Culture comparison
Exploring Culture
BUSI 601
Bruce Hiebert Ph.D.
Culture Definition
The way a group of people define and organize their lives
It includes
Language
Religion (fundamental values & cosmology)
Arts (Music, Dance, Clothing, Design, etc.)
Traditions
Ethos (how decisions are made)
Geographic orientation (way of thinking about climate & land)
Law & regulatory practices
Social memory (remembered history)
Canadian Culture
Western European social memory
Shared sense & memory of immigration
Many traditions (somewhat constricted by European orientation)
English law (mostly)
Common law approach (what people do is legal until the law says otherwise)
Not guilty until proven guilty
English & French languages
Christianity (Protestant & Catholic versions)
Winter in a vast and otherwise green landscape
Collective responsibility
Sense of toughness
Strong and honest government
Anti-American
Canadian Culture & Human Rights
Strong commitment to individual rights & liberty
All Canadians are members of the aristocracy
BUT!
A constitutional ability to override human rights
Origins in a collective (English) identity
Obedience to authority
Traditions of strong collective action
History of discrimination against various groups
Ukrainians, Mennonites, Hutterites, Catholics, Jews, Sikhs, Japanese, Chinese
Assimilationist assumptions to significant cultural differences
Born out in fact over time (three generations)