Transcript culture

FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES
OF
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Lecture 1
COMMUNICATION
AS AN ELEMENT OF CULTURE
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APPROACHES
TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNICATION
AND CULTURE
 to learn the barriers one would need
to overcome; the barriers include
such concepts as ethnocentrism,
stereotyping, nonverbal
misunderstandings, and translation
difficulties
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APPROACHES
TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNICATION
AND CULTURE
 ethnographical approach, which
implies observing the customary
behavior of a group to learn the
unwritten rules for appropriate
behavior in that group
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APPROACHES
TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNICATION
AND CULTURE
 cultural approach, which means to
develop an ideal personification of
the culture to understand behaviors in
that culture
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
Being an indivisible part of society,
culture comprises four fundamental
components:
 a community or population large
enough to produce new generations of
members without relying on outside
peoples;
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
 the totality of that group’s thought,
experiences, and patterns of behavior;
its concepts, values, and assumptions
about life that guide behavior and how
those evolve with contact with other
cultures;
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
 a process of social transmission of
these thoughts and behaviors over the
course of generations;
 members who consciously identify
themselves with the group, known as
cultural identity.
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
Cultural identity – the identification with
and perceived acceptance into a group
that has a shared system of symbols and
meanings as well as norms for conduct.
Co-culture is a group of people living
within a dominant culture, but also
having representation of their
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
membership in another culture. They are
part of one culture, but live and practice
another culture in addition to their own.
The term co-culture has a synonym
subculture, used by some scholars.
However the term co-culture is
considered more politically correct.
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
Race is defined today from two
concepts: biological and sociohistorical
ones.
As a biological concept, race is a fixed
notion that refers to a large body of
people characterized by a similarity of
descent; that is, one’s race is the result
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
of the mating behavior of their ancestors.
As a sociohistorical concept, race is an
unstable and socially determined notion
through constant debate.
Myths are stories and images
representing a culture’s values handed
down from generation to generation as
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the cultural image of perfection and a
guide for living.
Ethnicity is the shared descent or
heritage of a group of people.
Ethnic group means a group of people of
the same descent and heritage who share
a common and distinctive culture passed
on through generations.
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
Subgroup is a group based on vocation,
avocation, or special skills that, like
cultures, provide patterns of its
members’ behavior and values.
Subgroups exist within a dominant
culture and are dependent on that
culture.
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CULTURE IN SOCIETY
Reference group (“wanna-be” behavior)
is any group to which one aspires to
attain membership.
Norms – standard or model behaviors
expected in a culture.
Superstitions – the practices believed to
influence the course of events.
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COMMUNICATION
AND ITS COMPONENTS
Communication is a process of
intentionally stimulating meaning in
other humans through the use of
symbols.
The components of communication are
source, encoding, message, channel,
noise, receiver, decoding, receiver
response, feedback, and context.
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