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What is culture?

What is culture?. Some definitions. Culture as Knowledge “Culture is the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behavior.” -- James Spradley,l anthropologist A word that means several different things

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What is culture?

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  1. What is culture?

  2. Some definitions Culture as Knowledge • “Culture is the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behavior.” -- James Spradley,l anthropologist A word that means several different things • National / ethnic culture (meanings and behaviors groups of people develop and share over time) • Secondary or subgroup culture

  3. Elements of Culture • HISTORY • RELIGION • VALUES • SOCIAL ORGANIZATION • LANGUAGE

  4. Characteristics of Culture • CULTURE IS LEARNED • CULTURE IS SHARED • CULTURE IS TRANSMITTED FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER • CULTURE IS BASED ON SYMBOLS • CULTURE IS DYNAMIC • CULTURE IS AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM

  5. Nitza Hidalgo’s Concept of Culture as an Iceberg Surface Culture Surface level (Concrete) Deep Culture Unspoken Rules (Behavioral) Unconscious Rules - Symbolic Hidalgo, N. 1993. Multicultural teacher introspection. In Perry, T. and Fraser, J. (Eds.) Freedom's Plow: Teaching in the Multicultural Classroom. New York: Routledge.

  6. Deep Structure of Culture – Roots of Reality – the “how” and “why” • Deep Structure Institutions carry a culture’s most important beliefs (family, state, religion) • Deep Structure Institutions and their messages endure • Deep Structure Institutions and their Messages are deeply felt • Deep Structure Institutions supply much of a person’s identity (one of its most important roles for a culture is to assist a person in their sense of identity)

  7. Deep Structures of Culture FAMILY – definition and forms of family (nuclear, extended), changing families in the US; mixed families. “The family is the most basic unit of government…” (Charles Colton). Functions of Family: teach socialization; core values; worldview; identity development; communication training; gender roles; individualism vs. collectivism; aging; social skills HISTORY -- economic, social development of a region/grouping of people

  8. Surface Culture Food, dress, music visual arts, drama, crafts, dance, literature, language, celebrations games Deep Culture Courtesy, contextual conversational patterns, concept of time, personal space, rules of conduct, facial expressions, nonverbal communication, body language, touching, eye contact, patterns of handling emotions, notions of modesty, concept of beauty, courtship practices, relationships to animals, notions of leadership, tempo of work, concepts of food, ideals of childrearing, theory of disease, social interaction rate, nature of friendships tone of voice, attitudes toward elders, concept of cleanliness, notions of adolescence, patterns of group decision-making, definition of insanity, preference for competition or cooperation, tolerance of physical pain, concept of “self,” concept of past and future, definition of obscenity, attitudes toward dependents, problem-solving, roles in relation to age, sex, class, occupation, kinship, and so forth

  9. What sunk the Titanic?

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