Understanding Global Cultures Cultural Metaphors.

UnderstandingGlobal Cultures

Cultural Metaphors

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1095/

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Cultural Metaphors

Unit of analysis= the nation or national

culture

“national character studies”

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword – Ruth Benedict

Cultural Metaphors

Other “units of analysis” may include:

one person (e.g., Paul Buffalo)

“life histories”

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/Buffalo/pbwww.html

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/Buffalo/Intro-Temp2.html

Paul BuffaloMeditatingMedicine

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth3635/cetexts.html#Nan

Sharon GmelchNan: The Life of an Irish Traveling Woman, Revised Edition.

Long Grove: IL: Waveland Press, 1991.(ISBN: 0881336025)

Cultural Metaphors


one person (e.g., Paul Buffalo)the family (e.g., Strodtbeck, see later)the communitya region (“culture area”)• Mesoamerica• The Northwest Coast (of North America)• The Upper Midwest• The Mideast• “Sub-Saharan Africa”• Aran Islands

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth3635/cetexts.html#InisBeag

John C. MessengerInis Beag: Isle of Ireland.

Long Grove: IL: Waveland Press, 1983.(ISBN: 0881330515)

Cultural Metaphors


one person (e.g., Paul Buffalo)the family (e.g., Strodtbeck, see later)the communitya region (“culture area”)a culture• “Irish”• “Chinese”• “Mexicans”• “Bedouins”

Cultural Metaphors

but cultural metaphors can be derived for ethnic groups within and across nations

e.g., Anishinabe (Chippewa; Ojibwa)e.g., Rom (Gypsies)e.g., Irish “Travellers”• sometimes incorrectly called “Gypsies”

e.g., Kurdse.g., Basques

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth3635/cetexts.html#BasqueHistory

Mark KurlanskyThe Basque History of the World.

NY: Penguin Books, 1999.(ISBN: 0140298517)

Cultural Metaphors

Unit of analysis = the nation or national culture

applies to a group, but not to every individual within it

Cultural Metaphors


because a good amount of evidence suggests that there are commonalities across regional, racial, and ethnic groups within each of them that can be captured effectively by cultural metaphors

Cultural Metaphors


Understanding Global Cultures contains 28 metaphors

there are approximately 200 nations in the world • 193 according to The Times World Atlas

(2004)

Ken Livingston, mayor of London England, indicated that there were over 300 languages spoken in London.

(Following the terrorist attack of July 2005)

Communication

How many languagesare spoken in

St. Paul Minnesota ?

Communication

Culture Counts

and it counts quit a bit

Constructing Cultural Metaphors

Florence Kluckholn and Fred Strodtbeck

Edward T. Hall

Geert Hofstede

Cultural Metaphors include, in addition, the items on p. 11 . . .

Cultural Metaphors include . . .

religion

early socialization and family structure

small group behavior

public behavior

leisure pursuits and interests


total Lifestyle

work / leisure / home and time allocations to each of them

aural space

the degree to which members of a society react negatively to high noise levels

roles and status of different members of a society


holidays and ceremonies

greeting behavior

humor


language

oral and written communication


nonoral communication

body language• kinesics (motion)• proxemics (space)


sports

as a reflection of cultural values

political structure of a society

the educational system of a society


traditions and the degree to which the established order is emphasized

history of a society

but only as it reflects cultural mind-sets, or the manner in which its members think, feel, and act

not a detailed history


food and eating behavior


social class structure

rate of technological and cultural change

organization of and perspective on work

such as a society’s commitment to the work ethic, superior-subordinate relationships, and so on

any other categories that are appropriate

A Four-Stage Model of Cross-Cultural Understanding

I. four-cell typology of process / goal orientation

II. more specificity

III. inclusion of other “etic” of culture-general dimensions along which specific cultures have been shown to vary

IV. cultural metaphors are employed for understanding a culture

they build on the “etic” understanding provided by the approaches used in the first three stages

Emics / Etics

emics from “phonemics” viewing a culture from the inside

etics from “phonetics” viewing a culture from the outside

More on the “emics” and “etics” later

“Four-Stage Model”

One variable of the “Four-Stage Model” is the degree to which process such as effective communication and getting to know one another in depth should precede discussion of specific goals

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1095/PowerPoint/four-stage_model.ppt

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1095/PowerPoint/four-stage_model.ppt

“Four-Stage Model”

Another variable of the “Four-Stage Model” is the degree to which a culture fosters and encourages open emotional expression

Fig. 1.1. Process, Goals, and Expression of Emotions (p. 12)

Open Expression of Emotions and Feelings

Degree to Which Process Must Be Emphasized Before Goals Can Be discussed

Lower Higher

Lower England, Ireland, and Scotland

United States and Germany

Higher China, Japan, and India

Mexico, Spain, and Italy

More on the “Four-Stage Model” later

Cultural Metaphors

“Metaphorsare not stereotypes”

– Martin J. Gannon

Why?

Geert Hofstede (1991)

IBM study demonstrated that national culture explained 50% of the differences in attitudes in IBM’s 53 countries

“Given such studies, it seems that culture influences between 25%

and 50% of our attitudes, whereas other aspects of workforce

diversity, such as social class, ethnicity, race, sex, and age,

account for the remainder of these attitudinal differences.”

“Frequently, when a foreigner violates a key cultural value, he or

she is not even aware of the violation, and no one brings the matter to his or her attention.”

once a visitor makes a major mistake it is frequently impossible to rectify it

and it may well take several months to realize that polite rejections really signify isolation and banishment

“Even genuinely small cultural mistakes can have enormous

consequences.”

“. . . Knowing a country’s language, although clearly helpful, is no

guarantee of understanding its cultural mindset, and some of the most difficult problems have been created by individuals who have a

high level of fluency but a low level of cultural understanding.”

“Moreover, members of a culture tend to assume that highly fluent

visitors know the customs and rules of behavior, and these

visitors are judged severely when violations occur.”

Cultural Metaphors

Understanding Global Cultures describes a method for understanding easily and quickly the cultural mind-set of a nation and comparing it to other nations

Cultural Metaphors

In essence the cultural metaphor involves identifying some phenomenon, activity, or institution of a nation’s culture that all or most of its members consider to be very important and with which they identify closely

the characteristics of the metaphor then become the basis for describing and understanding the essential features of the society

Cultural Metaphors

each metaphor is a guide or map that helps the foreigner understand quickly what members of a society consider very important

but it is only a starting point against which we can compare our own experiences and through which we can start to understand the seeming contradictions pervasive in most, if not all, societies

Cultural Metaphors

book describes a dominant, and perhaps the dominant, metaphor for each society

but other metaphors may also be suitable



Edward T. Hall

Geert Hofstede

Plus items on p. 11 . . .

http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/information/biography/fghij/hall_edward.html



note that each society has a dominant cultural orientation that can be described in terms of six dimensions


1. “What do members of a society assume about the nature of people, that is, are people good, bad, or a mixture?”

• These kinds of beliefs are sometimes called “existential postulates”


2. “What do members of a society assume about the relationship between a person and nature, that is, should we live in harmony with it or subjugate it?”

• These kinds of beliefs are sometimes called “normative postulates”


3. “What do members of a society assume about the relationship between people, that is, should a person act in an individual manner or consider the group before taking action?”

• individualism vs. collectivism (groupism) in terms of such issues as making decisions, conformity, and so forth


4. “What is the primary mode of activity in a given society, that is, being, or accepting the status quo, enjoying the current situation, and going with the flow of things;

or doing, that is, changing things to make them better, setting specific goals and accomplishing them within specific schedules, and so forth?”


5. “What is the conception of space in a given society,

that is, is it considered private, in that meetings are held in private, people do not get too close to one another physically, and so on;

or public, that is, having everyone participate in meetings and decision making, allowing emotions to be expressed publicly, and having people stand in close proximity to one another?”


6. “What is the society’s dominant temporal orientation”

past

present

and / or future?


Kluckholn and Strodtbeck note that each society has a dominant cultural orientation that can be described in terms of these six dimensions

but that other, weaker orientations may also exist simultaneously in its different geographical regions and racial and ethnic groups



Edward T. Hall

made many discoveries in how people learn language

analyzed the levels of learning

http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/information/biography/fghij/hall_edward.html

Edward T. Hall

1. “Context,

or the amount of information that must be explicitly stated if a message or communication is to be successful”

Edward T. Hall

2. “Space,

or the ways of communicating through specific handling of personal space”

e.g., North Americans tend to keep more space between them while communicating than do South Americans

Edward T. Hall

3. Time, which is either

monochronic

(scheduling and completing one activity at a time)

or polychronic

(not distinguishing between activities and completing them simultaneously – “multitasking”)

Edward T. Hall

4. “Information flow,

which is the structure and speed of messages between individuals and / or organizations”



Edward T. Hall

Geert Hofstede

Geert Hofstede

prominent organizational psychologist

research is based on a large questionnaire survey of IBM employees and managers working in 53 different countries

especially significant because the type of organization is held constant

Geert Hofstede

1. Power distance

or the degree to which members of a society automatically accept a hierarchical or unequal distribution of power in organizations and the society

Geert Hofstede

2. Uncertainty avoidance

or the degree to which members of a given society deal with the uncertainty and risk of everyday life and prefer to work with long-term acquaintances and friends rather than with strangers

Geert Hofstede

3. Individualism

or the degree to which an individual perceives him- or her-self to be separate from a group and free from group pressure to conform

Geert Hofstede

4. Masculinity

or the degree to which a society looks favorably on aggressive and materialistic behavior

Geert Hofstede

5. Time horizon(short term to long term)

or the degree to which members of a culture are willing to defer present gratification in order to achieve long-term goals

The “three-dimensional approaches” developed by Kluckholn and Strodtbeck, Hall, and Hofstende

leave out many features of the cultural mind-sets that are activated in daily cultural activities

neglect the institutions molding these mind-sets

are instructive, but are “somewhat lifeless and narrow”

leave out many facets of behavior



Edward T. Hall

Geert Hofstede

Cultural Metaphors include, in addition, the items on p. 11 . . .

Text:

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1095/index.html#text

Understanding Global Cultures Cultural Metaphors.

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