1. Culture & Communication (Part II)

2. Borat:

3. Why cultures differ History Ecology Technology Biology
Institutional Networks
Interpersonal Communication

4. Why cultures differ Biology Institutional Networks
Interpersonal Communication

5. History
Includes wars, religious practices, economic consequences, prior events, legislative acts, etc.
The unique history of a culture affects the development and maintenance of a culture.
Descriptions of historical events transmitted across generations forms the shared knowledge that guides a culture’s collective action.
You have to know what people have gone through to understand what they want and don’t want.

6. Ecology
Ecology refers to the external environment in which the culture lives.
Includes climate, weather patterns, land and water formations, availability of certain foods and raw materials, etc.
Ecological conditions affect a culture’s formation and functioning.
Effects of a culture’s ecology are often hidden from its members because the climate and environment are a pervasive and constant force.
Geographical features such as availability of water and land contour affect differences among cultures.

7. Technology
Technology refers to the inventions a culture has created or borrowed.
Includes tools, microchips, navigational aids, barbed wire, stirrups, weapons, television and film, etc.
Changes in the available technology can radically alter the balance of forces that maintain a culture and affect a culture’s survival.
Media are any technologies that extend the ability to communicate beyond the limits of face-to-face encounters and allow humans to extend their sensory capabilities.
Media can also influence how people perceive other cultures.

8. Biology
Biology is a term used to describe the inherited characteristics and genetic compositions cultural members share.
Common ancestry leads to similar genetic compositions– includes adaptations to environmental forces.
There is more variation within races than between races.
Most differences among human groups result from cultural learning or environmental causes.
Race is an imperfect term for categorizing human populations.

9. Institutional Networks
Institutional networks are the formal organizations in societies that structure activities for large numbers of people.
Institutional networks include government, educational systems, religious organizations, and professional and social organizations.
Through the availability of new media, institutional networks can be created and sustained more readily.
Religion is an important institutional network that binds people to one another and helps maintain cultural bonds.

10. Interpersonal Communication Patterns
Interpersonal communication patterns are the unique face-to-face verbal and nonverbal coding systems used to convey meanings and intentions used within a culture.
Includes links among parents, siblings, peers, teachers, relatives, neighbors, employers, authority figures, and other social contacts.
Interpersonal communication patterns are the means through which a culture transmits its beliefs and practices from one generation to another.
Cultures assign and organize importance to their interpersonal communication patterns.

11. The interrelatedness of cultural forces
Cultural adaptations and accommodations are rarely made consciously. (ex. Europe conqured the Americas b/c of greater availability of domesticizable animals and plants– sheep, goats, cows, pigs, horses)
Cultures attempt to adjust to the world around them by altering the shared and often unquestioned cultural assumptions guiding their thoughts and actions.

12. Intercultural Communication and Related Terms
Intracultural communication refers to communication between culturally similar individuals.
Interethnic and interracial communication refer to communication between members of different racial or ethnic groups who live in the same nation-state.
Cross-cultural communication involves a comparison of interactions among people from the same culture to those from another culture by comparing them on attributes of interest
International communication refers to interactions among people from different nations.

13. Discussion Questions
Describe one belief, one value, and one norm that you hold that is also held by the “typical” member of your culture. How do each of these affects your communication with parents or other elders?
What is implied by the statement that “race as a biology is fiction, racism as a social problem is real”? Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

14. Discussion Questions
How do you think technologies like cell phones, apps, etc. as a medium to communicate with others, is changing interpersonal relationships within the cultures of Hong Kong?
How has your culture’s ecology (temperature, geography, etc.) influenced the culture as a whole? How has the ecology influenced your own life?
What historical events have had a dramatic impact on the development of your culture? Have cultural traditions and behaviors changed as a result of significant historical events?

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