Intercultral communication

• Parts of culture


  • Kinship and social organisation
  • Social
  • Political
  • Material life
• Worldview belief system


  Cultural belief system
• Economic


  Production
• Language is culture- Edward Sapir
• Accumulation


  1. Change or spread of cultural information through direct or indirect contact

  2. Infusion

  3. Often seen in media

  4. Can cause massive changes in traditional cultures
• Change


  1. Diffusion - cultural spread of new ideas

  2. Accumulation - culture spread through direct contact

  3. Innovation - new ideas that can be tangible or intangible

  4. Invention - something new and useful to a cultural group

  5. Modernisation through technology - technology drives change forwards
• Generations


  • Slow to change if social change is slow
  • Change occurs rapidly collectively in times of social disruption and significant historical events
• Generations


  • Baby boomers 1946-1964 - had rapid changes due to technologies
• Theory of generations


  Generations are influenced by their cohort more than their kinship group<|>Coming of age is an essential time for moulding values and ideas<|>Historical events have a lasting effect on a generation
• Communication


  Successful exchange of messages and ideas<|>Central theme<|>Verbal, written, symbolic or non-verbal<|>Humans are the only animals that can communicate at all levels
• Translation activity


  Translation
• Language


  The greatest accomplishment of humans is the ability to speak and write<|>This enabled doctrines of ideas to be written<|>Most world languages in history are only spoken
• Rongo Rongo Writing


  • Only written language in the Pacific until China
  • Extraordinary and has never been deciphered
  • Written in reversed boustrophedon style
  • Has 122 characters
• The first scholars were priests as it was thought that writing was a gift from god
• Brahmins are the highest caste
• Religions have a special language with special words and ideas for prayers and chants
• The Bushmen language, with over 30 types of clicks, have been translated into the written Bible-replete with click symbols
• The Hopi of Arizona still speak their original language. It is related to the Aztecs of Mexico
• Conflict


  Hostility caused by misunderstanding communication<|>Many types - physical, mental or symbolic<|>Often a prelude to globalisation
• Continuity


  Aspects and items of culture and society which stay the same (or similar) over time<|>Cornerstone of tradition and essential human ideas and values<|>Change is necessary but continuity allows people to have a belief and a social anchor on reality<|>Basis of organised religion
• Cultural Diversity


  Each culture has its own cultural tradition, which may link with thousands of years of cultural development<|>In an understanding and tolerant environment each culture has much to share with others
• Cultural Heritage


  Basic knowledge of a culture, which is passed onto a person during enculturation and socialisation<|>Part of a person's personality and identity<|>Linked to ethnicity<|>Has to do with traditionalism, religion and language
• Cultural Relativism


  The idea that all cultures are valid and have a right to exist<|>Cornerstone of anthropology<|>Awareness of Human Rights needed
• Cultural Transmission


  Transmission of customs, ideas, values and technology through language or visual means<|>Essence of cultural change<|>Usually not equitable - one group will dominate another, as in globalisation
• Customs


  Established ways of thinking and acting<|>Ritual behaviour is often connected to these ideas
• Ritual customs


  • Land-diving of the Bunlap of Vanuatu - done yearly in May to hope for a good yam harvest
  • Validates one's customary role in family ties, gender roles, political importance, personal identity
• Enculturation


  Process of learning the patterns of one's culture<|>Done through language and socialisation
• Globalisation


  Process of world commerce divided into labour of developing world and technology/management of Western world<|>Coke is a global brand - 76% of world's beverage industry
• Identity


  Sense of who we are through our socialisation process<|>Incorporates our cultural values and the social group we live in<|>Language and the way it's used is part of your identity
• The moral rules of a society are to maintain standards of appropriate behaviour
• Multiculturalism


  A pluralist or hybrid society where migrants from many nations must live together
• Socialisation


  Process of making one's cultural and social identity through the agents of socialisation (Social Institutions)<|>Primary and secondary stages
• Stereotypes


  Generalised view of how a person is supposed to behave, look and act<|>Can lead to cultural misunderstanding
• Anthropological Linguistics


  Language is our most human characteristic<|>All human cultures have a language<|>Few languages are written<|>Language is part of our evolution, we have adapted our bodies to speak<|>Linguistics looks at the relationships, structure and development of the world's languages
• Descriptive Linguistics


  Studies the relationships between living world languages
• Comparative Linguistics


  Looks at the structure and development of human languages
• Comparative linguistics looks at the parameters of linguistics and how languages borrow and grow
• Click languages


  • Khoisan
• Body Language


  People communicate using gestures, postures and expressions
• Body language plays a significant role in giving us messages about the other person