Saw the word in one of Nick's threads further down the list and wanted people's thoughts on it.

 

It's an interesting beast, culture. It shapes who you are and is therefore vitally important, both it's positive and negative aspects. It's highly likely much of what you believe and indeed take for granted is based on your culture. The laws in your culture, how diverse and open to diversity your culture is, the music of your culture, the media of your culture, all affect you.

 

Even down to the language you speak. Different languages conjure up different images and some languages have words for things that others do not. The variety of idioms used also lead to a plethora of different angles at which a situation is approached. Language can govern your very method of thinking (for example, a key question in the childhood of a Western person is 'How was I made?', whereas it has been said that an Eastern child would be more likely to ask 'How did I grow?', which sets a very different landscape upon which to philosophise and place oneself in the world).

 

Basically, the social norms you are used to, the language you use, the laws which you adhere to, the political history of your country and many, many more things influence you more than most people acknowledge in their everyday life.

 

What are your thoughts on culture, as a whole? Do you think it is always important or do you think we underestimate its toxic nature? Are there any cultural norms that baffle you (be that in your own culture, or in another culture)?

 

Bit of a rambling OP, so apologies, but just wondering people's thoughts on the matter.

I like culture.

Sweet, we're off...

I prefer cultures that are able to subdue the primitive, aggressiv nature of humankind and bring out the best of everyone.

I prefer cultures that are able to subdue the primitive, aggressiv nature of humankind and bring out the best of everyone.

 

I'm not aware of a culture that achieves this.

Because I grew up in Asia, so much of the American culture really annoys me. The fast paced, "it's all about me" kind of culture in the US really upsets me.

Because I grew up in Asia, so much of the American culture really annoys me. The fast paced, "it's all about me" kind of culture in the US really upsets me.

 

Indeed. There's stuff that is good about it but the consumption is remarkable. In my country too.

There are people from very different cultures who can relate to the same stuff. I feel like culture separates people often and people stereotype/hate others based on where they are from though that's probably just stuff that leaders/media influence idk what I was trying to say.

Deep down humans are all the same, but culture does affect people.

Even the parts of your culture that you react against shapes you, never mind the aspects you embrace.

I'm not aware of a culture that achieves this.

I believe there are a few that are close to achieving this, even if the group of people living that culture is small like the Zo’é (which IMO living a very peaceful and desirable, apart from the piercing ahem).

 

Perhaps something drastic will happen in the future to change people and create a culture that is worth following.

I can't imagine enforced piercings and tribal life is any form of utopia. It may be less destructive than all the damage we are causing but it's far from 'bringing out the best in everybody'.

Too much culture makes me horny. It's a problem.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAGxjOr3vYA]Terence McKenna - Culture Is Not Your Friend - YouTube[/ame]

Culuture should be defined as everything you do. The way you act, etc....it should be an individual thing.

Surely you get influenced by the traditions, politics, arts, etc...of the country you grow up in and of course there are things in your way of communication that you might only use in your culture (like certain signs...).

 

But it feels wrong if you judge someone's behaviour by the culture they were brought up in.

It could actually be a personality thing.

 

Imagine your head is full of stereotypes and one day a russian person tells you they don't drink vodka!

 

I study languages. We talk a lot about culture and communication (it is called "multilingual communication"). In one of our lectures we've been dealing with so called "critical incidents".

Those critical incidents are situations where misunderstandings mostly result from stereotypes.

 

There was one critical incident for example which dealt with the problem I've mentioned before:

There is a student exchange between german and polish students. The polish student arrives in their german guest family and they have a welcome dinner. After a while the father stands up and takes a bottle of wine and says: "I'm sorry we don't have vodka!" Everybody laughs except the polish student.

 

What could be the solution?

We found out that the "right" solution could be that the student just doesn't like vodka. Maybe their family doesn't drink vodka.....or even alcohol.

What a simply answer! And still I'm afraid there are many people who wouldn't understand that solution....

Indeed. Culture is not an excuse for anybody. Everybody has the ability to think about a concept themselves and make up their own mind. Culture can explain why people behave they do though, rather than condone it. I am aware of why certain people are racist, but that does not mean that I agree with them, nor that I have any positive feelings towards them in the slightest. I do not excuse them for their beliefs, either. I can simply understand where their opinions may be coming from.

 

Hi!

I can understand them in a certain way, too. (haha funny I wanted to write something like "I'm not allowed to write this, because I'm german....." which is just the thing we are talking about right now: Some kind of stereotype which might be in some peoples' heads unfortunately based on the history of my country)

 

I mean, some people might feel disturbed in their familiar environment in their familiar cultural environment.....for example there are many turkish people in Germany. There should be some kind of integration, but it rather seems to be failing. When mosques are built many people perceive this as an error. A foreign culture disturbing the habits and the everyday life in OUR/THEIR country. There should be a general change of view nowadays. Most people have a cultural model in their minds which is called the "bowl model" (no idea what it is called in english...it's my own translation).

In this model every culture, every nation is seen as a bowl you can't enter from the outside and in whose centre you feel best and mostly like you are at home. It creates a special coherence.

This model might have gotten old-fashioned.....but yeah considering this coherence makes me at least understand why people get racist.....

 

Hi! : )

If people looked into the history of their society they will see two key elements.

 

1. Any concept of racial purity is misguided in terms of the ridiculous amount of mixing throughout the ages and ultimately everybody's shared cultural heritage.

2. Majority (though not all) of concepts behind social inequalities (such as positive racism) purportedly favouring minorities are not true. Privilege actually tends to be class based, throughout the worlds societies. The lower classes demonising themselves is convenient and pushed to ridiculous levels by much of the media.

Do you guys know Hofstede? He's the researcher who developed cultural dimensions theory, which defines some of cultures' characteristics that are grouped into five dimensions (power distance, long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity). We've talked about this at university and compared the UK to Slovenia. I'm not that sure about the British culture but the statements for Slovenia were mostly correct. You can read more about this here and you can also look up your country's indexes and compare them to other countries'.

 

I have some more material on this but I'd rather not share it publicly.

 

 

ETA: Ooops, it looks like there are six dimensions now. We've only learnt about the first five.

here[/url] and you can also look up your country's indexes and compare them to other countries'.

 

I have some more material on this but I'd rather not share it publicly.

 

 

ETA: Ooops, it looks like there are six dimensions now. We've only learnt about the first five.

 

Sweet, thanks for that. No, I've never looked into any of this. It's just come from me and my mates ramblings on the matter, trying to make sense of the way certain people behave.

 

I'm gonna look more into it from actual theory based perspective now, I think. Probably starting with this guy.

 

The very first quote on that link was very interesting: “Culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others”. I agree with this viewpoint in the sense that it is a somewhat controlling and divisive mechanism. We all do appeared to be programmed (not by some greater force I hasten to add, simply by the circumstance of our surroundings), and like I said earlier in the thread, everything rubs off on you and it's scary how much your society shapes you. Even to the extent of what you rebel against, because it all comes down to experience, and without it, you don't have anything to compare it with, and therefore it doesn't really exist for you and can leave that side of your character undeveloped.

 

I also found the bit at the end interesting too, that "Culture only exists by comparison: The country scores on the dimensions are relative - societies are compared to other societies. Without make a comparison a country score is meaningless." I've found this concept very interesting indeed in recent weeks, and have alluded to it at the end of the paragraph above. I've been reading Alan Watts who, whilst being quite heavy on the trippier side of life at times, believed that since we are a part of the universe rather than within it, without everything else behaving the way it does, the concept of us declines. What else could a light shine in if it wasn't darkness, after all?

 

(I struggled formulating my thoughts on the last part of that last paragraph, so it certainly doesn't read too well. Feel free to look up Watts, he explains it far better)

And just to expand on my last post, the very fact that I draw conclusions from seemingly unrelated sources on this matter kind of proves Watts point. By and large, you can only compare new knowledge by fitting it in with your own preconceived biases, the information you already hold (some of it possibly incorrect) and your past experiences. The concepts you take on are squeezed into a tiny sphere of your current understanding and twisted and pulled apart until it fits into your own way of looking at things. It can at times be so revolutionary that it affects the rest of what you already know and you have to take stock and make changes to prior beliefs, but for the vast majority of things (since we take on so much and major changes in belief are so rare) the new things simply sit alongside the old things and interact with them as best they can.

 

Therefore what can mean one thing to me can mean another thing for you, for we'd come at it from different perspectives. This is why the suppression of ideas can be so corrosive. There will be certain viewpoints we may never achieve because of our previous biases, our slim spectrum of experience and the inherited culture we take as our own. This is where culture can prove problematic. Obviously that is not to say that there are no positives at all with it. I'm certainly proud of certain aspects of my culture.

 

(There we are, just about managed to pull that whole thing back to the topic in hand)

Therefore what can mean one thing to me can mean another thing for you' date=' for we'd come at it from different perspectives. This is why the suppression of ideas can be so corrosive. There will be certain viewpoints we may never achieve because of our previous biases, our slim spectrum of experience and the inherited culture we take as our own. This is where culture can prove problematic. Obviously that is not to say that there are no positives at all with it. I'm certainly proud of certain aspects of my culture. [/quote']

 

But this makes me wonder how much influence culture (defined as a nation's culture) actually has. I'm really torn between the fact that the way you act and you think and your point of view are just a personal thing. Doesn't it depend on where you grow up (milieu), what your background (familial background) is, what kind of people you connect with....? I think those kinds of questions define culture as something else. Not just a nation's culture.

 

I wonder if this makes any sense.

It's a combination of all those things, but all those things are influenced by the overall culture. Even if it's influenced by the overall culture because your family background is different to the usual culture and they are therefore outcasts, as such.

I can't imagine enforced piercings and tribal life is any form of utopia. It may be less destructive than all the damage we are causing but it's far from 'bringing out the best in everybody'.

Nah I didn't mean that. I was just refering to these people because they have a very peaceful culture. I know it's freaking primitive, but I saw a documentary about them and it was nice to see that there are cultures out there that never have been at war and were never tempted to kill each other. These were the main aspects why I referred to them. Maybe I should have mentioned that in my previous post :uhoh:

 

WELL ANYWAYS, cultures are a strange thing. There are so many of them, and everybody is weirded out by at least a few of them. Which is funny, because we are all the same biologically and just used to what we've grown up with.

 

I don't really know what to say about the whole topic. I makes me think mainly about all the negative, war related things and different opinions about rights and stuff, so yeah :|

 

It's nice reading your posts though folks :wacko:

I've been thinking about what I've written yesterday again......we've been talking about people in Bhutan....in 1999 it was the only nation in the world that didn't have television. They changed it in 1999.

 

I thought that there are some kind of basis cultures....like our "western" culture. The things I've thought of yesterday were based on "western" countries. You cant really compare this to a country like Bhutan.