COM 4461 Chapter 1 Review

Reference Group

-A group to which one aspires to attain membership

Co-Culture

-An interdependent and equal subculture within a society -the word is suggested to convey the idea that no one culture is inherently superior to other coexisting cultures

Race

-Biologically defined as groups who share the same hereditary physical characteristics, sociohistorically defined by unstable social meanings constantly being transformed by debate.

Values

-A central organizing belief or belief system that shapes a person's goals and motivations

Subgroup

-A group based on vocation, avocation, or special skills that, like cultures, provide patterns of behavior and values

Subculture

-A group within a larger society that share distinctive cultural characteristics to distinguish it from others. --just as each of us has a cultural identity, we may have a one or more subcultural identities based on social class, ethnicity, or geographical region. example: southerner or northerner

Rituals

-A socially essential collective activity within a culture

White Privilege

-Advantages that whites have living in a white culture

Aboriginal

-The indigenous peoples of Australia (often applied to indigenous peoples in other countries)

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Culture

-Culture provides diverse ways of interpreting the environment and the world, as well as relating to other peoples. -example: the connotative meaning for barbarian evolved from meaning someone whose culture is different from greek to outlandish, rude or brutal (persian), to an uncivilized person (english).

Ethnic Identity

-Identification with and perceived acceptance into an ethnic group

The Contact Zone - Migration

-In Europe the european population may drop by 2.5 million a year by the middle of the century. -In contrast the Muslim population has doubled about 15 million since the 1980s and has become the largest minority -some see religious head scarves, the arranged marriages and conservative imams as challenges to equality and democracy, -The french are so committed to the idea of equality that it is against the law to survey the population by race, ethnicity, or religion.

The Contact Zone - Migration

-Increased immigration in the long run is an important social asset -in the short to medium run it challenges social solidarity and inhibits the strength of relationships that bond similar people together and bridge people of diversity -in the medium to long run , it will create new forms of social solidarity and dampen the negative effects of diversity by constructing new, more encompassing identities.

Othering

-The degrading of cultures and groups outside of ones own and creating artificial divisions between cultures and groups by labeling language that emphasizes power relations and domination

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Case Study: American Indians

-U.S. government exercises ultimate dominance over all indigenous peoples within its boundaries -when nations adopt one system of laws, that system of laws reflects the cultural values of one culture -but when one is surrounded by a more powerful culture or exists within the culture of the other, the less powerful culture must accept the laws and legal system of the other, this subordinating any other understanding of legal systems

Symbols

-Verbal and nonverbal language that is used to communicate the idea of a communication

The Contact Zone - Ethnic and Religious Conflict

-With the end of the Cold War and ideological conflict, the world has seen an increase in ethnic and religious conflict. -These conflicts have largely been based on conflicts in cultural values and have seen hatred, fear, and violence. -differing perceptions and value systems along with coercive actions to gain others compliance with ones perception and value system contributed to these conflicts. -example: Rawandan Civil War (beginning in 1994), The Rawandan government, dominated by the Titsi tribe, other threw the old government dominated by the Hutu tribe. Before losing power the Hutu militia massacred over half a million people.

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subculture - Ethnicity

-a group of people of the same descent and heritage who share a common and distinctive culture passed on through generations. -ethnic groups can have distinctive features like language, accent, physical features, family names, customs, and religion. -minority: if a group has a smaller number of people than a majority group with a larger number -ethnic identity can effect intercultural communication -to ensure interethinic contacts were harmonious, the communicators in their study limited the interactions to relatively superficial encounters.

Race and Skin Color - The Concept of Race

-a large body of people characterized by similarity of descent -there is no single race defining gene -popular race indicators are skin color, hair texture were caused by recent adaptations to climate and diet -worldwide skin color does not define race -bilogically based defintion describes race as something fixed -the sociohistorically based definition sees race as unstable and socially determined through constant debate -people may be of the same race, but of diverse cultures -people can be of the same culture, but different ancestries

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Culture - Nineteenth Century Definition

-commonly used as a synonym for western civilization -the British anthropologist Sir Edward B. Taylor popularized the idea that all so cities pass through developmental stages, beginning with savagery progressing to barbarianism and culminating in Western Civilization. -china believed their own way of life was superior -ethnocentric view

Regulators of Human Life and Identity

-culture is a regulator of human life and identity -regulatory function extends to cultures within cultures: subcultures, co-cultures, and subgroups.

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Culture - Today's Definition

-culture is not synonymous with countries -cultures do not respect political boundaries -culture is not a genetic trait -A community or population sufficiently large enough to be self-sustaining, that is, large enough to produce new generations of members without relying on outside people. -The totality of that groups thought, experiences, and patterns of behavior and its concepts, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and how those evolve with contact with other cultures. -symbols, rituals, values, heroes, myths -cultural identity -our experience with and knowledge of other cultures are limited by the perceptual bias of our own culture -language, gestures, personal appearance, social relationships, religion, philosophy, values, courtship, marriage, family customs, food, recreation, work and government, education, communication systems, health, transportation, economic systems. intercultural communication: communication between individuals of diverse cultural identities and between diverse groups.

Cultural Studies

-develop an ideal personification of the culture -that ideal is used to explain the actions of individuals in the culture -complementary use with ethnography to understand a culture

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subgroup - Deviant Label

-differing from the cultural norm -example: vegetarians in a meat eating society -vegetarians are as deviant as prostitutes-both groups deviate from the norm and both are subgroups

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Cultures Within Cultures

-groups that are cultures, but exist within another culture -subculture, co-culture

The Contact Zone - Role of Women

-in 1979, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. -In July 2010, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to create a single UN body tasked with accelerating progress in achieving gender equality and women's empowerment.

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Co-Culture

-in the case of a true co-culture, both understandings of the law would be recognized -however in the united states this is not possible

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subgroup - Wannabe Behavior

-individuals can adhere to values and attitudes and behaviors of groups of which they are not members. example: iggy azeala -an individual who imitates the behavior of a group he or she desires to belong to.

The Contact Zone - Migration

-large majorities in nearly every country express the view that there should be greater restriction of immigration and tighter control of their country's borders. -North Americans are generally more welcoming to immigrants than Western Europeans -the greater the diversity in a community, the less civic engagement it shows: fewer people vote, volunteer, less is given to charities, and less cooperative work is done on community projects. -India acknowledges pluralism: all groups faiths, tastes and ideologies were to participate in the new system.

Cultural Identity

-members who consciously identify themselves with that group -the identification with and perceived acceptance into a group that has a shared system of symbols and meanings as well as norms for conduct. -the diversity within cultures probably exceeds the differences between cultures. -just knowing one persons cultural identity doesn't provide complete or reliable information about that person. -it helps you understand the opportunities and challenges that each individual in that culture has to deal with. -each of us has a cultural identity that may or may not be the same as citizenship

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subgroup - Temporality

-memberships in some subgroups are temporary -members may participate for a time and later become inactive or separate from it altogether -example: girl scouts, alcoholics anonymous -however memberships in subgroups can be longer lasting

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subculture - Economic or Social Class - Working Class Vs Middle Class

-middle class and working class parents emphasize different values when raising children -middle class emphasize self-control, intellectual curiosity, and consideration for others. -This transfers easily to professional and managerial jobs that require intellectual curiosity and good social skills. -working class emphasize obedience, neatness and good manners. -These lead to a concern with external standards, such as obedience to authority, acceptance of what other people think, and hesitancy in expressing desires to authority figures. -demphasizes verbal skills -skills transfer to supervised, labor jobs.

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subgroup - Definition

-provide members with relatively complete set of values and patterns of behavior, and in many ways pose similar communication problems as cultures. -exist within a dominant culure and are dependent on that culture. -example: occupation - most people dress alike, share a common vocab and similar values and are in frequent communication as through magazines and newsletters (doctors, nurses, police, microsoft etc.) -subgroups usually do not involve the same large number of people as cultures and are not necessarily thought of as accumulating values and patterns of behavior over generations in the same way cultures do.

Heroes

-real of imaginary persons who serve as a behavior model within a culture

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subculture

-resembles a culture in that it usually encompasses a relatively large number of people and represents the accumulation of generations of human striving. -important differences between subculture and culture: subcultures exist within dominant cultures and are often based on economic or social class, ethnicity, or geographic region

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subculture - Economic or Social Class

-socioeconomic status or social class can be the basis for a subculture -social class: a position in a society hierarchy based on income, education, occupation, and neighborhood -examples: income determines to some extent who you marry or choose as a liver, your career, and the neighborhood in which you are likely to live.

Myths

-stories and images representing a culture's values, handed down from generation to generation as a guide for living.

Ethnicity

-subculture or subgroup identified by shared descent and heritage into an ethnic group.

Regulators of Human Life and Identity - Subgroup

-subgroups are regulators of human life and identity

The Contact Zone - Technology

-technology has made it possible for Mexico to have frappuccinos at Starbucks and the Unites States to have the novels of Carlos Fuentes -because the U.S. has promoted both free markets and democracy throughout the world, technology is perceived as reinforcing U.S. wealth and dominance.

Ethnography

-the direct observation and reporting of customary behavior of culture -requires an extended period of residence and study in a community -observation in natural setting -avoids questionnaires and formal interviews in artificial settings --complementary use with the cultural studies approach to understand a culture

The Contact Zone

-the space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict. -othering comes into play - "not us","them", "those people" -the language of oppression -labeling human beings as words like "savages", "chicks" (dehumanizing)

Race and Skin Color - Identity and Race

-to be a co-culture or a subculture, individuals must identify with one another as a group. -europeans who constructed the cultural and behavioral characteristics associated with each racial category, linking superior traits with europeans and inferior traits with blacks and indians . -people of color tend to be more aware of their racial identity and associate inferior traits with skin color -this perception of racial disparity can lead to socially constructed stereotypes and prejudice to influence interracial communication. -race and skin color can be an identifying factor, but they dont necessarily define co-cultural or subculture identity

The Contact Zone - Today's Contact Zone Challenges

Ethnic and Religious Conflict Role of Women Technology Migration Environmental Stability

Culture

Sum total of ways of living including behavioral norms, linguistic expression, styles of communication, patterns of thinking, and beliefs and values of a group large enough to be self-sustaining and transmitted over the course of generations

Focus on Culture 1.2

Superstitions - practices believed to influence the course of events

The Contact Zone - Environmental Stability

Sustainable development - meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs