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Running head: COMPARING/CONTRASTING THE COMPONENTS OF CULTURE IN DIFFERENT CULTURES Comparing/Contrasting the Components of Culture in Different Cultures April 17, 2009 Comparing/Contrasting the Components of Culture in Different Cultures Culture basically comprises of all shared products of human groups, embracing the beliefs, behaviors, values shared by group and physical objects. Culture, therefore, is a groups shared and learned way of life, where nonmaterial culture implies all nonphysical objects (for example, ideas, language, symbols, norms, values) and material culture embraces all physical objects created by a group. The essay examines components of culture, such as symbols and language and by comparing and contrasting these components proves that they differ significantly among two different groups (e. g. , countries, cities or regions). There are two major approaches to culture ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism approach implies the tendency to examine ones own culture as a superior one and, logically, to judge the beliefs, values and behavior of people belonging to other groups according to ones own standards (Kain, 1993).
The second approach, cultural relativism, asserts that the individuals and especially anthropologists, should undertake all efforts to understand and evaluate another culture relative to its own beliefs and values. Therefore, although all individuals to a certain extent are ethnocentric, this essay adopts as a non-ethnocentric approach as possible while comparing and contrasting the components of culture in different groups. Individuals not only percept and sense the world around them in the same way as other creatures do, but they construct a reality of meaning by transforming the elements of the world into special symbols (anything that, according to their opinion, carries a specific meaning adopted by individuals belonging to the same group or culture) (Macionis, 2008). Therefore, symbols as the components of culture, have different meaning in different cultures. For example, while Europeans and Americans treat dogs as household pets, when they travel to China, they are shocked by the fact that some Chinese eat dogs and value their meat. At the same time, for example, Asians, who travel to England, might be shocked by the amount of alcohol usually consumed by an average Englishman.
Language, another component of culture, also differs significantly in different cultures. Language is a set of symbols (consisting of written and spoken words) with the help of which the members of society can communicate with each other (Halle, 1993). For example, the conventions in writing also differ in different groups, as people in Western Asia write from right to left, people in Western cultures write from left to right, and those in central Asian countries write from top to bottom. Moreover, it should be noted that language shapes groups perception of reality.
For example, the Chinese and Japanese, the cultures, which use hieroglyphs, in fact percept the world in a completely different way, if compared to Western cultures. This occurs mostly because each language has its own symbols serving as specific building blocks of construction of reality. Also, each language uses symbols with specific emotions, and, because of that, different concepts and ideas can have different meaning even when the set of language symbol is the same (for example, Japanese and Chinese, or Americans and Englishmen). Cultural values also differ from culture to culture. For example, European values differ significantly from those of Chinese or Japanese. While European values can be seen as accumulation or different values, Chinese values are more reserved and are not shaped much by the influence of neighbor cultures.
In such a way, it becomes obvious that the components of culture, such as symbols, values and language differ significantly among two different groups. Bibliography Halle, D. (1993). Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kain, E. (1993). Innovative Techniques for Teaching Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. Macionis, J. (2008). Sociology: A Global Introduction.
Pearson Prentice Hall.
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