Introduction
In fact the question of the elements of culture is a very complex one. On the basis of the definition of culture one can conclude that the elements of culture are wide, diverse and limitless. But in this lecture we try to present the most relevant and important elements.
1. Beliefs
In order to understand the place of “beliefs” in the realm of culture, it is imperative to define the concept itself. Defining this concept is not an easy matter since its boundaries are not clear cut. According to (Han, 2010: 131) the term belief is a “messy construct”, which embodies all the following “attitudes, values, judgments, axioms, opinions, ideology, perceptions, conceptions, conceptual systems, preconceptions, dispositions, implicit theories, personal theories, internal mental processes, action strategies, rules of practice, perspectives, repertoires of understanding, and social strategy, to name but a few that can found in the literature”.
It is clear that the notion “beliefs” plays a major role of everything known and constructed in terms of views about the world “a belief is a conviction in the truth of something that one learned by living in a culture”. In this view, beliefs are about the knowledge hold about a particular topic by which decisions are formulated. He further refers to a belief as a particular provocative form of personal knowledge that most of a teachers’ professional and academic knowledge can be regarded more accurately as beliefs (Han, 2010: 132). It seems that beliefs are often considered as being a type of knowledge and knowledge as a component of beliefs. In addition, beliefs are different between people and societies, for example, the belief in the God is not the same between Muslims, Buddhists and many others.
2. Values
Probably this term is among the most widely used terms when the discussion about culture is held. Peterson (2004) provides a specific and limited definition of values “cultural values are principles or qualities that a group of people will tend to see as good or right or worthwhile”. This idea is supportedby the view that “values are related to what is seen to be good, proper, and positive, or the opposite”.
Values are different from one person to another, from one group to another, from one community to another, from one country to another, etc. For example, what is highly accepted in “A” community as good may be less accepted as a good one in “B” community and totally wrong one in “C” community. In this respect, Peterson provides a wonderful example justifying this case, many people in a particular culture may claim to have deep friendships with only a few others. Others in another culture might prefer the opposite: they might like to maintain a wide circle of acquaintances which are not as close as friends. In this case, we could certainly say that different people hold values about relationships or about belonging to groups according to their belonging to different cultures and vice versa “values are the hidden force that sparks reactions and fuels denials” (2004: 22).
These reactions and denials take place in multicultural context which give reliability that cultures are built upon different values. But this, in any circumstances, does not mean that this culture is better than others “the values seen in Culture “A” and Culture “B” might be polar opposite, but that certainly does not mean that one group should consider the other “valueless”, nor that one group has it wrong and the other has it right” (2004: 23). Whatever the values are, it is not a question of rightness or wrongness, but it is a matter of difference which must be accepted because it is within the realm of nature and richness per se. To understand more how values help people to interact successfully with others it is imperative to raise another issue about culture’s components which is behaviors.
3. Behaviors
In the previous two aspects of culture it is concluded that beliefs and values construct the basis of behaviors, when someone holds a particular beliefs and values about a particular matter he or she will act upon his or her beliefs and values. Moreover, since beliefs and values change through both time and place, in the sense that they are different according to different people and cultures; this implies that behaviors also are different. Behaviors that one group of people consider improper may be practiced on a routine basis by those in another group.
In this regard, behaviors can be tackled from two levels; individual and collective. The individual level of behaviors refers to the different assigned roles given to individuals within their societies (teacher, learner, farmer, mother, president, businessman, etc). Every individual whatever his status may assume a number of different behaviors according to his interactions with other individuals in his professional, social, private life (Cushner and Brislin). The collective level of behaviors refers to the term of “cultural pattern” of a particular group of people. “The cultural behaviors of people from the same country can be referred to collectively as cultural patterns, which are clusters of interrelated orientations”. This pattern is performed by large proportion of people of one society and considered as belonging to one culture which is the culture of that given society. “The pattern of behavior is the functioning unit of a culture (Lado).
Cultural patterns are difficult to understand because people perform them unconsciously “this inability to describe one’s cultural ways may be due to the fact that one has been doing things without being conscious of doing them” (Ibid: 25). Therefore, the best way to recognize the form of any cultural pattern, it is better to bring many different cultural patterns together and contrast among each other. Cultural patterns have also many meanings (primary meanings and secondary meanings). All the actions that people perform every day are culture-bound which are not transferable from one culture to another. The best way to understand any given cultural pattern is through learning and assimilation as Lado points out “we can assume that when the individual of culture “A” trying to learn culture “B” observes a form in culture “B” in a particular distribution spots, he grasps the same complex of meaning as in his own culture.
When he is in turn engages actively in a unit of behavior in culture “B” he chooses the form which he would choose in his own culture to achieve that complex of meaning”. It is apparent that cultural behavioral patterns vary from one society to another. Consequently, cultural patterns are different according to different situations. Knowing cultural patterns is of a crucial importance because it guides to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior. For example, some cultures do not accept to shake hands with women while others accept it widely, etc. This matter leads to consider another component of culture which is about rules and norms.
4. Rules and Norms
All cultural patterns of a particular people have explicit manifestations by which they justify their potential behaviors and attitudes. So the “rules may refer to socially agreed –on behavior or to individual guidelines for behavior. Norms specify appropriate and inappropriate behaviors”. Rules and Norms in this sense are about the different parameters of behavior by which people or individuals are aware about the type of needs and the situations in which they are involved in. On the basis of this knowledge, they discover what is good and bad, acceptable and not, right and wrong, etc.
The outcome of this knowledge is they act, react, and behave in a particular and proper way according to the dictations of the given situation. For example, knowing different types of social events leads people to wear special clothes for a ceremony, marriage party, festivals, etc. They use different words, expressions and language forms when they address people who are different from them in age, status, blood or friendship relationship, etc. Rules and norms are different from values and beliefs in terms of explicitness and implicitness; the first one is the explicit manifestations of what people hold as beliefs and values while the second one is in a more sub-conscious level “it is useful to note that cultural rules and norms are explicit stated by people to justify their attitudes and behaviors, while cultural values and assumptions lie at a more sub-conscious level” (Lado). Cultural rules and norms are codes of behavior which cannot be subjected to immutability.
5. Prejudices
The term prejudice is more general than stereotype since the latter is hence a form of prejudice that is due to a rough overgeneralization which is a pre-judgment made on the basis of little knowledge or no evidence at all. Prejudice towards a culture is essentially caused by ignorance of or preconceived ideas about a particular culture. According to Clarke and Clarke (1990), “prejudice is that aversion fuelled by ignorance. Generally speaking, prejudice is associated with those negative assumptions about otherness. This view is supported by Krashen who states that prejudice is clearly cognate with those negative feelings on the part of a learner towards any culture (Krashen 1982). From the Krashen’s point of view, it seems clear that prejudice is a negative one towards otherness and positive one towards themselves by thinking that their ideas are the best while others are wrong. So, prejudice is about ideas which result from the assumption that one’s view of the world is the best and the most correct one, compared to the others.
6. Stereotypes
The concept of stereotypes will be approached upon the following question: How are stereotypes defined and how are they incorporated in EFL classroom? According to Hall (1959) stereotypes are “that attributes and characteristics ascribed to another group “the others” are perceived as strange and can be valued in different ways. All the things that are not in agreement with what is regarded as a part of the norm in a society are excluded and referred to as “the others” (Hall, 1959 as cited in Pervan, 2011: 13). Peterson (2004) points out that those stereotypes are negative opinions, images, and statements made about a group of people.
Stereotypes are that fixed beliefs and values adopted by a particular group of people about other people and their culture by which they are distinguished apart from others by actions, attributes, attitudes, appearances, etc. People when referring to the characteristics of others, they describe them as typical features of the… “That is typical of those people” (Koyama, 1992: 6), this expression is typically stereotypical. Stereotypes are usually created or emerged when applying one perception to an entire group of people (Peterson, 2004: 26). For example, we might know one American man who is extremely extrovert, open minded, and brave when he expresses his opinions and because of this quality, it can be concluded that all American people are extrovert, open minded and brave when they express their opinions. Incidentally, how untrue this about Americans, what about other qualities such as shyness, introvert, etc.
Another type of stereotypes is positive ones which are about holding positive statements about a group of people. An example of positive stereotypes are “Asians are good at math”, “Germans make wonderful engineers””, “Japanese are excellent in technology”, “Americans are good in architecture”, “French are interested in cuisine”, “Russian are better in military and naval domain”, “Canadians are successful in agricultural domain”. The problem with positive stereotypes is they share a common quality with negative stereotypes because both of them do not provide a thorough picture about the people being described and they are not accurate (ibid). Positive as well as negative stereotypes certainly no more describe all Asians, Germans, etc. They are common in the sense that they are not generalized.
In terms of stereotypes as a form of cultural component they say that “the teaching of English indirectly contains quite a lot of stereotypes” (Pervan, 2011: 14). Stereotypes are considered as negative manifestations of peoples’ culture, which is why, it is better not to include them at all within English textbooks. It can be concluded that even though stereotypes are something negative they do not need to be a source of disagreement because they are just opinions. (ibid: 14), adds that they are useful tool to include them in English textbooks in order to bring both teachers and learners into discussion about them. As a result, learners will recognize them from many perspectives and will be able to deal with them outside classroom setting. If this point is developed within EFL classroom, learners will understand well cultural differences and be ready to deal with them successfully in intercultural communication situations.
7. Generalizations
Generalizations are similar with stereotypes from the process of application perspectives. They are emerged when people hold a particular perception about a group of people and apply it to an entire or larger group but they are quite different from stereotypes from the way of creation. According to (Peterson, 2004: 26) “Generalizations are quite different from stereotypes and are more reliable”. Generalizations are created not on the basis of one individual but they are upon a large number of people and then apply them to all “we look at a larger number of people and we draw certain conclusions from what we see” (ibid).
Generalizations are useful for intercultural communication situations because they help researchers and professionals to conduct a study for any particular society about any issue and then make generalizations about the cultural patterns of the target society “there were exceptions for every rule, but generalizations that come from research and from the insights of informed international cultural experts and professionals allow us to paint a fairly accurate picture of how people in a given country are likely -but never guaranteed- to operate” (ibid: 27). For example, this can be reached if someone conducts a study, live, work, or interact with thousands of Chinese people.
After collecting as much as possible data through either personal or professional experience, it may be possible to make some accurate, general statements about Chinese people and their culture. Chinese as it happens do indeed have distinctive food habits, beliefs on the God, etc. These cultural patterns in China are more distinct than in many other cultures. If you have any intention to exchange something whatever it is in China or with Chinese (personal conversation, business and trade negotiation, asking them for a job or training, etc.), you would need to perceive well how all these issues of culture-bound affect you and contribute to the potential outcomes of you interactions with them (Ibid).
The discovery of culture-bound issues through generalization helps people to conduct successful interactions because it tells them in advance to be selective of what to mention from what not to mention, what feelings and emotions to hide from what ones to show, what issues to raise from what others to turn eyes off. To conclude, this knowledge leads to teach people of how to respect them and gain their respect without hurting them and vice versa, in short, it teaches people how to respect otherness and how to be respected.
8. Rituals
Rituals are among the most prevailed aspects of cultural behaviors. They are about the way people get dressed in ceremonies and formal occasions, the way about formal meetings are opened and closed, the way one greets his friends using different manners of greetings such as kissing each other in case of a close relationship, handshaking, verbal greetings and other body language greetings. All these rituals are performed differently according to different communities and they distinguish one culture from another one. “Rituals are performed as part of relationships –there are rituals of kinships, of ties to others, of participation in and connection with the organic, psychological, and metaphorical realities of the society. They are related to key areas of human life and are concerned with binding people’s feelings and behaviors into the social fabric (Cushner and Brisli).
Rituals vary from one culture to another and the same one is performed differently from one culture to another, that is why, each ritual practice implies as belonging to this or that culture. With respect to the ritual of kissing, it is practiced differently from one given culture to another, with Muslim people, handshaking between men and women is not allowed, where is in other cultures, it is acceptable.
Modes of address are also culture-bounds issues. When people interact among others, the way they address each other depends to the culture they belong to. What is considered as a polite language in “X” culture may be considered as less polite in “Y” culture. In addition to cultural differences, the factor of the speech situation in which the interaction takes part has a role to play in this respect. For example, different situations imply the use of different language forms, like the case of personal pronouns and their different ways of usage to indicate politeness and familiarity. For example, “Vous” in French is used when addressing an important person or a person of power, as a mark of respect versus “Tu” is governed by complex rules. So, it signals a kind of social distance as opposed to “T” form which acquired the meanings of solidarity, social closeness and intimacy. Therefore, the implications of “T” and “V” forms may be different from one culture to another, and perhaps even from one individual to another.
These different forms of language indicate that many misunderstandings and confusing situations often occur. Other languages do not have such forms, but they have also their own ways in manifesting their distinctions via other means, like verbal and non-verbal means.