Lecture 2
Culture & Identity
Macro & Micro cultures
Culture
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Group culture is made up of shared perceptions
The “right way” to do something is the “behavioral
extension” of a culture.
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There are products to these behaviors.
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What clothing to wear
What food to eat
How to act in a classroom
Blue jeans, t-shirts, cell phones
Toast, ramyeon
Have a book, paper and pencil
Individual vs. Cultural Perceptions
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Once something is shared it becomes cultural.
The more broadly shared a perception, the more of a culture it is.
Conscious awareness of sharing and identification are a requirement
for culture.
Levels of Culture: Macro Culture
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Culture tends to be cross-generational
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Socialization and Indoctrination processes
Values and beliefs are “institutionalized”
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Churches, Government, Schools, Unions
Cultural transgressions (breaking the rules)
Dealt with at the ultimate level of severity
 Violations of some beliefs are punishable by death or
prison
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Examination at this level useful for studying
anthropology or sociology, but not very useful for
looking at things interculturally
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Levels of Culture: Micro Culture
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Better for examining intercultural relationships
Rarely institutionalized
Tends not to be documented
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Sometimes a diary, emails, etc…
Values not transmitted, but rather negotiated
case by case
Tends to last only until the task is completed
Importance is rarely understood but most import
ant to understand how people interact
Cultural Identity
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Members of every culture have a sense of so
cial identification
Cultural identity affects interpersonal relation
ships and expectations of individual activity
From a sense of cultural identity
(who we are)
one receives a sense of personal identity
(who I am)