NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
A group of Arab oil workers sent to Texas for training found American teaching methods impersonal. Several Japanese workers at a U. S. manufacturing plant had to learn how to put courtesy aside and interrupt conversations when there was trouble.
Executives o f a Swiss based multinational couldn't understand why its American managers demanded more autonomy than their European counterparts. Jose Carlos Villages, a business manager for animal health products at American Cyanamid Co. , also had a problem with office protocol. Back in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, where he was raised, business people would begin meetings with relaxed chitchat. At the company s headquarters in Wayne, NJ, though, he says he picks up signals or body language that Americans find such sociability time wasting.
But even after 15 months in the U. S. , Mr. Villages feels uncomfortable plunging abruptly into business. "It strikes me as cold blooded, " he says. Most people think that culture is manners, food, dress, arts and crafts, says Clifford Clarke, president of IRI International, a Redwood City, CA, consulting company. They don t realize that how you motivate a guy is culturally determined. Every managerial task is culturally determined. [Bennett, 1986, p. 33 ] Even a definition of culture depends on culture.
In the German, Scandinavian, and Slavic language groups, the word "culture" tends to mean a particular way of life, whether of a people, a time period, or a group. But in Italian and French, the word refers more to art, learning, and a general process of human development (Williams, 1976 a, p. 81). Both meanings exist today as the word is used in English. It is helpful to distinguish so-called high culture (classical music, opera, ballet, art, literature, and so forth) from all processes and products of human activity. High culture is associated with class distinctions and is sometimes put down with the affected pronunciation "culch ah" (Williams, 1976). We will use the term culture in its more general social sense to mean the customs of a group or a society.
Culture refers to all the symbolic and socially learned aspects of human society. Material culture includes things, technology, and the arts. Nonmaterial culture includes language and other symbols, knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and customs. Culture has a certain durability. This does not mean it is unchanging; culture changes constantly. Indeed, it is like a living, breathing entity.
Only the rate of change varies from one society to another. But there is an important historical dimension to it that cannot be ignored. Culture has a certain coherence, although it may contain contradictions. Ruth Benedict (1934), in her famous book Patterns of Culture, referred to "cultural configurations. " When people encounter a new culture, they can see, hear, feel, and otherwise sense the existence of a culture that differs from their own. When such changes are very dramatic, they say they experience "culture shock" from the jolt of so many unfamiliar activities. It takes time to adjust to the different tempo, social styles, food, and activities.
Even experienced anthropologists who have made numerous trips to study other cultures report that they feel culture shock when they return home. In the United States, visitors from the North to the South or vice versa also notice differences in tempo, politeness, language, customs, and diet. Northerners may get impatient with the apparent slowness of southern service; southerners may be shocked by what seems like northern rudeness. We tend to take culture for granted until we are confronted with differences or changes.
Although culture and society are intimately bound together, it is possible to separate them, at least conceptually. Society consists of people and their social organizations. Culture is all the socially learned behaviors, beliefs, feelings, and values the members of a group or society experience. It includes customs and language. It affects how people interact, the meanings they place on different interactions, and how interactions are organized. The members of a society are like the actors in a play, and culture is like the script they follow (or do not follow in some cases).
The capacity to create, transmit, and modify culture dramatically distinguishes humans from animals. Animals appear to depend on instincts, imitative social learning, or trial and error for solving their survival problems. Humans rely much more on cultural prescriptions. If culture distinguishes humans from animals, it is important to consider the similarities between us and animals as well as the unique features of human life.
HUMAN UNIQUENESS Which biological traits do we share with other animals and which represent unique features? We are born and we die. Unlike humans, most animals appear to be unaware of the fate that awaits them.
Humans like our closest relatives, the great apes are a sociable species, preferring to live in groups rather than alone. Primate research suggests that socially learned behavior helps apes survive (DeVore, 1965). Like apes, we interact with one another often and enjoy being affectionate. We have unusually large brains, which have grown dramatically in size during the last 3 million years of evolution (Wilson, 1975 a). The increasing size of the brain has meant ever-increasing intelligence for members of the species, leading to increasingly complex culture and technology and less reliance on instincts. Many insects and animals inherit instincts for behaving in certain ways.
Instincts are genetically determined patterns of behavior triggered by certain conditions and over which animals have little or no control. Beavers, for example, have an instinctual response to cut down trees with their teeth. If, however, they cut through the trunk of a tree and it does not fall because its branches are caught in the branches of other trees, the beavers will start chewing all over again. Their instincts tell them to chew until the tree falls.
For humans, culture and reasoning greatly outweigh instinctual bases for behavior. We have very useful hands that are strong, precise, and skillful. Having an opposing thumb means that we can grasp, grip, and manipulate in ways few other species can. This allows us to make and then use all kinds of tools and implements.
Human feet, legs, and backs have evolved in such a way that we can walk and run easily in an upright position, something most animals are unable to do for any length of time. Human females can have sexual intercourse any time during the year, rather than being limited to a particular period of female "heat" or estrus. This year-round potential for sexual activity increases the chances that humans will form relatively lasting social-sexual relationships. These relationships are particularly important in view of the long period of human infant dependency. Human infants need care from others for a number of years to meet their physical needs and to learn their culture. Finally, along with our primate forebears, we are very talkative.
The combination of large brains and useful hands has enabled humans to adapt to widely varying geographical locations. Humans live more widely and more densely than any other mammal species on earth. The inventions of our brains, hands, and tongues can be passed along to our descendants. Each generation, in turn, can adapt or modify existing cultural forms and continue the never-ending process of cultural creation.
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS All human societies appear to share certain cultural features, although the particular forms they take differ dramatically. These are called cultural universals and include the use of language and other symbols, the existence of norms and values, and the tension between ethnocentrism (the attitude that one's own culture is superior to all others) and cultural relativism (the view that the customs and ideas of a society must be viewed within the context of that society).
Common Cultural Elements After comparing 220 societies, anthropologist George Murdock identified cultural elements found in all of them. These universal elements include age grading, athletic sports, cooking, dancing, folklore, hospitality, hygiene, joking, mourning, personal names, and soul concepts. Although these cultural features exist in all the societies studied, their particular content varied widely. Every culture, for example, has symbols and language, but there are many different symbolic meanings and languages. Symbols More than any other animal, humans fill the physical and social world with symbolic meanings. A symbol is any object or sign that produces a shared social response.
A piece of rock, an animal, the moon, a cross, a glance at another person, and a piece of paper with the word "dollar" on it are all imbued with various meanings and sometimes mythical or magical qualities. The symbolic meaning placed upon something may be separated from its physical aspects. Symbols share several characteristics. First, they are socially developed. The sun may symbolize strength to you or to me, but unless that meaning is shared with others it will not become a significant symbol. So, one feature of symbols is that they are socially shared.
Black symbolizes mourning for many Americans, but New Guinea women paint themselves white to show grief. Second, symbols may have more than one meaning. A stack of hundred-dollar bills can symbolize wealth, happiness, greed, materialism, and a host of other things, depending on the meanings people attribute to it. So all meanings are not equally shared, and a variety of symbols can arise from an object like a stack of bills. Third, there is a certain amount of cultural arbitrariness in the meanings assigned to particular symbols, and symbols may differ in time and place. The skirt, for instance, has traditionally symbolized femininity in Western cultures, although Scottish men proudly wear kilts without being considered feminine.
Many women wear pants and are considered no less feminine, and the meaning of long hair on men has varied widely. One of the features of a highly diverse society such as ours is that people share different symbolic universes. That is, the symbolic meaning your group agrees on for something may not be shared by other groups. Wearing jeans may symbolize that someone is unpretentious, unconcerned with displaying material success, desirous of comfort, unhappy doing laundry, and a host of other meanings you could supply. Designer jeans, however, introduced an element of status competition into casual dressing. In our society there is less and less common meaning attached to cultural symbols.
It used to be that driving a large car was a sign of success. But is it still? If you asked 20 different people, I think you would get 20 different responses. The size of one's car no longer means the same thing to everyone in our society. Language Of all the symbols humans use, language is the most highly developed. Language consists of spoken or written symbols combined into a system and governed by rules.
It enables us to share with others our ideas, thoughts, experiences, discoveries, fears, plans, and desires. Written language extends our capacity to communicate through time and space. Without language, it would be difficult to transmit culture, and culture would develop exceedingly slowly. Language is a critical key to understanding any culture and any society. It is the secret to reaching beyond ourselves, which is the heart of our social existence. A person may be a superb athlete, mechanic, or cook, but teaching or talking about that skill requires language.
Otherwise, learning can only come from imitating actions. Yet the importance of language goes even further. Two American linguists, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Who, argue that language shapes the way people think and the way they view reality. If this is the case, it helps to explain why both the civil rights movement and the women's movement have been concerned about the use of language. Contrast the wo...
Free research essays on topics related to: meanings, culture shock, symbolic meaning, symbols, high culture
Research essay sample on Symbolic Meaning Culture Shock
