Final Exam

Module 9 - Culture and Communication

 

Prior to completing the following, please read Chapter 9 of your textbook.

NOTE: After reading Chapter 9 in the text and reviewing this module, make sure to complete all of the Module 9 Assignments. Please refer to the course calendar or the bottom of this module for a list of the assignments.

 

Culture and Communication

This module will emphasize the important role culture plays in our lives and in our interactions, as well as review a few of the concepts discussed in Chapter 9. After reading the chapter and completing this module you should be able to:

1 Define culture and the following concepts: symbols, symbolic resources, narratives, rituals, worldviews, values, and norms.

2 Explain the U-curve model and discuss the concepts of enculturation, acculturation, culture shock.

3 Identify and apply intercultural communication strategies.

4 Apply cultural understanding to topic selection for your speeches (see pp. 175-176 in your text).

 Defining Culture

In 1952, anthropologists Kroeber and Kluckhohn reviewed all the different ways "culture" has been defined and cited 150 different definitions of the concept. Today, the definition of "culture" is still debated by many scholars. Rather than explore the differences across the various definitions of culture, we will focus on a specific communication-based approach to defining culture.

In our textbook, Dr. Morgan identified three different approaches to culture that are grounded in communication:

1 First, culture can be understood as a set of characteristics that particular groups share.

· These characteristics often include traditions, habits, food, clothes, and ways of acting. From this perspective, we can examine these characteristics in order to learn about a group's culture.

2 Second, culture can be understood as a "site of struggle" (Oetzel, 2009).

· This approach to culture focuses on how different groups relate to one another in terms of power. Specifically, we may try to understand how communication processes serve to marginalize certain groups and create systems of oppression.

3 Third, culture can be understood as a system of meaning.

· This approach views culture as a way to understand and describe how people make sense of the world.

 This leads us to the specific definition of culture that will guide our discussion:

Culture = "a complex system of symbolic resources, worldviews, values, and norms for the appropriate enactment of behavior" (Morgan, 2016, p. 162).

This definition of culture is, to a great extent, a matter of perception. When you identify yourself as a member of a culture, you must not only share certain characteristics, but you must also recognize yourself and others as possessing these features--while seeing others who don’t possess those characteristics and features as members of different cultures. Additionally, many of these characteristics (e.g., worldviews, values, norms, etc.) are created and maintained through communication. For example, a dominant worldview in U.S. culture is individualism, which privileges self-reliance and advances the belief that it is more important to meet individual needs than the collective needs of the whole group or society. It is through communication (and behaviors) that Americans have established individualism as an important way of life in the U.S. and have come to value its principles over time.

Symbolic Resources

In order to define symbolic resources, we'll look at the two concepts (symbols + resources) separately.

Symbols = anything that stands for something else.

For example, the piece of cloth with 50 stars in the left-hand corner and 13 red and white stripes represents, or stands for, the United States of America. 

Words are symbols, too!  Words stand for the objects and ideas that they represent.  For example, the word "table" stands for the object with four legs and a hard, flat surface that is used for eating, studying, etc. 

Symbols are Both Arbitrary and Conventional: 

Resources = anything that people use. Water, oil, time, and money are all resources.

Resources are important to any culture or society; they help cultural members function and survive. Symbolic resources are also highly valued and help societies function.  As Dr. Morgan (2016) states in our text, "People use symbols to refer to objects, to express emotions, to create and maintain groups, and generally to make the world around us meaningful. Without symbols, we could not coordinate our actions to use any other type of resource, like oil. In other words, we have to be able to refer to oil, and generally share the same conception of what it is, if we want to be able to drill for it, refine it, transport it to your local gas station, and pump the gas into your vehicle" (p. 163).

Worldviews

A worldview is a deeply felt premise (or assumption) about the way the world is. There are eight dimensions discussed in your textbook:

For all eight of the worldview dimensions above, cultural groups will normally share a general sense of the answers to these questions. The result is a cultural worldview or group worldview. Individuals will always have preferences to these dimensions, but if a group generally shares agreement on the answers to the above questions, it becomes a cultural worldview that is communicated and maintained among group members. 

Values

Values = beliefs about the way the world should be.

Values differ from worldviews in that values are often discussed among people, sometimes debated, and held up as ideals to which people should aspire. Values arise from the worldview assumptions or cultural premises that are shared among the cultural group. For example, if your worldview is that the world is a bad place with bad people, then based on that worldview, you should value honesty in order to make the world a better place.

Norms

Norm = a culturally understandable behavior; a typical behavior that conforms to (and therefore reinforces) a sense of appropriateness within a given culture.

Examples of American Social Norms:

· Shake hands when you met someone

· Unless it is crowded, do not sit right next to a stranger in a movie theater

· Unless it is crowded, do not stand right next to a stranger in an elevator

· Leave a tip for servers and bartenders

· Do not talk with food in your mouth

· Others? These are just a FEW of the numerous American social norms that exist. 

Keep in mind, of course, that norms differ across cultures. Those of you who are from countries other than the U.S. can likely identify different social norms that are acceptable in your culture. Click here

 (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

to read a list of American social norms that are considered rude in other countries and other cultures.

Additionally, social norms can also differ in different parts of the same country. For those of you who have lived in and/or traveled to different parts of the U.S., you can probably identify ways that the culture in Las Cruces differs from other regions. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH and then lived in Columbia, MO from 2011-2016, so I have always been entrenched in and exposed to Midwestern norms and customs. My husband and I moved to Las Cruces last July and have noticed several cultural differences between the Southwest and the Midwest. 

Where Are All the Trick-or-Treaters?

For me, one of the most noticeable cultural differences happened on Halloween. In Ohio and Missouri, there have always been scheduled "trick or treat" times mandated by the city, and those times may change from year to year (and it may not even be on Halloween). For example, if Halloween falls on a Friday or a Saturday, trick-or-treating may be moved to Thursday night due to concerns that it will be too dangerous for kids to be walking around on a weekend night when teenagers and adults are out partying and causing a ruckus. Furthermore, it gets dark pretty early in the Midwest during the late fall, so the trick-or-treat time is often held in the late afternoon, from 4-6 or 5-7. While there still might be kids out trick-or-treating at 8 or 9, many people will turn off their lights and stop handing out candy by 7:00pm.  

Based on my experience with these Halloween norms, I spent two weeks researching when trick-or-treating would take place in Las Cruces. I never got a straight answer, so I decided to just buy some candy and see what happened on Halloween. By 5:30 on Halloween, I was convinced that Las Cruces didn't do trick-or-treating for some reason. However, by 6:15pm our porch was flooded with kids and we had a steady stream of trick-or-treaters until we ran out of candy at 8:00pm (we're definitely going to buy more candy this year!). We heard trick-or-treaters out and about until almost 10:00pm, which is far later than kids stay out in Ohio and Missouri. Anyway, it was so surprising to me that there was no "official" Trick-or-Treat announcement in Las Cruces that I had to call my mom and tell her about it. She was also surprised and said, "So you didn't get your first trick-or-treater until after 6:00pm? And they were out until 10:00pm? Wow!" This may not seem like a big deal, but the way Halloween is "done" in Las Cruces is much different than what is "normal" and expected for me, and required some adjustment on my part.

To Wave or Not to Wave?

My husband also encountered a difference in social norms. He lived in a small town in Kentucky throughout high school and college, and it is normal and expected there to wave and smile at people in public--even if you don't know them. If you drive or walk by someone and don't smile and wave, it's considered rude and snobby. One of the first times I was driving around with my husband in his hometown he smiled and waved at a person in another car and the person did not wave back. My husband said, "Geez, I wonder what's wrong with him."  I asked him if he knew the other driver (which would explain why he was so offended by the snub) and he said, "No. But didn't you see me wave at him?"  That's when I learned that it's common courtesy in that part of Kentucky to wave at anyone you pass, and is considered rude if you don't wave or don't at least acknowledge the other person's gesture. 

When we first moved to Las Cruces, my husband would wave to strangers out in public and--more often than not--people would give him a weird look and then go about their business (without waving back). If people did wave back, they usually looked confused and seemed to be wondering if they knew him from somewhere. I kept telling him, "This isn't Jamestown, Kentucky. People don't just wave at strangers here." Interestingly, several of you tried smiling and waving at strangers for your norm-violation activity and had similar results. Needless to say, my husband doesn't wave to everyone anymore, though it's been difficult for him to break the habit completely!

Communicating Culture (pp. 164-166)

As discussed above, culture is created and maintained through communication. The two main ways we communicate culture are through:

1) Narratives - the stories we tell each other; the re-telling of events from a specific point of view. Narratives such as legends, fairly tales, and even movies and sitcoms teach us about culture and communicate important cultural messages. Within our families (which are considered an important sub-culture or relational culture), narratives teach us about our family's norms, values, and customs. 

Communication scholar Brad Hall identified 4 functions of narratives:

1 Narratives provide us with information about our place in the world relative to society and other people.

· Thus, they help us shape our identities.

2 Narratives tell us "how the world works" both on a broad scale and in specific contexts.

· Through narratives, we learn important lessons about how society as whole and how smaller cultural contexts (e.g., work, school, friend groups) operate.

3 Narratives tell us how to act in the world.

· Narratives help us learn important values, customs, and social norms (i.e., what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior). 

4 Narratives tells us how to evaluate the world around us in terms of good and bad, right and wrong.

· In other words, narratives often teach us our morals and what counts as good, ethical behavior. 

NOTE: Make sure to review the section on "narratives" on pp. 165 in your text. Your written activity for this Module asks you to apply these 4 functions to a family story, and Dr. Morgan's discussion and examples in this section will greatly help! 

2.) Rituals - actions that are structured and performed repeatedly.  These repeated, ritualistic actions are influenced by culture.  A ritual, then, can be thought of as a sequence of events that functions to "celebrate" or acknowledge an important cultural value or aspect. Thus, they communicate what a particular culture values. 

For example, commencement ceremonies are important rituals conducted on most college campuses in the fall and spring. These ceremonies demonstrate that universities value the concepts of hard work, perseverance, and success (and therefore choose to celebrate the accomplishments of their graduates). 

Most cultures have rituals to celebrate various holidays, such as the American tradition of cooking a large meal and gathering with family and friends to give thanks on the 3rd Thursday in November. 

On a smaller scale, families have their own unique rituals that communicate something about what they value and what they consider worth celebrating. Sometimes family rituals are connected to broader holidays and traditions, like a family who always holds a Cornhole tournament before Thanksgiving dinner. Other rituals represent important events or milestones that are unique to the family and often only important to them. For example, whenever my husband and I visit my hometown, we always devote one night to go to the movies with my brother. It started several years ago because we would always come home around the holidays when a new Hobbit movie would happen to be out in the theaters, so we would go see it with my brother. Now that there aren't new Hobbit movies coming out every December (and we don't always make it home for the holidays), it doesn't matter what time of year we go home or what movie we see; however, we always make a point to schedule a "movie date" with my little brother when we're in town.

Finally, rituals do not necessarily need to connected to holidays or extra-special events; they can also represent the mundane, ordinary events that make up our daily lives. For example, after we first moved to Las Cruces, my husband and I started to go to Happy Hour at Pecan Grill on Fridays to "celebrate" making it through another week. On an even less exciting note, we have a ritual of watching re-runs of The Amazing Race (one of our all-time favorite TV shows) on Sunday evenings before we start the new week. Our ritual of watching The Amazing Race together represents our love for adventure and traveling, and also shows that we value spending quality time together before another hectic week starts (we'll see how this ritual holds up once our first child is born in October!).

You can probably think of several rituals that you engage in on a cultural level, as well as many rituals that you perform with your family and friends. What do these rituals communicate about your values?

Assimilating Into a New Culture (pp. 172 - 175)

If you have ever moved you might have experienced a new culture, depending on where you moved from and where you went. You may have also experienced a difference in cultures if you've traveled to different parts of the country or different parts of the world. Three (3) processes are involved when a person enters a new cultural system.

1 Enculturation (p. 163) = the process of learning one’s dominant cultural system(s). As an adult you should be familiar with your own cultural system.

2 Acculturation (p. 172) = the process of learning another cultural system. 

3 Culture Shock (p. 172) = feelings of discouragement or disorientation while experiencing (and attempting to adjust to) a new cultural system.

· Culture shock is also referred to as "acculturation stress"

NOTE: For the Exam, make sure you review the section on "Learning Different Cultural Systems" in the text (pp. 172-175). In particular, you should be familiar with the U-Curve Model and its various stages.

Intercultural Communication Strategies

Most of us will experience a new culture at some point in our lives. Additionally, we will likely meet or work with people who are from different cultures. Here are a few pieces of advice for learning about other cultures and interacting with people of other cultures:

1 Be mindful or fully aware of other cultures and make an effort to learn about them.

· This often requires doing research on your own and asking others thoughtful and respectful questions about their culture.

2 Adapt to others: Accommodate your conversations to the accepted speech behaviors and norms of others.

· Again, this may require that you do research and learn about the norms and expectations of the other culture!

3 Actively engage others: Make an effort to spend time and energy interacting with people from other cultures.

· We are lucky to live in a relatively diverse campus, city, state, and region. This is certainly a far more diverse area than the middle of Missouri, and I have already learned so much in one year about Southwestern culture!

· Keep in mind that most people are glad to share their cultural norms with you.

4 Understand the basis of your conclusions about others.

· Consider alternate interpretations.

· Don't base your judgments or ideas about others from stereotypes. 

5 Be receptive to new information.

6 Be responsive to more than one perspective.