WHAT IS CULTURE?
Imagine that you have just been hired for a job that requires you to do business in another country. You have never been in this area of the world before. Consider what concerns you might have. What time will you arrive for your first business meeting? What will you wear?
How will you greet the business people you will be meeting? These questions may not seem important, but even small components of daily life are vastly different across cultures. Besides doing business, why else is it important to understand culture of various groups or societies?
So what exactly is culture? Culture is the way in which a society lives and is organized. It is everything that people have, think, and do as members of their society. It is the beliefs, values, and behaviors of the people. If you had to explain your culture to someone else, what would you describe? You might discuss your clothing, music, sports, school, family, and leisure activities. Or you might discuss your ideas, belief systems, traditions, morals, laws, values, and attitudes.
Main Components of Culture
There are six main components that distinguish a culture in addition to government and economic policies. One of these components is social organization, which includes family structure and social class. How are people arranged into groups? Who lives together, in what types of housing, under what sanitary conditions, and how close together? How do the people relate to one another? Are family, race, religion, ethnicity, or other factors of high importance? How do people live day to day? What are their daily customs?
Culture also includes the social norms of a group of people. Social norms are customary rules that govern people’s behaviors, and can vary among cultures.
What behaviors are acceptable and in what situations? What behaviors are unacceptable? What do certain gestures or uses body language mean?
A third component of culture includes language and symbols. Is there one language spoken? Many languages?
What are the origins of the languages?
Are there different dialects? What symbols represent the values and beliefs of a group of people?
Another component of culture involves learning and technology. How are the people educated? Who attends school, and what is taught? Who determines what is taught in schools, and who teaches it? What technologies do the people use in everyday life? How
“advanced” is society?
The paintings, sculptures, music, architecture, and literature of a society are also part of its culture. What styles are used? What is the purpose of the works of art or literature?
Lastly, religion and spiritual beliefs are significant components of a culture.
What do the people believe in? How and whom do they worship? Do the people have a structured religious system? Is practicing religion mandatory or optional? How are those with different beliefs treated by the majority? How do beliefs affect everyday life?

All six of these components together can make a culture unique from other cultures. However, these components do not always remain the same across time.
Cultural Interaction
In the modern world, most cultures are not isolated or stagnant. Cultures are growing, changing, and interacting with one another. One example of the interaction of cultures is cultural diffusion, in which ideas, people, and products are exchanged among different societies. This can occur in many ways, but most often through trade. The process of cultural diffusion alters political, economic, and social systems and may result in conflicts or tensions due to this cultural change.
There different types of cultural diffusion, direct and indirect. Direct diffusion occurs when two cultures live close to one another and therefore have direct contact. Over time the cultures intermingle, such as through trade, intermarriage, or possibly warfare.
Forced diffusion occurs when one culture defeats another and forces its beliefs or customs onto the conquered people. However, sometimes two cultures that share ideas never are in contact with one another. When cultural beliefs and ideas are spread through a middleman or a third culture, this is known as indirect diffusion. Mass media and technology such as the Internet are major factors in promoting this type of cultural diffusion today.
Effects of Cultural Interaction
What impacts does cultural interaction have on societies? Some positive effects of cultural diffusion include access to new information and ideas, access to different products or technologies, expansion of trade, and cooperation for the common good. However, cultural diffusion can also have negative impacts.
For example, cultural misunderstandings can lead to aggression and hostility between groups of people. This conflict can contribute to warfare, discrimination, or oppression.
Ethnocentrism occurs when people judge other cultures by their own culture’s standards. They may see their own culture as superior and be intolerant of different groups of people.
Racism is a negative result of cultural diffusion in that one racial group may see itself as superior to other races.
Forced diffusion can result in the loss of an entire culture, including its language, religion, traditions, literature, or art.
People may lose their cultural identity.
Source: www.HomeEducationResources.com