Cultural Differences

Key terms

Mentally, humans survive by recognizing patterns. We tend to avoid ambiguity and indecision.

Ethnocentric

You believe that your native country, culture, language, and behavior are central or superior to all others.

Polycentric

You take the view that local people understand their own life and practices and that you are better off leaving them alone.

Geocentric

You accept that there are differences and similarities between home and foreign life and practices that you should use whatever techniques are most effective.

Eurocentrism

the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of the European social model.

Afrocentrism

a reading of world history that emphasizes the importance of African people, taken as a single group and often equated with black people, in culture, philosophy, and history. Proponents of Afrocentrism claim that the contributions of various African cultures have been downplayed and need to be excavated from beneath an "official" historical record that has deliberately kept them hidden.

Sinocentrism

an ethnocentric perspective that regards China to be the center of civilization and superior to all other nations (diagram on left). In China, common names for China include "Zhonghua" (中华/中華) and "Zhongguo" (中国/中國), Central Kingdom, most excellent center.

American exceptionalism

American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other countries. ... Historian Gordon Wood has argued, "We Americans are a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty and democracy." ...

Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense. To them, the United States is like the biblical "shining city on a hill," and exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries.

Globalization

the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour producing an increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange.

How to use this data in HUM 300

Some of these data sources are more neutral than others. Some are sponsored by an organization with a well-defined purpose that takes the side of an issue. Many of the sources have insufficient and perhaps unreliable data. I have tried to provide sources that are diverse geographically and politically.

From those comparisons, you will come to see the special combination of characteristics that make each of your countries unique. You are going to use the data to write a profile about your country to post on the wiki as your first written assignment. You should also start thinking about your final essay for this course, which should also be based on data and information of the kind you will encounter during this assignment.

In what ways is your country similar to the others? In what ways different?

Is your country in the middle of most of the lists? On which lists is it on one end or the other?

What does it all say about the country you are researching?

Society

The first set of data covers some basic information about the people in your country. How much money do the people have? Who has it and who doesn't? What kind of values does the society have?

GDP - International Monetary Fund's Gross Domestic Product. The value of all goods and services produced in that country. Our table shows the number of dollars in billions. The larger the number, the richer the country as a whole.

per cap - International Monetary Fund's GDP per capita. While the GDP shows the size of the whole economy, the GDP per capita shows that same productivity per person (per capita). Our table shows the number of dollars (US$). The larger the number, the richer the people individually.

inc = - income equality. How equally is income distributed in your country? How great is the divide between rich and poor in your country? The U.N.'s GINI index measures that divide. A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality. The table shows the rank order for each country out of the 125 countries. The closer the rank number is to Namibia's GINI of 74 and rank of #1, the greater the gap between rich and poor. Adjusting for the size of the country, countries on Namibia's end have a lot of rich people and a lot of poor people. The countries with ranks numbers closer to Denmark's GINI of 40 and rank of #125 don't have as many rich people, but they have hardly any poor people. Pakistan is similar to the Netherlands because even though it is much poorer as a nation, the money is spread about as equally.

HD - The United Nations' Human Development Index combines three other indices: life expectancy, education, and wealth. The table shows the rank order number of each country. A rank closer to 1 means a longer life, more education, and greater wealth.

HP - The New Economics Foundation's Happy Planet Index combines subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The lower the number, the "happier".

Geert Hofstede (right) is the prominent researcher in the field of cross-cultural characteristics. He has measured and compared most of the world's countries on five dimensions of culture. The table shows each country's score (always a number) for each of these dimensions, not its rank order.

Demographics: Women and Children

The next set of data examines the size of a country's population and how it got that way. The data I have chosen here emphasize the conditions for women and children.

sex ratio - CIA World Factbook's Sex Ratio. Numbers below 100 mean there are more females than males, and vice versa.

For the three data points below, you can find basic demographic information at the U.S. Census Bureau's Information Gateway. Choose your country from the drop-down list, and click submit.

crude birth rate - The number per 1,000 population.

life expectancy at birth - The number of years.

< 5 mortality rate - The number per 1,000 births who die before age 5.

I was curious about teen pregnancy rates, but I could not find data for all our countries in one place. However, I did find U.N. map and data for the developed countries (right). Click to enlarge.

maternal mortality - The Maternal Mortality Estimates (.pdf file) developed by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA. Maternal mortality ratio. The number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

mothers - Save the Children's 2007 Mothers Index (.pdf file). The Best and Worst Places to be a Mother. Helps document conditions for mothers and children in 140 countries - 41 developed nations and 99 in the developing world - and shows where mothers fare best and where they face the greatest hardships. It has three tiers. Of our 13 countries, only the U.S. and the Netherlands are in Tier I. The rest of our countries are in Tier II. Our table shows the rank of each country. The closer the rank is to 1, the better for mothers and children.

gender = - SocialWatch.org's Gender Equality Index. The three dimensions included in the GEI are: economic activity, empowerment and education. A larger number, closer to Sweden's 89, indicates more equality between men and women in these three dimensions.

WIP - Women in politics. Interparliamentary Union. What percentage of the legislators in your country are women? Our table shows the % W in the middle column, that is, the percentage of women in the Lower or single House column.

Quality of Life

What's it like to live in these countries? Without being able to experience it ourselves, we can get some sense of life there by looking at some countable and comparable data. How does your country cope with people on the margins of society?

QoL - The Economist's 2010 Quality of Life Index. Our table shows the rank order number of each country out of 111 as an aggregate of nine quality of life factors. The lower the number, the higher the comparative quality.

prison - How many people are in prison? Wikipedia's List of countries by incarceration rate. Our table show the number per 100,000. See also the NY Times interactive graphic.

hom - Wikipedia's List of countries by homicide rate. The number per 100,000.

cap - Wikipedia's List of countries by use of capital punishment.

1 Abolished for all crimes
2 Abolished for all crimes except under exceptional/special circumstances (such times of wars)
3 Abolished in practice i.e. haven't used capital punishment or the death penalty in at least 10 years
4 Retainers of capital punishment or the death penalty

health -  Wikipedia's List of countries by health care coverage

1 Nations with some type of universal health care system.
2 Nations attempting to obtain universal health care.
3 Nations with no universal health care.

aids - How bad is AIDS in your country? CIA World Factbook's AIDS adult prevalence rate. Our table shows the percentage. Note that this list does not include children. The closer to 0, the less AIDS. In South Africa, "Almost one-in-three women aged 25-29, and over a quarter of men aged 30-34, are living with HIV."

alcohol - How much drinking do people do? Wikipedia's List of countries by alcohol consumption. Our table shows the number value of litres of pure alcohol.

drinking age - What's the legal drinking age? Wikipedia's List of countries by legal drinking age. More about Morocco.

vacation - How much paid vacation time must workers get? Wikipedia's statutory minimum vacations. Our table shows the number of days of vacation required by law at a minimum, not including national holidays.

olymp - Olympic medals. Wikipedia's All-time Olympic Games medal table. Our table shows persons per medal, that is, the number in thousands of people in the country now per both Summer and Winter Olympic medals all-time. The U.S. has the most medals, by far. But we also have a lot of people.

Intercultural Sensitivity

Why do some cultures have more stuff, more things, aka a "higher" (more expensive) standard of living than other cultures?

Because their people are smarter? Because their people are physically stronger, genetically superior? Because their people work harder? Because their values are better? Because they got lucky? Why?

People in poor countries have lots of babies and short lives, right? Wrong. At least not anymore.

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

Hans Rosling's Debunking myths about the “third world”

So why, then? Jared Diamond, a biologist who studies birds in New Guinea, was asked the Why question by Yali, one of the people of New Guinea who don't have much stuff. Diamond's answer to Yali is in a book Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was also a TV series, most of which is available on YouTube in three 6-part episodes.

Episode One: Out of Eden, Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

"Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?"

Diamond realized that Yali's question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human history -- the roots of global inequality.

Why were Europeans the ones with all the cargo? Why had they taken over so much of the world, instead of the native people of New Guinea? How did Europeans end up with what Diamond terms the agents of conquest: guns, germs and steel? It was these agents of conquest that allowed 168 Spanish conquistadors to defeat an Imperial Inca army of 80,000 in 1532, and set a pattern of European conquest which would continue right up to the present day.

Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter-gatherers were just as intelligent as people of European descent -- and far more resourceful. Their lives were tough, and it seemed a terrible paradox of history that these extraordinary people should be the conquered, and not the conquerors.

To examine the reasons for European success, Jared realized he had to peel back the layers of history and begin his search at a time of equality -- a time when all the peoples of the world lived in exactly the same way.

Bennett's 6 stages

The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) was created by Dr. Milton Bennett as a framework to explain the reactions of people to cultural difference. In both academic and corporate settings, he observed that individuals confronted cultural difference in some predictable ways as they learned to became more competent intercultural communicators. Using concepts from cognitive psychology and constructivism, he organized these observations into six stages of increasing sensitivity to cultural difference. One of his insights is that intercultural sensitivity is not innate. What's innate is to bond with and be loyal to a small group, family or larger, that shares the cultural values that you grew up with.

It is hard but not impossible to learn to be sensitive to other cultures. Study abroad students have special challenges when they go to another country for a time that makes them more than a tourist but not an ex-patriate. The first step is being aware of the process.

You can learn more at the web site for Bennett's consulting business: Intercultural Communication Institute.

The first three DMIS stages are ethnocentric, meaning that your own culture is experienced as central to reality in some way:

Denial of cultural difference

Your own culture is experienced as the only real one. Other cultures are avoided by maintaining psychological and/or physical isolation from differences. People in the Denial stage are disinterested (not uninerested or interested) in cultural differences, although they may act aggressively to eliminate a difference if it impinges on them.

Defense against cultural difference

Your own culture (or an adopted culture) is experienced as the only good one. The world is organized into “us and them,” where “we” are superior and “they” are inferior. People in the Defense stage are threatened by cultural difference, so they tend to be highly critical of other cultures, regardless of whether the others are their hosts, their guests, or cultural newcomers to their society.

Minimization of cultural difference

Parts of your own cultural world view are experienced as universal. Because these absolutes obscure deep cultural differences, other cultures may be trivialized or romanticized. People in the Minimization stage expect similarities, and they may become insistent about correcting others’ behavior to match their expectations.

The second three DMIS stages are ethnorelative, meaning that one’s own culture is experienced in the context of other cultures.

Acceptance of cultural difference

Your own culture is experienced as just one of a number of equally complex worldviews. Acceptance does not mean agreement—cultural difference may be judged negatively—but the judgment is not ethnocentric. People in the Acceptance stage are curious about and respectful of cultural difference.

Adaptation to cultural difference is the state

Your experience of another culture yields perception and behavior appropriate to that culture. Your worldview is expanded to include constructs from other worldviews. People in the Adaptation stage are able to look at the world through fresh eyes and may intentionally change their behavior to communicate more effectively in another culture.

Integration of cultural difference

Your experience expands to include the movement in and out of different cultural worldviews. People in the Integration stage often are dealing with problems related to their own “cultural marginality.” This stage is not necessarily better than Adaptation in most situations demanding intercultural competence, but it is common among non-dominant minority groups, long-term expatriates, and “global nomads.”

The sooner you can get yourself into the curious and respectful acceptance stage, the more you will get out of this course. In other words, can you get past your natural ethnocentricism to at least a temporary ethnorelativism?

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

The most comprehensive, long-term study of culture is Geert Hofstede's 35-year study based on a survey of IBM's managers worldwide in the early 1970's. Subsequent broad, long-range studies have confirmed and focused the findings. Hofstede has a terrific web site and several books, of which I give Culture and Organizations my highest recommendation. He makes his money consulting with multi-national corporations, but the information is as applicable to what study-abroad students will find.

Americans studying abroad will tend to hang out with other international students. It takes more effort to venture out among the locals. Thus, while you must be sensitive to your host culture, you will also be relating to students from many different countries.

English will probably be the common language in a large, multi-cultural group. There will be side conversations in various other languages. But the English will be what native American English speakers might call broken English. There will be lots of "mistakes" that you will have to account for. In the other direction, you will become aware of how idiomatic your English is.

Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

International Business Etiquette and Manners's applications of Hoftede's dimensions to almost all of your countries or regions: Africa, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Eurpoean Union - EU, Asia, Europe/Russia, Latin America, Middle East, North America, South Pacific.

What cultural features do people in foreign cultures need to be sensitive to?

Dubai court sentences couple for sex on beach
By Jeffrey Fleishman
Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2008

A British couple whose drunken escapade led to sex on the beach, tabloid headlines and a clash between Western permissiveness and Islamic values were sentenced today by a Dubai court to three months in prison.

Academic Standards and Practices—school system, courses of study, roles and responsibilities of students and teachers, level of family support, disciplinary procedures, literacy rate; comparison to our schools

Behaviors—how to handle oneself in social and emotional contexts; eye contact, communications, touching, friendship, loyalty, honor, age differences

Climate—weather patterns, seasons

Diet—foods, delicacies, dining etiquette, recipes

Ecology—native plants and wildlife

Family Structure and Values—roles and responsibilities of family members, “typical” households

Gender Roles—social and private, men and women’s role and responsibilities; work, dress, concept of beauty and modesty

Health and Medicine—personal hygiene, attitude toward doctors and medicine, types of health care, exposure to diseases and other health concerns

Inventions—famous scientists, contributions to the field of science

Judicial System—crime and punishment, criminal process

Key Words—Hello, Goodbye, Please, Thank you, Yes, No, How are You?—and other words of praise; phonetic spellings for pronunciations

Languages—written and oral, orthography

National Heroes—role models for children and/or adults

Occupations—work ethic, employment opportunities

Politics and Economics—current events that shape the personal identity and the world view of people of other cultures; economic status in the world; currency

Religions and Holidays—beliefs, dates and traditions

Sports—favorite sports, teams, and athletes; attitudes of fans; notable athletic events

Taboos—faux pas; the gestures and procedures that we use that people of other cultures may consider improper or insulting

Features especially relevant to this course:

Music—types of music and dancing, native instruments, influences on music of the world, famous musicians, performers

Visual Arts—types of visual arts, influences on art of the world, famous artists

Works of Literature—popular authors, popular stories and literature about or by the people of this country, types of poetry

Youth Culture—fashion, music, interests, trends and attitudes