Introduction to Culture

1. Introduction to Culture Multicultural Literature

2. Part One Notes Introduction to Cutlure

3. Class Goal • To help students value cultural differences while realizing that individuals across cultures have many similarities.

4. Defining Culture • Think: In your notebook, write a definition for culture. • Pair: Compare your definition with a partner. • Share your ideas with the class.

5. Let’s Compare • Culture is the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society embrace. • Culture is transmitted from generation to generation through learning, a process known as enculturation. • Our culture helps to shape and influence our perceptions and behaviors. (Sue & Sue 2003)

6. Heritage • Biological heritage: innate, born with it. Can’t change (without surgery or some other modification). • Eye color • Hair color/texture • Skin color • Cultural heritage: customs, beliefs, and expectations we’ve learned • How to be an “American” • Showering once a day • Eating three meals a day • Expecting freedom

7. Ethnicity • Ethnicity refers to an identification with others who have the same ancestral background (not based on race) based on shared cultural practices, perspectives, and distinctions that set apart one group of people from another. • Ethnicity = a shared cultural heritage. • These subgroups can be characterized by: • religion • language • customs • traditions • dress • ancestral origin. http://dept.sfcollege.edu/ruralalliance/

8. Examples of Ethnic Groups • In the United States: • Jewish Americans • African Americans • Asian Americans • Vietnam is one country that contains 54 ethnic groups, each with its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage.

9. Race • Race is a group of people who are classified together on the bases of a common history, nationality, or geographical location. • In other words race is an ethnic group that has assumed biological basis or physical attributes that are believed to be characteristic of that group i.e. hair type and color of the skin. • Often times it is difficult to identify one’s racial background based on physical characteristics because many people have multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds. http://dept.sfcollege.edu/ruralalliance/

10. Races • White • Arab • Black • Asian • Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander • American Indian/Alaska Native • Eskimo • Hispanic/Latino

11. Race vs. Ethnicity • Raceis a social category based on similar physical appearance (biological heritage). • Ethnicityis a social category based on shared culture or cultural heritage.

12. Ethnicity vs. Race • Example to help clarify race and ethnicity: • John is a male in his twenties. His skin color is black, his eyes are brown and his hair is tightly woven. For all accounts one might assume that John is African American. However, he was born in Jamaica. John considers his race to be black, and his ethnicity to be Jamaican. http://dept.sfcollege.edu/ruralalliance/

13. Characteristics of Culture • Culture is the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society embrace. • Learned • Shared • Adaptive • Changing

14. Characteristics: Learned, Shared • Learned: Culture is made up of learned behaviors. Culture is transmitted to its members. • Shared: Culture binds people together as an identifiable group. • Describe the various ways our society transmits cultural norms to its members in America. Who is responsible for transmitting our cultural norms?

15. Characteristics: Adaptive and Changing • Adaptive: Culture develops to accommodate environmental conditions and available resources. • Describe a culture that has adapted and modified its culture based on available resources. How do available resources influence a culture? • Changing/Dynamic: Culture is constantly changing. • Describe parts of our culture that are constantly changing. How do these changes occur?

16. American Culture • Can you think of some examples of things that are part of/unique to American culture? • Tailgating • Black Friday shopping • The American Dream • Trick-or-treating • Fast-paced lifestyles • Individualism/self-reliance • Equality • Link from Yale for International Students “It is difficult to define what an American is because there are so many kinds of Americans.” — Korean student at Yale http://www.yale.edu/oiss/life/cultural/americans/values.html

17. Similarities Across Cultures • All people have the same psychological and biological needs regardless of their culture (Maslow’s Hierarchy). Can you list needs that you believe all humans share (physical or mental)?

18. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs • Level 1: physiological needs • Level 2: safety needs • Level 3: love and belongingness needs • Level 4: self-esteem needs • Level 5: self-actualization needs

19. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

20. Differences • How we go about meeting or fulfilling our needs is different. • Depends on resources available, environment of region, and the groups relationship to dominant society

21. Ethnocentric • Ethnocentric mean’s that one’s own culture traits are viewed as natural, correct, and/or superior to those of another culture whose traits are perceived as odd, amusing, inferior, even immoral. • Any foreign behavior, values and standards are evaluated in terms of the behaviors, values and standards of the person's original culture. Brigham Young University

22. Conflict and Ethnocentrism • Discuss: What problems arise when a person is not aware of his/her ethnocentrism? • Egotistical attitude • Naïve understanding of other cultures • Prevents us from learning about and understanding others • May prevent us from learning new and/or better ways of doing things • Creates conflict; prevents us from avoiding conflict. Brigham Young University

23. Ethnocentric Exercise • We view the world through a cultural lens. • Ethnocentrism Exercise: • View “The Lunch Date” • When the video is paused, write: • Your interpretation of what happened so far • Your prediction of how the video will end • Follow-up: • Was your interpretation correct? • Was your prediction correct? • What does your prediction reveal about your “cultural lens”?

24. Part Two Notes Introduction to Culture

25. Learning Culture • How does an individual learn to become a functioning adult in his/her society? • Enculturation – process of learning the characteristics of a given culture and becoming fluent in its language. • Socialization – learning to function as a member of society by learning social roles (mom, husband, student, child).

26. Remember We are not born a culture … we are encultured and socialized to a culture.

27. Socialization • What have you been taught about how to be your gender as part of your socialization process in the United States? GUYSGIRLS

28. Multicultural • Multiculturalism refers to a society that contains multiple cultures. • A multicultural individual is who can operate successfully in two or more different cultures. • mastered the knowledge and necessary skills to feel comfortable and communicate effectively.

29. Cultural Relativism • Cultural Relativism is an attempt to understand other cultures in their own terms; not judging on the basis of your own cultural beliefs. • How? • Learn/know own culture • Learn other culture • Experience another culture

30. How do we all live together? • Assimilation is the process by which one individual gives up or forgets his/her own culture to become part of a different culture and is accepted by the dominant culture.

31. How do we all live together? • Acculturation is the merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact; adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture. • Theories of Acculturation in the U.S.: • Anglo Conformity Theory – conforming (losing native culture) to the dominant White Anglo Protestant Saxon (WASP) culture of U.S. • Melting Pot Theory – a variety of races and cultures blend together by exchanging cultures and becoming a more assimilated, homogenous culture. • Mosaic or Salad Bowl Theory – different cultures mix and interact but retain original culture.

32. Living Together, or Not? • Cultural Pluralism is a condition in which minority groups fully participate in the dominant culture, yet maintain their own cultural differences. • Ethnic Enclave: an isolated area of a minority culture w/in a dominant culture. • Have you ever visited an ethnic enclave? • Little Italy, Manhattan, New York • Chinatown, Manhattan, New York • Cambodia Town, Long Beach, California • Little Ethiopia, Los Angeles, California • Amish communities • Native American reservations

33. Macro/Micro Culture • Macro : National culture that is shared by most of its citizens. • Micro: A subculture that shares common traits, behaviors, and values not common to all “Americans” but common among members of that group (social groups, gangs, occupations).

34. Macro vs. Micro Culture • Example of micro culture: Neo-Nazi Skinheads • Describe common traits, behaviors, values of that micro culture. • Describe traits, behaviors, values Neo-Nazis may share with the macro culture.