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Intercultural Communication
Chapter 2
Culture and Intercultural Communication
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1
What is Culture?
• A learned set of shared interpretations
about beliefs, values, norms, and social
practices, which affect the behaviors of a
relatively large group of people.
What is Culture?
• Learned through:
– Interactions with parents, guardians, siblings,
friends, etc.
– Expectations received from the natural human
events around us.
• Also provide the filters that help make
sense of messages.
What is Culture?
• Set of shared interpretations that exist in
the minds of people.
• When these symbolic ideas are shared
with others, they form the basis of culture.
• A culture can form only if symbolic ideas
are shared with a relatively large group of
people.
What is Culture?
• Culture involves the sharing of beliefs,
values, norms, and social practices.
– Beliefs what the world is like or what is T/F.
– Values what is good and bad or important.
– Norms what is appropriate and expected.
– Social practices are the predictable behaviors.
• Taken together, they form a “way of life.”
What is Culture?
• Culture affects behaviors.
– Shared interpretations affect large groups.
– Provide guidelines for meaning, importance,
and what should or should not be done.
– Provides predictability in human interactions.
• But, not a complete explanation for all
behaviors.
What is Culture?
• Culture involves large groups of people.
– Small groups of people are not a “culture.”
– The term culture describes large, societal
levels of organization.
– Similar to ethnicity, but not the same.
What culture is not
• Nation
– A political term
– Culture and nation are not equivalent terms.
– Nations regulate the political behaviors.
– Cultures exist within the boundaries of a
nation-state and influence the regulations that
a nation develops.
– Many unique cultures can exist within the
political boundaries nations.
What culture is not
• Race
– Incorrectly used to refer to a genetic or
biologically-based differences.
– Race is a political, legal, and social distinction.
– More encompassing than culture or nation.
– Can create visible and important distinctions
and sometimes plays a part in establishing
separate groups.
– Often forms the basis for prejudice.
What culture is not
• Ethnicity
– Refers to a wide variety of groups that share a
common language, religious traditions,
nation-state, cultural system, and historical
origins.
– People may share ethnic beliefs but may be
members of different cultures.
What culture is not.
• Subculture and coculture
– Subculture exist in the midst of larger cultures.
– Coculture used to hide the implication of a
hierarchical relationship.
– Both subculture and coculture are redundant
and imprecise terms.
– Reference cultural groups in their own right.
Why Cultures Differ
• There are six forces that help generate
cultural differences.
– Unique history
– Ecology
– Technology
– Biology
– Institutional networks
– Interpersonal communication patterns
Why Cultures Differ
• Unique history
– Descriptions of historical events transmitted
across generations form the shared
knowledge that guides a culture’s collective
action.
– You have to know what people have gone
through to understand what they want and
don’t want.
Why Cultures Differ
• Ecology
– Conditions affect formation and functioning.
– Often hidden because the climate and
environment are pervasive and constant.
– Availability of water and land contour.
– Largely overlooked in the study of cultural
differences.
Why Cultures Differ
• Technology
– Changes in available technology can radically
alter a culture’s survival.
– Media effects communicate across time and
distance.
– Minimizes geographic distances
– Also influences how people perceive other
cultures.
Why Cultures Differ
• Biology
– More variation within races than between races.
– Based primarily political and social roles.
– Distinctions often include or exclude others.
– Cannot explain differences among cultures.
– Most differences result from cultural learning
or environmental causes.
Why Cultures Differ
• Biology
– Race is an imperfect term for categorizing
human populations.
– Visible cultural differences can be affected by
climate and other external constraints.
– Most humans have the same genetic origin.
– The United Nations and scholars generally
agree that there is no scientific basis for race.
Why Cultures Differ
• Biology
– Race should be understood as a social,
political, and personal term that is used to
refer to those who are believed by themselves
or by others to constitute a group of people
who share common physical attributes.
– Again, race can form the basis for prejudicial
communication that can be a major obstacle to
intercultural communication.
Why Cultures Differ
• Institutional networks
– Include government, educational systems,
religious organizations, etc.
– New media allows easier creation of
institutional networks.
– Religion binds people and helps maintain
cultural bonds.
• In Christianity and Judaism people belong to a
particular church or synagogue.
• Hindus visit any temple throughout India.
Why Cultures Differ
• Interpersonal communication patterns
– Verbal communication systems.
– Nonverbal communication systems.
– Intercultural communication from one
generation to another.
– Cultures assign and organize importance to
their interpersonal communication patterns.
Why Cultures Differ
• Interrelatedness of cultural forces
– Each cultural force works in conjunction with
and is influenced by the others.
– Adaptations and accommodations are rarely
made consciously.
– Cultures adjust to the world by altering
cultural assumptions.
– Changes to institutions or traditions cause
members to alter behaviors which can result
in changes to institutions or traditions.
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication
• Related terms
– Intracultural communication
– Interethnic or Interracial communication
– Cross-cultural communication
– International communication