understand and work
effectively together.
We tend to think of our basic beliefs as human nature, or common sense, when in
fact we've learned them as a result of belonging to groups of people who have influenced
us. When living and working in foreign destinations, our reflex is to interpret and
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understand local ways of being through our own cultural references. This interpretation
can be quite misleading, and in certain cases, cause irreparable damage to relationships,
relationships upon which the success of projects rest.

THE INTERCULTURALLY EFFECTIVE PERSON

Simply stated, an intercultural effective person is someone who is able to live

contentedly and work successfully in another culture. Taken a little further, the
intercultural effective person has three main attributes:
* an ability to communicate with people of another culture in a way that earns their
respect and trust
* the capacity to adapt his/her professional skills (both technical and managerial) to fit
local conditions and constraints
* the capacity to adjust personally so that s/he is content and generally at ease in the
host culture

A common way of understanding culture sees it as consisting of four elements that are
"passed on from generation to generation by learning alone":

1. values;
2. norms;
3. institutions;
4. artifacts.

Values comprise ideas about what in life seems important. They guide the rest of the
culture.

Norms consist of expectations of how people will behave in various situations. Each
culture has methods, called sanctions, of enforcing its norms. Sanctions vary with the
importance of the norm; norms that a society enforces formally have the status of laws.

Institutions are the structures of a society within which values and norms are
transmitted.

Artifactsthings, or aspects of material culturederive from a culture's values and

norms.

ACCULTURATION
the modification of a person's or a group's culture through the influence of the culture of
another group.

ADAPTATION
the process of accommodating to new ways of doing things by making changes in one's
own behavior and assumptions.

COLLECTIVISM
identifying with the needs of the group over the needs of the individual.

CROSS-CULTURAL
the interaction, communication, or other processes between people or entities from two or
more different cultures.

CULTURAL ASSIMILATION

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a greater degree of to the extent that the original culture is suppressed or a new culture is
adopted.

CULTURE SHOCK
the discomfort experienced by people on encountering and trying to adjust to unfamiliar
cultural practices.

DECODING
uncovering the meaning within messages conveyed through culturally-determined words,
gestures, timing, and context.

ETHNOCENTRIC
seeing one's own group's way of doing things as the normal and desirable way; assessing
other people's ways of doing things from the perspective of one's own values.

GLOBALIZATION
an expansion beyond national borders, generally of trade and commerce.

HUMAN NATURE
that part of our behavior and assumptions that we inherit and share with all humans.

INDIVIDUALISM
The person feels independent of groups; the person's interests prevail over group
interests.

INTERCULTURAL
people from different cultures interacting with each other to the extent that both are
expected to make accommodations to build relationships.

MULTICULTURAL
a group comprising people from many cultures, generally in a political or geographic
context.

STEREOTYPE
the attribution of a predominant characteristic of a group to an individual in the group
without recognition of the reality of individual variation within a group... "Lee is Canadian
so we assume she favors public funding for health care."

VALUES
those qualities of behavior, thought, and character that society regards as being
intrinsically good, having desirable results, and worthy of emulation by others

Cultural Self Assessment

1. To what groups do you belong?

* Go through examples below to start your thinking. Consider how important these
connections are to your daily life.
* List 10 groups to which you belong if you can. Examples:
* Income, "race", religion, language, family make up, education, physical ability,
interests and hobbies, personality style, sexual orientation, experiences (such as military,
death of a child, cancer survivor)

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 2. List three words that describe one of the groups with which you identify. Now, list
three words that others might use to stereotype your group.
3. Of the groups you belong to, which ones do you identify with most or are most
important to you?
4. What advantages or disadvantages do these groups bring to your personal life?
5. What advantages or disadvantages do these groups bring to your work life?
6. How does your culture of origin or current group identity affect your ideas about:
1. life cycle events (birth, being a teenager, marriage or primary relationships,
retirement, death)
2. role of extended family
3. manners and discipline
4. religious beliefs
5. standards for health and hygiene
6. food preferences and preparation
7. dress and personal appearance
8. history and tradition
9. holidays and celebrations
10. education and teaching methods
11. perceptions of work and play
12. perceptions of time and space
13. attitudes toward pets and animals
14. life expectations and aspirations
15. relationships to authority
16. eye contact
17. touching and hugging
18. money
19. fighting, physical force
20. loyalty
21. people
22. sexuality
7. Put the following items in order, from most to least, on the influence they have in your
perspectives and personal culture:
* family
* personal experiences
* educational experiences
* peer influences
* media influences
* critical incidents
* impact of key individuals
* personal search
8. Imagine that someone from outside one of your groups wants to learn more about
your group in order to understand you better. What would you tell that person?
9. Have you ever felt like an outsider? When? Describe the signs that say you belong and
the ones that say you don't.
10. What, if any, obstacles prevent you from enjoying and participating in your
community?
11. What, if any, obstacles prevent you from enjoying and feeling satisfied in your
workplace?

Sub-Cultures (Partial List)

* Anarcho-skinheads * BDSM subculture

* Backpackers * Biker gangs such as the Hell's Angels
* B-boys * Bills

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 * Black Metal Inner Circle * Townie
* Blingers * Trekkie
* Body modification and tattoo * Trojan Skinheads
subcultures * Urbanites
* Bohemianism * Vampire subculture
* Bszoku * Vegans
* Chavs * Zazou
* Conspiracy theorists
* Cybers
* Deaf culture
* Demoscene
* Disco
* Emo
* Fandom
* Folkies
* Freak scene
* Furry fandom
* Gamer
* Goths
* Graffiti artists
* Greasers
* Greens
* Grungers
* Hackers
* Hard-liners
* Hip hop culture
* Hippies
* Hipsters
* Import scene
* Leather subculture
* Metalheads
* Mods
*Nerds
* New Romantics
* Nudists
* Otaku
* Psychobillies
* Punk-skinheads
* Queer culture
* Raggare
* Rave scene
* Red-Skinheads
* Rivetheads
* Rockabillies
* Rockers
* Rude boys
* Scooterboys
* Skate punks
* Skinheads
* Sloanes
* Straight edge
* Swing Kids
* Teds
* Thugs/Gangstas