Let's Talk About Culture
"Men and women are not only themselves; they
are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment
or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they
played as children, the tales they overheard, the food they
ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed,
the poets they read and the God they believed in"
(W. Somerset Maugham. The Razor's Edge)
What does the word culture mean to you?
Hundreds of definitions of culture exist, each one longer
and more difficult than the last. It has even become common
to talk about organisational cultures, especially when considering
transnational corporations.
• The first thing that comes to
mind may be what you would find in the cultural pages of
a newspaper: ballet, opera, music, books and other intellectual
or artistic activities.
• Here we view culture from a much
wider perspective. We are looking at the values and systems
of behaviour that allow groups of people to make sense of
the world. This is complex stuff and trying to understand
cultures, including your own, will mean examining many aspects
of life. Some of them are immediately visible, for others
you may have to dig deeper:
• What is defined as "good"
and "bad"?
• How are families structured?
• What is the relationship between
men and women?
• How is time perceived?
• Which traditions are important?
• What languages are spoken?
• Which rules govern the consumption
of food and drink?
• How is information shared?
• Who has the power and how do they
get it?
• What are the reactions to other
cultures?
• What is funny?
• What role does the religion play?
The list could be much longer
and you can find other aspects to add. It is important to
stress here that the answers to such questions are, to a
great extent, shared by the members of a culture - it's
obvious, it's normal, that's the way it is. They behave
in similar ways, they share similar references and they
judge things in similar ways. Such an observation is more
obvious when you are confronted with a different culture
or go abroad. Cultures are not static, they change and so
the answers and even the questions themselves change over
time.
Take one of the questions listed above. How might your grandparents
have answered?
The existing differences between
cultures reflect the effort each society has had to make
in order to survive within a particular reality. This reality
is made up of: a) the geographical background, b) the social
background, that is to say, the other human groups with
which it has had contact and exchange; and c) the "metaphysical"
background, looking for a sense to life.
If there are different cultures, does this mean that some
are better than others?
Even within cultures there are
those who do not comply with all the usual norms and they
may find themselves identified as sub-cultures. Members
of sub-cultures are often the victims of intolerance within
our societies. Examples include people with disabilities,
gay and lesbian people, certain religious groups and the
wide spectrum of youth sub-cultures. Their distinguishing
features may involve use of language, choice of clothes,
music and celebration.
Which sub-culture(s) are you part of?
You may like to put this question,
'what does the word culture mean to you?' to the group.
You could do a brainstorm or you may like to use the technique
'silent floor discussion'
as described in section 8.3 of Domino.
After the discussion you could go on to
explore participants' images of different cultures through
the activity 'Antonio and Ali', which
involves storytelling or to 'The island',
which is a simulation game. Both these activities are in
part 2 of this Education pack.
If you want to go deeper into issues about
cultural difference and human rights there is a level 3
simulation activity in Compass called 'Makah
whaling', which explores issues about respect for different
cultural values.
Learning Your Own Culture:
Something as Natural as Breathing
We are born within a culture,
and during the first stages of life we learn our culture.
This process is sometimes referred to as our socialisation.
Each society transfers to its members the value system underlying
its culture. Children learn how to understand and use signs
and symbols whose meanings change arbitrary from one culture
to another. Without this process the child would be unable
to exist within a given culture. To take a banal example,
imagine what would happen if your children could not understand
the meaning of a red traffic light. There is no objective
reason for red to mean 'stop', or green to mean 'go'. Parents
and family, school, friends and the mass media, particularly
television - all of them contribute to the socialisation
of children and, often, we are not even aware that we are
part of this process.
What have been the biggest influences in your socialisation?
Culture is lived in a different
way by each of us. Each person is a mixture of their culture,
their own individual characteristics and their experience.
This process is further enriched if you are living with
two or more cultures at the same time. For instance, as
a second-generation immigrant, you may be learning your
culture of origin within the family and the culture of the
country where you live at school and through the media.
Identity
Who am I? What am I? Identity
is like culture, there are many aspects to it, some hidden
some visible. One way of looking at this could be to imagine
yourself as an onion (even if you don't like to eat them).
Each layer corresponds to a different part of your identity.
What are the most important things which make up your identity?
Write them next to the numbers 1 -5, with number 1 being
the most important to you.
Some of these will be related to:
• the roles you play in life: a
daughter, a friend, a school student, a baker, a banker;
• the parts of your identity you
may be able to choose: fan of a certain type of music, member
of a political party, style of clothes;
• where you were born, where you
now live;
• belonging to a minority or not;
• your gender and your sexuality;
• your religion
and, perhaps strangely,
• what you are not or don't want to be: not a woman,
not a socialist, not French, not an alcoholic.
Identity is not only a question of how
we perceive ourselves.
The onion of identity
Others identify us, and we may
not like the label they give us. Continuing the vegetable
analogy, what happens if one onion calls another a tulip
bulb? To return to one of the major subjects of the last
chapter: the labelling of some people as a "minority
group" may be done by others. Who are we? And who are
they? Our social identity has to do with values an symbols.
We divide people into groups because there seems to be a
need to be different from others. We need to give values
to our group (class, family, friends) which give us a positive
value of ourselves. The danger lies in putting negative
values on those who do not form part of our group. Putting
people in boxes denies them the possibility of being anything
else.
In section 4 of Domino
you will find several 'Stories
told by young people' in which they reflect on identity
and cultural difference. These can be very useful as starting
points for discussion or role play.
You may wish to get the group to consider their own ethnocentricity
and to focus on how others see them and their culture. If
so have a look at the activity, 'Letter
from an Arab/Black/Gypsy/Southerner/...',
C/20 in Alien 93.
If you want to look at identity and human rights issues,
then you may like to do the activity, 'Who
are I?' in Compass.
You may like to follow up the discussion about people's
personal 'onion of identity' with either the
activity 'Me too'
or 'Dominoes'.
These are lively activities that help people to get to know
each other and to explore their differences and what they
have in common. Alternatively the group may like to do some
research to identify the 'foreign footprints', the
evidence of other cultures in the locality; see 'Trailing
diversity'.
In section 4 of Domino you will find several 'Stories
told by young people' in which they reflect
on identity and cultural difference. These can be very useful
as starting points for discussion or role- play.
You may wish to get the group to consider their own ethnocentricity
and to focus on how others see them and their culture. If
so have a look at the activity, 'Letter
from an Arab/Black/Gypsy/Southerner/….', C/20
in Alien 93.
If you want to look at identity and human rights issues,
then you may like to do the activity, 'Who
are I?' in Compass.
Name two simple (or silly!) characteristics which a foreigner
might associate with the country you live in, for example,
Switzerland = watches and banking, Russia = vodka and fur
hats. Are these things an important part of your identity?
You could call this a Word Association game.
If people in you group enjoyed the spontaneity of the
word association game, then they may also enjoy using their
wits to talk 'off the top of their head'. 'Just
a minute' in Compass is an activity that
provokes participants to think about issues relating to
sport and human rights; but the method can easily be adapted
to any topic
If you want to work more on the way people
make associations and stereotypes then your group may enjoy
the activity, 'Cultionary',
a team game that involves drawing and guessing.
Alternatively, the group may like to
do the 'First impressions'
activity, which involves giving a snap judgement about people
based on their appearance. It is interesting to see how
varied different people's 'first impressions' can be and
where their associations come from!
Is a nation a culture?
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