Walking Between Worlds: Episode II

A summary from the podcast Walking Between Worlds. Listen now from your favorite podcast app.

What is Culture?

Guest: Terry Steele, Trainer, and Director of Academic Programs.

Culture is big.

One way of understanding culture is it's like a blanket that overlays everything or the mortar between the bricks. It isn't everything in your life, but it has an impact on the different elements of daily living. Culture is rarely seen, but you know it's there. We can often miss it when we're not watching for it. We can often see differences between groups but are not aware of why there are differences. Culture is a collection of parts of life that make up the whole, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.

Culture can be defined as an integrated system that includes behavior, ideas, and products typical for a specific people group. A people group is a culture, a group of people who self-identify as a cohesive group that associates with each other. This can range from a few thousand people to a few million people. While it covers a vast amount of daily life these integrated systems differ from people group to people group. People groups have an accepted and expected way of behaving, what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. For example, US elevator "etiquette" expects vocal volume to stay somewhat quiet, for passengers to face forward, to not impose on other people's personal space and to only press one button. In the movie Elf, the main character presses all the buttons and talks loudly an as he exits the elevator he says, "I forgot to give you a hug." This kind of behavior is considered abnormal and breaking social norms. Elevator "etiquette" is not learned through formal education or instructions posted on the wall outside an elevator. It is learned by observing others. Different cultures have different forms of elevator "etiquette" because there are different accepted and expected behaviors for different people groups.

Another part of people groups and culture are ideas and ideals. Each culture thinks in a certain way. The citizens of the United States of America are highly individualistic and mechanistic. They exhibit a "can do" and "let's get 'er done" attitude. Those ideas indicate how to act. The way one people group thinks is not the way another group thinks. Each group has unique patterns of ideas and thoughts. This is why some things are valuable to a people group and why they might not be valuable to another people group. This includes philosophy and the why behind the rules of a culture. When someone contradicts these ideas, it leads to cultural tension. I grew up in the 1980s in Southern Idaho. Two things that were not permitted to be uttered were, "I need help" and "It can't be done." If someone needed help, especially a young man, they were considered to be weaker and worth less than another young man who could push through and conquer the problem. The idea that any unsolvable problem or barrier exists was almost cultural heresy. If you thought something couldn't be done then you weren't smart enough, innovative enough, or strong enough to find a way. Most of the time those critiques were reactions without knowing why they reacted that way. It was just the American way of doing things. To contradict the idea of individual ability and overcoming all obstacles was un-American. Americans still use the language of when we cure cancer or when we cure AIDS/HIV. The entire medical community talks about battling diseases and when they will be cured. Even in the time of COVID-19 politicians and doctors talk about when COVID will be defeated. The principle of inevitable victory comes from the ideas, philosophy, and deep presuppositions of American culture. In other collectivist cultures like Japan or India, their presupposition might be that if an individual is not asking for help from others then there is something wrong with that individual, perhaps they are selfish or self-seeking. The American idea of "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" has perhaps continued even to today, leading to the "hustle" culture. Even new phrases, like "rise and grind" are rising in prominence in American culture it appears to be a reinvention of success orientation, which 40 years ago was called, "nose to the grindstone." Just because different words are used doesn't mean the idea of success orientation isn't still prevalent in American culture.

The final part of what makes up culture is products typical of a people group. Cell phones, wedding rings, clothing styles, cars are all products of certain people groups. Western culture didn't invent chopsticks as a food utensil, but Asians did because of available resources and ways of thinking. This way of thinking differs from Mexico, Somalia, or Morocco in which tortillas or various pieces of bread are used to eat meals. Europe uses silverware, as do most Western cultures. Yet the US has invented another utensil in the spork, a combination of both fork and spoon. Some ask if Americans are too lazy to put down their fork to pick up a spoon or perhaps Americans are so busy they invented a way to save the time during meals by combining two utensils. Whatever the actual reason for the spork is its invention indicates a form of thinking that creates products indicative of the American culture. Products indicate the values of a culture.

The arts are a product of the culture.

A general principle of learning a culture is that if you want to know what a culture is about and where it is going, listen to the artists. While not all the arts have cultural implications there are enough to begin to discern patterns of thought and values. For example, the top playlists of popular music include a lot of songs about love, desire, loneliness or other needs, but a few artists in 2020, like Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper, Post Malone, or Halsey, amongst others who wrestle with cultural issues of great importance.

Cultural differences span the world, different geographic regions holding to distinct cultural patterns. Geographic regions can also have a variety of internal, distinct cultural patterns. These micro-cultures, or sub-cultures, are often based upon ethnicity, religion, or even special interests. Even generational differences can make communication difficult. At one point I was teaching a senior citizen's Bible study and a high school group. I taught the same passage on back to back nights, but the lessons were vastly different to communicate the truth of the Word to these different groups.

An example of this is a book, written in the early 1980s by Joel Garreau, called The Nine Nations of North America It addressed the nine distinct cultural regions of North America, which in his book includes Canada in addition to the United States. While all the different nations in his book are two similar nations, Garreau notes that geographic markers end up affecting the people in that region far more than state boundaries.

In the city that CultureBound is located, Portland, Oregon, some researchers believe there are upwards to 41 distinct cultural neighborhoods. While they are all Portlanders there are differences between those who live in the Arts district, or the high-end housing or the inner city, or the food districts. While these differences are necessarily big, they are significant enough to mark "outsiders" who enter into unfamiliar neighborhoods. Cultural differences don't need to be big to make an impact, nor are they impossible to learn.

CultureBound is focused on training people with the tools necessary to build bridges and relationships between cultural divides, whether that is the West Hills of Portland to the streets of Gresham or Floridians working with Japanese. These differences aren't bad. They're just different.

There are two different forms of thought patterns within the sections that make up culture. The first is ideology or philosophy, which is a conscious understanding of the realities of the world around you. This is often where the expected and accepted patterns of a culture are drawn from. Philosophies are constantly in flux and cultural changes of ideology for younger, more technologically dependent cultures can shift every few years, usually averaging out to significant alterations every 7 to 15 years. Older cultures can see very few changes in ideology over decades at a time.

The second part of thought patterns is deep presuppositions. If humans were fish the last thing they would discover is deep culture. These are unquestioned presuppositions of how life works. Very few are conscious of these deep presuppositions but when they are pushed or confronted the culture will react negatively. For example, personal bubbles are different between people groups. In the time of near-global quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak governments and doctors are recommending social distancing. For some cultures with large personal bubbles that will not be difficult. For example, Parts of the United States have large personal bubbles, ranging from two feet to four feet. However, parts of Latin America or the Islands have very limited personal space. When meeting with my Cuban friends I, as a North American, must consciously keep my feet planted on the floor so that when the Cubans reach out for a greeting, invading my personal space, I don't unconsciously back up to an "appropriate" distance for a North American. Another example of deep culture would the ideas of individualism and collectivism. The US has the highest level of individualism that has every been scientifically recorded, whereas Guatemala is extremely low in individualism and very high in collectivism. This can lead to major miscommunications or misunderstandings between Americans and Guatemalans. Other parts of deep culture will be addressed in episode four.

Finally,

Culture is comprised of a variety of elements that we've already touched upon for there are four main areas that make up culture. The first is behavior, which is accepted and expected, as we've said before. The second is your written and unwritten rules of culture. The why behind the expected and accepted behavior is in this part of culture. This is also where a culture's philosophy of life comes from as well as the effect and power that economics has on a people group. The third layer is history, everything from the founding fathers of a nation to the major "memory maker" events that take place, like the JFK assassination or the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, to the outbreak of COVID-19. Also, family history and personal experience play a major part in this section of culture. The final part of culture is deep culture, the unquestioned presupposition mentioned earlier.

A question for our readers.

What are some culture values in your family that have been passed down to you and what does that say about your family's culture?

What is Walking Between Worlds?

Walking Between Worlds is a podcast hosted by CultureBound. CultureBound is a training organization that specializes in Culture and Language. This podcast focuses on the secrets of culture to enrich our interactions with others. The topics covered relate to culture and building connections with people across cultural differences, specifically as it relates to American culture in a world that is globalizing. Walking Between Worlds is about how to navigate relationships in a cross-cultural context. This is a sneak peek into the material that CultureBound covers. We also have premium content and training on our website CultureBound.org that you can take today!