Wh at ’ s the Deal with Culture?

What’s the Deal with Culture?

What is Culture? Culture is anything that shapes your daily life: what you do, how you do it, when you do it, and where you do it. Culture: The behaviors, beliefs, arts, and products (things) shared and learned by a group of people.

Discuss values, beliefs, & attitudes that you have learned and share • What are things you respect and take care of? • What is something you believe to be true? (about yourself, your future, when someone dies?) • What is your attitude toward people who seem different? Traveling to far away places? Spending money on yourself? Giving gifts? Treating your enemies?

How did you learn this stuff? • What words or customs do you think of when you talk about your beliefs? • Who teaches you what to value and how you think of yourself and treat others? How do they teach you? (rules, examples, stories…?)

What Else? • Culture is learned. Process of learning one's culture is called enculturation. • Culture is shared by the members of a society. There is no "culture of one.” • Culture is patterned. People in a society live and think in ways that form definite patterns. • Culture is made up through a constant process of social interaction. • Culture is symbolic. Culture, language and thought are based on symbols and symbolic meanings. • Culture is random. Culture is not based on "natural laws" external to humans, but created by humans according to the "whims" of the society. Example: standards of beauty. • Culture is internalized. Culture is habitual. It is taken for granted, and it is perceived as "natural."

So What Can Be a Culture?Some Definitions • Culture can be considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population: Edwardian culture, Japanese culture, the culture of poverty. • Culture can be considered with respect to a particular category, such as a field, subject, or mode of expression:religious culture in the Middle Ages, musical culture, oral culture. • Culture can be the most common attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization:SGS culture, lacrosse team culture, troop culture.

What’s Cultural Identity? • Family Order • Place of Birth • Handedness • Parent/Non-Parent • Majority/Minority • Vegetarian/Non-Vegetarian • Alcoholism in the Family • More… • Race • Ethnicity • Religion • Class Background • Age • Gender • Sexual Orientation • Ability Your Cultural Identity is what shapes your culture depending on various groups you identify with:

Race & Ethnicity: What’s the Difference? • Ethnicity refers to… • Shared cultural practices and perspectives that set apart one group from another • Shared culture (customs, values, stories, etc…) • Most common characteristics of various ethnic groups are: • Ancestry (who are your relatives?) • A sense of history (shared past experiences?) • Language • Religion • Forms of dress • Ethnic differences are learned, not inherited & can change for all people

Race & Ethnicity—What’s the Difference? • Race refers to… • Biological traits that society has decided are socially significant, meaning that people treat other people differently because of them. Skin color has been and is treated as socially significant. • Race doesn’t define a single culture • Race implies knowledge of racism and racial stereotypes • Doesn’t require the person to do anything to belong

So…? • We have shared cultural identities and not shared cultural identities. • We have some common things, and many uncommon things. • Understanding our own and others’ cultural identity helps understand differences in actions, values, and beliefs. • Understanding our own and others’ cultural identities helps us make friends and develop relationships across many differences.

Make a map of yourself that includes all your cultural identities.

http://www2.eou.edu/~kdahl/cultdef.html • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/culture • http://www.kidstylefile.com.au/ • My Map Book by Sarah Fanelli

Wh at ’ s the Deal with Culture?