Culture• Culture is a system of ideas, values,

beliefs, and customs communicated by one generation to the next that sustains a particular way of life.

• Social communities (co-culture) are groups of people who live within a dominant culture, yet are also members of another group or groups that are not dominant.

Gender as a Social Community

• Feminine Includes others Uses talk

cooperatively Uses talk

expressively

• Masculine Asserts yourself Uses talk

competitively Uses talk

instrumentally

Children’s games are a primary agent of gender socialization.

Cultures are Systems

• Culture is a coherent system of understandings, traditions, values, communication practices, and ways of living. Aspects of culture are interrelated and

work together to create a whole.

Nonverbal Also Expresses Cultural Values

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Culture is reflected in communication practices.

Communication practices shape cultural life.

• Material components are tangible objects and physical substances that have been altered by human intervention. Architecture, icons,

personal possessions

Cultures Consist of Material Components

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Cultures Consist of Material Components

• Material components reflect a culture’s values. Numerous inventions

related to speed show reflect a culture values productivity and efficiency.

Weapons demonstrate values of protection.

Tea time, siestas and family vacations demonstrate interpersonal values..

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Nonmaterial Aspects of a Culture• Beliefs are conceptions of what is true, factual, or

valid. Beliefs are rooted in faith, experience or science. Cultural beliefs are regarded as truths, even though

they are sometimes false.

• Values are shared views of what is good, right, worthwhile, and important.

• Norms are informal rules that guide how members of a culture act, as well as how they think and feel.

• Language shapes how we think about the world.

Cultures are Shaped by Historical and Geographic Forces

• Culture depends on its physical environment, especially natural resources.

• Traditions and history of a culture shape its character. Many Native Americans distrust Caucasian

Americans. Cultures steeped in war may regard death and

battle as unremarkable parts of normal life.

Cultures are DynamicThey evolve and change over time

• Invention includes tools, ideas, practices and ways of dealing with social life.

• Diffusion is borrowing from another culture.

• Cultural calamity is adversity such as war or natural disasters that bring about change.

• Communication impels significant changes in cultural life.

Improving Communication between Cultures

• Resist ethnocentrism which is the tendency to regard ourselves and our way of life as superior to other people and other ways of life.

• Adopt cultural relativism which recognizes that cultures vary in how they think, act, and behave, as well as in what they believe and value.

Responding to Diversity is a ProcessResistance

Assimilation occurs when people give up their own ways and take on the ways of the dominant culture.

Tolerance A person accepts differences but does not approve or

even understand them.

Understanding Recognize that differences are rooted in culture.

Respect

Participation We incorporate some of the practices and values of

other groups into our own.

Changing Demographics U.S. Census Bureau

% 1995 2050White 74 53

African American 12 14

Hispanic 10 24

Asian American 3 8

Native American 1 1

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Experiencing Communication in our Lives . . .

View the following video clip and then answer the questions that follow based on material presented in this chapter. A script of the scenario can be found at

the end of Chapter 4.

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1. How does Mei-ying Yung’s communication reflect her socialization in Chinese culture?

2. How could Mei-ying be more effective without abandoning the values of her native culture?

3. What could enhance Barton Hingham’s ability to communicate effectively with people who were raised in on Western cultures?

You may go to your student CD that accompanies the text to compare your answers to Julia Wood’s.