The concept of culture Flashcards
(30 cards)
What does the word culture mean?
cultura from latin verb
colere
worship
cultivate
protect, maintain
old root of the word from Indo-European
kwel
to move
turn around
Components of culture
Symbols
Language
Norms
Values
Beliefs
Artifacts/Technologies
How do we learn culture?
Culture is learnt socially by education, imitation or mimicry
-> “learnt ways of behavior“
-> culture is always social, shared
Mimicry: Behavioral mimicry
- the automatic imitation of gestures, postures, mannerisms, and other movements
Mimesis
- from memos which means imitation
- The other meaning refers to the worship or imitation of nature as an artistic
purpose, in aesthetics and classical poetics.
What does culture have to do with civilisation?
Culture –> society (as a group of people who share culture/cultures
physical medium of culture: individuals and society
Civilization) –> civilization
Culture vs civilization
Culture
* internal and external: the
manner in which we think,
behave and act – individual & group
* no measurement standards
* culture without civilization
Civilization
* external: social and political
organisation and development
– system of social, political or
technical development
* precise measurement
standards, for example: …
* no civilization without culture
Some conclusions regarding culture:
- Culture is one of the principal concepts in social science.
- Culture and society are very linked with each other.
- Culture defines the behavior of individuals: culture/society.
- There is no civilization without culture.
- Culture is transmitted (tradition, values, …) and cumulative.
- Culture is stable but not static.
Civilization
Some would conclude that civilization is a process of modernization, urbanization, a “higher” state of human society
Process of civilizing: systematising society
developing the state of human society, to the extent that the culture,
industry, technology, government, etc. reaches the maximum level
Culture –> civilization
Culture
–>
Society: as a group of people who share culture/cultures
physical medium of culture: individuals and society
–>
Civilization: common objective elements – language, history,
religion, customs, and institutions – as well as
people’s self-identification
Culture and civilization saying:
There is culture without civilization, but no civilization with out culture
Modern cultural imperialism
Critique on globalization/development towards one “global culture”.
Concern about the dominance and negative
impact of Western culture and cultural products
(film, music, pop culture/“junk culture”) on
local cultures, including languages, beliefs,
lifestyles, traditions, behavior.
We can define 5 relations, which structure a civilization:
- The relationship to nature
- The relations between gender
- The relations between the generations
- The political relations
- The “spiritual/ transzendental” relationsship
Culture forms relations:
Culture than is the way how we form the relations, it defines the relations,
it is the frame we give (behavior, rules, normes, values, ethics,… )
Civilization in IR: Clash Theory
Clash theory: (Samuel P. Huntington and others)
Civilizational diversity and cultural pluralism: source of
tensions and conflicts
Cultural reductionism: exaggeration of closure and internal unity
“a presumed cultural core of civilizations becomes the overwhelming
determinant, almost the independent variable, to explain important social,
economic and political developments locally and globally”
Civilizational dialogue perspective:
Civilizational diversity and cultural pluralism:
- source of enrichment, key for building a more peaceful and just, less hegemonic or Western/liberal-centric, international order
- In history migration enriched cultures and civilizations
globalization and its positive impacts
Culture and identity
- Personal identity
- Social identity
- Cultural identity
We must avoid the temptation to think of our identities as constant. Instead, our
identities are formed through processes; therefore, our identities aren’t something
we achieve or complete.
Personal identity
includes the components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and
connected to our life experiences. Individual and unique.
- Personality, life experiences, family, values, interests, …
- Distinguish one person from another.
- Starts with birth and ends with death.
Social identity
How we interact with others and how we are treated in society.
Social roles, societal expectations (recognition), socially constructed
categories.
School, work, neighborhood, …
Cultural identity
- Cultural group(s) we belong to, with own cultural contexts (values, beliefs,
customs, language, tradition, historical context …) - Influences a person’s worldview, behaviors – cultural background.
e.g. national identity, ethnic identity
Culture and identity
The (cultural) identity of a society, a nation (hymn, flag, etc.) can lead to
clashes/conflicts – nationalism.
“Culture is not the refuge of identity, but rather the set of resources that
allows the development of the subject.”
.
Intercultural identity
Intercultural identity can be seen as the extension to cultural identity.
What does it include?
- Openess to other cultural identities and to grow, to develop
- Ability to see differences and to integrate, reflect on own identity
-> Identity in a globalized world is multi-dimensional.
-> Communication is the bridge to understand different identities.
.
Two directions of intercultural identity:
particularity: see differences, form own identity
universality: see universal principals, norms, values, potentials
Culture and language
Language is primary a non-material component of
culture, we learn language by listening and sounds or
signs.
Language comes to be material when it is written
down, beginning of written language?
Language/mother tongue is THE access to cultural
socialization – key to a whole “universe” of behaviours, costumes, rules and norms, stories, values, beliefs etc.
Speech community:
Group of people of a similar
cultural background that speak the same language.
