Starting with Culture
Principles of Culture
Although the definition of culture is fairly straightforward, let's break it down into parts and explore the important ideas implied within the definition. These ideas are foundational in the approaches to studying intercultural communication as well as the choice of content in this book.
Culture is Learned
Although there is a debate as to whether babies are born into this world as table rasa (a blank slate) or having intuition; we can say that they do not come with pre-programmed preferences like your personal computer or cell phone does. Human beings do share some universal habits like eating and sleeping, but these habits are biologically and physiologically based, not culturally based. Culture teaches us the ways of what to eat and how to sleep that we learn to view as "normal".
In fact, culture becomes so ingrained within us, that we often do not even recognize that we have a culture or how it affects our everyday life choices. Some authors have described culture as a pair of glasses that we put on and forget that we are wearing. It's only when someone mentions that you are wearing glasses that you remember the difference they make to your sight. Other authors have described culture as the water the water in an aquarium. The fish don't realize that the water is there until a glass panel shatters, water drains, and the environment quickly changes.
Culture is Shared With a Relatively Large Group
A common misunderstanding about culture is that every individual comes with a personalized culture, but an important part of the definition of culture are the terms "shared" and "group". Culture is something that is formed by a "relatively large groups" that has a "shared interpretation" or a shared perception of the world. What culture we learn is ultimately a matter of the group that we are born into. We don't accidentally learn a culture.
Culture Teaches Beliefs, Values, Norms, and Behaviors
The culture that we are raised in will teach us our values, norms, beliefs, and accepted behaviors. Values are deeply felt and often serve as principles that guide people in their perceptions and behaviors. We use our values to judge right or wrong, good or bad, importance, and desirability. Ideally, our values should match up with what we say that we will do, but sometimes our various values come into conflict, and a choice must be made as to which one will be given preference over another. An example of this could be love of country and love of family. You might love both, but ultimately choose family over country when a crisis occurs. Common values include fairness, respect, integrity, compassion, happiness, and kindness.
The term "norm" is often used interchangeably with the term "rule". Norms are informal guidelines that govern what is proper or acceptable behavior within a specific culture. Sometimes you don't know what the norms are until you have violated the norm. Usually, there is a certain amount of forgiveness extended for the violation of norms. Rules, on the other hand, are explicit guidelines that are often written down and rigidly followed. Forgiveness is often not granted to rule-breakers.
Beliefs are strong assumptions, convictions, principles, tenets, and axioms held by individuals, groups or cultures about the truth, existence, or worth of something. Beliefs define for us, and give meaning to, objects, people, places, and things in our lives. These beliefs become our worldviews or shared values that form the customs, behaviors, and foundations of our culture. Worldviews are developed though our interactions within families, neighborhoods, schools, communities, and so on. Worldviews are resources for understanding and analyzing the differences between cultures.
Culture is Dynamic
In addition to exploring the stated components of the definition of culture, there is actually one more idea that should be added to the list of principles - and that is culture is not static, it is always changing. The United States your grandparents grew up in does not reflect the United States of today. Nor if you know one person from the United States, do you know them all. Within cultures there are struggles to negotiate and accommodate the forces of change. As Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher noted, "change is the only constant in life".
