What Are Some Similarities and Differences Between Two Cultures Art Forms?

What yous'll larn to practise: explain culture, society, cultural universals, and cultural relativism

Are there rules for eating at McDonald's? Generally, we exercise not think near rules in a fast food eatery, but if you look around one on a typical weekday, you lot will see people acting as if they were trained for the part of fast food customer. They stand in line, pick items from the colorful menus, swipe debit cards to pay, and wait to collect trays of food. After a quick meal, customers wad upward their paper wrappers and toss them into garbage cans. Customers' move through this fast food routine is orderly and predictable, even if no rules are posted and no officials direct the process.

People have written unabridged books analyzing the significance of fast food customs. They examine the extensive, detailed physicality of fast nutrient: the food itself, wrappers, bags, trays, those tiny ketchup packets, the tables and chairs, and even the restaurant building. Everything near a chain eatery reflects culture, the behavior and behaviors that a social group shares. Sociological assay tin be applied to every expression of culture, from sporting events to holidays, from didactics to transportation, from way to etiquette.

In this section, you lot'll examine culture and lodge and come to understand that a culture represents the beliefs, practices and artifacts of a group, while society represents the social structures and organization of the people who share those beliefs and practices.

Learning outcomes

• Talk over and requite examples of cultural universalism
• Depict and give examples of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism

Cultural Universals

Cultural Universals

Oftentimes, a comparison of one culture to some other volition reveal obvious differences. But all cultures also share common elements. Cultural universalsare patterns or traits that are globally mutual to all societies. One example of a cultural universal is the family unit unit: every man society recognizes a family structure that regulates sexual reproduction and the care of children. Still, how that family unit is defined and how it functions varies. In many Asian cultures, for example, family members from all generations commonly live together in one household. In these cultures, young adults keep to live in the extended household family structure until they marry and join their spouse'southward household, or they may remain and enhance their own nuclear family inside the extended family's homestead. In the United States, past contrast, individuals are expected to leave dwelling house and live independently for a period before forming a family unit of measurement that consists of parents and their offspring. Other cultural universals include customs like funeral rites, weddings, and celebrations of births. Still, each civilisation may view and enact these rituals and ceremonies quite differently.

Anthropologist George Murdock first recognized the existence of cultural universals while studying systems of kinship effectually the world. Murdock found that cultural universals often revolve around bones human survival, such every bit finding food, clothing, and shelter, or around shared man experiences, such as nascency and decease or affliction and healing. Through his research, Murdock identified other universals including linguistic communication, the concept of personal names, and, interestingly, jokes. Humor seems to be a universal manner to release tensions and create a sense of unity amidst people (Murdock 1949). Sociologists consider humor necessary to human being interaction because it helps individuals navigate otherwise tense situations.

Is Music a Cultural Universal?

Imagine that yous are sitting in a theater, watching a film. The picture show opens with the heroine sitting on a park bench with a grim expression on her face up. Cue the music. The first boring and mournful notes play in a pocket-sized cardinal. As the melody continues, the heroine turns her head and sees a man walking toward her. The music slowly gets louder, and the racket of the chords sends a prickle of fear running down your spine. You sense that the heroine is in danger.

Now imagine that you lot are watching the aforementioned flick, but with a different soundtrack. As the scene opens, the music is soft and soothing, with a hint of sadness. You see the heroine sitting on the park bench and sense her loneliness. Suddenly, the music swells. The woman looks upwards and sees a human walking toward her. The music grows fuller, and the pace picks up. Y'all feel your heart rise in your chest. This is a happy moment.

Music has the ability to evoke emotional responses. In television shows, movies, fifty-fifty commercials, music elicits laughter, sadness, or fear. Are these types of musical cues cultural universals?

In 2009, a squad of psychologists, led by Thomas Fritz of the Max Planck Plant for Homo Cognitive and Encephalon Sciences in Leipzig, Deutschland, studied people's reactions to music that they'd never heard (Fritz et al. 2009). The inquiry team traveled to Cameroon, Africa, and asked Mafa tribal members to listen to Western music. The tribe, isolated from Western culture, had never been exposed to Western civilisation and had no context or experience inside which to interpret its music. Even and then, as the tribal members listened to a Western piano piece, they were able to recognize three basic emotions: happiness, sadness, and fearfulness. Music, it turns out, is a sort of universal language.

Researchers also institute that music tin foster a sense of wholeness within a group. In fact, scientists who study the evolution of language have concluded that originally language (an established component of group identity) and music were one (Darwin 1871). Additionally, since music is largely nonverbal, the sounds of music tin can cross societal boundaries more easily than words. Music allows people from different cultures to hands brand connections, whereas overcoming language barriers might be more hard. As Fritz and his team establish, music and the emotions it conveys can exist cultural universals.

Think It Over

• Examine the difference between textile and nonmaterial culture in your world. Identify x objects that are part of your regular cultural experience. For each, so identify what aspects of nonmaterial civilisation (values and behavior) that these objects stand for. What has this do revealed to y'all about your culture?

Attempt It

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Despite how much humans have in common, cultural differences are far more than prevalent than cultural universals. For case, while all cultures accept linguistic communication, analysis of particular language structures and conversational etiquette reveal tremendous differences. In some Middle Eastern cultures, information technology is common to stand close to others in conversation. North Americans keep more than distance and maintain a larger "personal space." Fifty-fifty something as uncomplicated as eating and drinking varies greatly from culture to culture. If your professor comes into an early morn class holding a mug of liquid, what do you assume she is drinking? In the U.s., the mug is most likely filled with coffee, not Earl Grey tea, a favorite in England, or Yak Butter tea, a staple in Tibet.

The mode cuisines vary beyond cultures fascinates many people. Some travelers pride themselves on their willingness to endeavor unfamiliar foods, like celebrated food writer Anthony Bourdain, while others return home expressing gratitude for their native civilization's fare. Oftentimes, people in the Usa express disgust at other cultures' cuisine and retrieve that information technology's gross to consume meat from a dog or guinea sus scrofa, for example, while they don't question their ain habit of eating cows or pigs. Such attitudes are an example of ethnocentrism , or evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to 1's own cultural norms. Ethnocentrism, equally sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906) described the term, involves a belief or mental attitude that 1's own culture is better than all others, and should therefore serve as the standard frame of reference.Almost everyone is a little bit ethnocentric. For example, Americans tend to say that people from England bulldoze on the "wrong" side of the road, rather than on the "other" side. Someone from a state where dog meat is standard fare might find it off-putting to see a dog in a French eating house—not on the menu, simply as a pet and young man patron's companion. A good example of ethnocentrism is referring to parts of Asia equally the "Far East." One might question, "Far e of where?"

A loftier level of appreciation for i's own culture tin can be healthy; a shared sense of customs pride, for case, connects people in a society. But ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other cultures and could cause misunderstanding and disharmonize. People with the best intentions sometimes travel to a society to "help" its people, considering they run across them as uneducated or backward—essentially junior. In reality, these travelers are guilty of cultural imperialism , the deliberate imposition of one's own ostensibly advanced cultural values on another culture. Europe's colonial expansion, begun in the sixteenth century, was ofttimes accompanied past a severe cultural imperialism. European colonizers often viewed the people in the lands they colonized as uncultured savages who were in demand of European governance, dress, religion, and other cultural practices. A more mod example of cultural imperialism may include the work of international assist agencies who introduce agricultural methods and plant species from developed countries while overlooking indigenous varieties and agricultural approaches that are amend suited to a detail region.

Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when confronted with all of the differences of a new culture, one may experience disorientation and frustration. In sociology, we call thisculture daze. A traveler from Chicago might find the nightly silence of rural Montana unsettling, not peaceful. An exchange educatee from Communist china might be annoyed by the constant interruptions in class as other students ask questions—a practice that is considered rude in Red china. Maybe the Chicago traveler was initially absorbed by Montana'due south tranquillity beauty and the Chinese student was originally excited to come across a U.Southward.-way classroom firsthand. Only equally they experience unanticipated differences from their ain culture, their excitement gives way to discomfort and doubts virtually how to behave appropriately in the new situation. Eventually, as people learn more than nigh a civilization and adapt to its norms, they recover from civilisation daze.

Civilisation daze may appear because people aren't e'er expecting cultural differences. Anthropologist Ken Barger (1971) discovered this when he conducted a participatory ascertainment in an Inuit customs in the Canadian Arctic. Originally from Indiana, Barger hesitated when invited to bring together a local snowshoe race. He knew he'd never agree his ain against these experts. Sure enough, he finished terminal, to his mortification. But the tribal members congratulated him, saying, "You really tried!" In Barger'due south own culture, he had learned to value victory. To the Inuit people, winning was enjoyable, but their culture valued survival skills essential to their environment: how hard someone tried could hateful the divergence between life and death. Over the course of his stay, Barger participated in caribou hunts, learned how to take shelter in wintertime storms, and sometimes went days with little or no food to share among tribal members. Trying hard and working together, two nonmaterial values, were indeed much more than of import than winning.

During his time with the Inuit tribe, Barger learned to appoint in cultural relativism.Cultural relativism is the practice of assessing a culture by its ain standards rather than viewing it through the lens of ane's ain culture. Practicing cultural relativism requires an open mind and a willingness to consider, and fifty-fifty adapt to, new values and norms. However, indiscriminately embracing everything well-nigh a new civilization is not always possible. Even the most culturally relativist people from egalitarian societies—ones in which women accept political rights and control over their own bodies—would question whether the widespread practice of female genital mutilation in countries such every bit Ethiopia and Sudan should be accustomed equally a part of cultural tradition. Sociologists attempting to appoint in cultural relativism, and then, may struggle to reconcile aspects of their own culture with aspects of a culture they are studying.

Sometimes when people effort to rectify feelings of ethnocentrism and to practice cultural relativism, they swing too far to the other stop of the spectrum. Xenocentrismis the contrary of ethnocentrism, and refers to the belief that another culture is superior to one'southward ain. (The Greek root word xeno, pronounced "ZEE-no," means "stranger" or "strange guest.") An substitution educatee who goes abode after a semester abroad or a sociologist who returns from the field may find it hard to associate with the values of their own culture after having experienced what they deem a more upright or nobler way of living.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for sociologists studying different cultures is the matter of keeping a perspective. Information technology is incommunicable for anyone to go along all cultural biases at bay; the best we tin do is strive to be aware of them. Pride in one's own culture doesn't have to lead to imposing its values on others. And an appreciation for some other culture shouldn't preclude individuals from studying it with a critical eye.

Overcoming Civilisation Shock

Effigy i. Experiencing new cultures offers an opportunity to practice cultural relativism. (Photo courtesy of OledSidorenko/flickr)

During her summer vacation, Caitlin flew from Chicago to Madrid to visit Maria, the exchange student she'd befriended the previous semester. In the airport, she heard rapid, musical Castilian being spoken all around her. Exciting as it was, she felt isolated and disconnected. Maria'south female parent kissed Caitlin on both cheeks when she greeted her. Her imposing father kept his altitude. Caitlin was half asleep by the time supper was served—at ten p.m.! Maria's family unit sat at the tabular array for hours, speaking loudly, gesturing, and arguing almost politics, a taboo dinner subject in Caitlin's house. They served vino and toasted their honored guest. Caitlin had trouble interpreting her hosts' facial expressions, and didn't realize she should brand the side by side toast. That night, Caitlin crawled into a strange bed, wishing she hadn't come. She missed her habitation and felt overwhelmed by the new customs, language, and surroundings. She'd studied Castilian in school for years—why hadn't it prepared her for this?

What Caitlin hadn't realized was that people depend not only on spoken words simply as well on subtle cues like gestures and facial expressions, to communicate. Cultural norms back-trail fifty-fifty the smallest nonverbal signals (DuBois 1951). They help people know when to shake easily, where to sit down, how to converse, and even when to express joy. We chronicle to others through a shared set of cultural norms, and unremarkably, we take them for granted.

For this reason, culture shock is frequently associated with traveling abroad, although it can happen in one'south own country, state, or even hometown. Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg (1960) is credited with first coining the term "culture daze." In his studies, Oberg establish that near people found encountering a new culture to be exciting at get-go. Simply bit by bit, they became stressed by interacting with people from a dissimilar culture who spoke another language and used different regional expressions. In that location was new food to digest, new daily schedules to follow, and new rules of etiquette to larn. Living with these abiding adaptive challenges tin can brand people experience incompetent and insecure. People react to frustration in a new culture, Oberg establish, by initially rejecting information technology and glorifying i'southward own culture. An American visiting Italia might long for a "existent" pizza or complain about the unsafe driving habits of Italians compared to people in the U.s.a..

It helps to call up that civilisation is learned. Everyone is ethnocentric to an extent, and identifying with one's ain land is natural.

Caitlin'due south shock was minor compared to that of her friends Dayar and Mahlika, a Turkish couple living in married student housing on campus. And it was nothing like that of her classmate Sanai. Sanai had been forced to flee war-torn Bosnia with her family when she was 15. After two weeks in Spain, Caitlin had adult a scrap more pity and agreement for what those people had gone through. She understood that adjusting to a new culture takes time. It tin can take weeks or months to recover from civilisation daze, and it can take years to fully suit to living in a new culture.

By the finish of Caitlin'southward trip, she'd made new lifelong friends. She'd stepped out of her comfort zone. She'd learned a lot virtually Spain, but she'd besides discovered a lot virtually herself and her ain culture.

Further Research

In January 2011, a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the Us of America presented evidence indicating that the hormone oxytocin could regulate and manage instances of ethnocentrism. Read the article "Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism."

Try Information technology

Think Information technology Over

• Do you feel that feelings of ethnocentricity or xenocentricity are more than prevalent in U.S. culture? Why do you believe this? What bug or events might inform this?

Glossary

cultural imperialism:

the deliberate imposition of 1's ain cultural values on some other culture

cultural relativism:

the do of assessing a culture past its own standards, and not in comparison to another culture

civilization shock:

an experience of personal disorientation when confronted with an unfamiliar manner of life

cultural universals:

patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies

ethnocentrism:

the practice of evaluating some other culture according to the standards of one's own culture

material culture:

the objects or belongings of a grouping of people

nonmaterial culture:

the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society

xenocentrism:

a conventionalities that another culture is superior to one'due south own

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-introtosociology/chapter/cultural-similarities-and-differences/

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