Intercultural Communication
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CMST340PositionalityPrincipleChap.4.pptxCMST 340 Positionality Principle Chapter 4
Specificity: every culture system is unique
PQ: What happens to cultural meanings as they are performed and enacted?
“IT ALL DEPENDS!”
CMST 340 Positionality
“IC” and perception: “Select…Organize…Interpret ”
“All our interactions are influenced by perception.”
Move from sensing this world to make sense of it!
All Cultures have the following:
Beliefs: connect between a character and an object (cow’s blood- strength, river- energy)
Attitudes: a predisposition to respond (Neg., Pos., Neutral) to object or practice
Values: shared ideas within a culture, what is important or desirable
Successful “IC” requires attitudes and values be taken into
consideration.
CMST 340 Positionality
Norms: a shared standard/ accepted and expected behavior
3 Categories:
1.Folkways: everyday practices widely accepted (dress, eat)
2. Mores: practices that carry moral connections
(coming of age ceremonies: Kenya)
3. Laws: practices codified usually written down
(illegal for ceremony/ hunt lion w/ one spear: Kenya)
CMST 340 Positionality
Worldview: assumptions and beliefs about the nature of reality…the universe, human life, God, philo. issues, concepts of being
African countries WV
Indian WV
Am. WV
CMST 340 Positionality
Cultural Gaze: “looking out”/ “looking in”
Common with every culture
Ethnic Tourism: invited to experience other cultures
Ethnocentrism: point of reference that every culture needs to understand the world and itself (from where we are, particular location and time period)
CMST 340 Positionality
Ethnocentrism: 2 views
One culture views others with an attitude of superiority, others inferior and wrong
Positively, surviving threats and taking pride in what your culture represents…helps culture maintain its integrity
CMST 340 Positionality
“E” Reduction: (fig. 1 p. 90): Imposing
“E” Negation: (fig.2 p.91): Ignoring
“E” Affirmation: (fig. 3 p. 92): Affirming
CMST 340 Positionality
Positionality Principle:
Positionality and Grounding: establishing a cultural system of meanings
Positionality and Authority: laying claims that are accepted…narrative (events POV) grand narrative ( stories giving meaning, moral direction)
Positionality and “IC” Engagement: present cultural narratives as true vision of the world to other cultures
(U.S. in winning WWII…..Great Britain POV Russia POV)
Positionality is determined by where one stands in relation to the other.
CMST 340 Positionality
Positionality Defined:
Process of establishing specific cultural position…grounding
Matter of power relation between cultural positions…authority
Impossible to determine real position without engaging other cultures
“IC” is a process whereby people from different cultures claim authority for their vision of the world.
CMST 340: Positionality Principle
Short Definition:
Positionality Principle is claiming authority for culture’s vision of the world.
CMST 340 Positionality Principle
CASE STUDY: “Argument in Israeli- Palestinian Encounters”
View video
Summarize narrative in text
Jewish- Israeli Qs and Palestinian Qs
Discussion:
Role of grounding in the encounters: (I= defense, P= punish)
Power relations revealed in the encounters: each with “authority” for their vision
Israeli- Palestinian encounters: engaged dialogue
