Culture Patterns  recurring characteristics or events. We usually take our speech, our gestures, our beliefs, and our customs for granted. We assume that they are “normal” or “natural”, and we almost always follow them without question.

Culture “ The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water” (Ralph Linton 1936) Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. The rare instances in which these assumptions are challenged, however, can be upsetting. We have basic expectations of “the way people ought to be”

Culture Shock Culture Shock The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken for granted assumptions about life. When finding unfamiliar behaviors upsetting; when things violate your expectations of “the way people ought to be.”

Ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism  The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors. Has positives and negatives! (+) creates in group loyalties. (-) it can lead to discrimination

Cultural Relativism Cultural Relativism  Not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms. You may view bull fighting as wrong if your culture has no history of bullfighting. (US citizens may view raising bulls for the purpose of stabbing them to death in front of crowds that shout “Ole!” as wrong.) However, it must be viewed from the perspective of the culture in which it takes place – its history, folklore, ideas of bravery, and ideas of gender roles.