Inter/Cultural Communication

Representation and Construction of Culture

Anastacia Kurylo

• Editorial: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Año: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781452289496
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Filología
• Categoría: Estudios de comunicación

Today, students are more familiar with other cultures than ever before because of the media, Internet, local diversity, and their own travels abroad. As such, traditional intercultural communication textbooks which focus solely on the ?differences? approach aren?t truly effective for today?s students, nor for this field?s growth. Using a social constructionist framework—which explores how culture is constructed and produced in the moments in which it is experienced— Inter/Cultural Communication provides today?s students with a rich understanding of how culture and communication affect and effect each other.

Inter/Cultural Communication improves upon current textbooks in four significant ways: (1) It provides a differences approach and a social constructionist approach; (2) It explores the consequences of cultural moments on immediate communication and on larger scale social issues; (3) It is descriptive, not prescriptive, of how culture is communicated; and (4) It introduces intercultural topics, rather than interpersonal topics.

Weaving multiple approaches together in order to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of and appreciation for the diversity of cultural and intercultural communication, this text allows them to become more aware of their own identities and how powerful those identities can be in facilitating change—both in their own lives and in the lives of others. In addition, the book will help students deal with unfamiliar cultures and understand those with whom they come in contact when they travel, in their communities, in the workplace, in their home, and online.

Part I Introduction to Inter/Cultural Communication

Chapter 1 Culture and Communication

Anastacia Kurylo Marymount Manhattan College

Journey through Chapter 1

You probably don't realize it, but you have already begun to learn from this book. You have been introduced to new ideas just by reading its title: Inter/Cultural Communication: Representation and Construction of Culture. Each term in the title is meaningful. This section discusses key terms like those in the title, discusses why studying inter/cultural communication is important, and presents approaches used to study inter/cultural communication. Of the terms that the chapter discusses, the term culture is perhaps the most important even though it appears last in the title.

Culture

A culture is any group of people that share a way of life. The phrase “way of life” is one of the most recognizable and memorable phrases associated with culture (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1963). Way of life refers to the aspects of a culture that make up the life of its members including language, norms and values, and so forth. As a college student, the way of life you share with other college students may include a specific language such as the words quad, ombudsman, registrar, and FAFSA, as well as specific norms about where, when, and how to study. The shared aspects of a culture are infinite.

The term culture is often assumed to refer to nationality (Gudykunst & Mody, 2002). Additionally, you may think of culture as also referencing ethnicity, race, age, and gender because these are the most visibly salient categories you notice in other people when you see them for the first time (Stangor, 1995). However, culture refers to more than these groups. Cultural groups include those groups people are born into as well as groups that people voluntarily or involuntarily become a part of, such as those based on religion, phases of life (e.g., college), geographic location, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic class, and generational identity such as baby boomers or Generation Xers. Even this list of cultural groups only begins to expose the variety of cultures in the world. Edward Sapir (1932/1985), a celebrated scholar and early founder of intercultural communication, noted that there exists “infinitely variable groupings of human beings” (p. 519). Viewing culture broadly is important because it allows you to identify cultures that you might otherwise overlook.

Although you may view a person as representing a single culture, there are an infinite number of cultures with which any one person can identify. You are a certain gender, age, religion, reside in a specific geographic location, and so forth. You embody multiple cultural identities and are a composite of these. For example, your parents simultaneously have the identity of being parents to their children as well as of being children to their parents. This may sound complicated and even contradictory. However, people manage even their seemingly contradictory identities seamlessly.

Seamlessness is possible because only some identities are relevant in any given moment. Consider how your cultural identity as a child may be relevant to conversations with your parents but not matter in a college classroom. The reverse may also be the case. When you talk with your parents, your cultural identity as a college student is not always relevant. However, you can make any of your identities relevant at any moment by referencing the identity in your conversation. For example, you can discuss your grades with your parents over dinner and, as you answer a question in class, you can discuss your family life. Without always being aware of it, you actively and seamlessly manage your identities by making only certain identities salient in a given moment.

REFLECT 1.1: What cultures are part of your identity? Which were you born into, such as your race? Which did you choose, such as the organizations to which you belong? Which were chosen for you, such as your socioeconomic status? Of these, which do you identify with the most? Why?

Communication

You manage your identities through your communication. At its most basic, communication can be defined as the use of symbolic code to send messages and create meaning. Another name for symbolic code is symbol. Symbols express meaning using language and behavior. Verbal communication involves the use of language to send and receive messages and create symbolic meaning. Nonverbal communication involves the use of behavior, other than verbal communication, to send and receive messages and create symbolic meaning. Symbols serve two purposes that are of interest for inter/cultural communication. First, symbols allow culture to be represented through verbal and nonverbal communication. Second, they allow culture to be created or constructed through verbal and nonverbal communication.

Symbols as Cultural Representation

People use symbols to represent meanings that are relevant to their experiences. Consider for a moment how you would explain love, freedom, or justice without using these symbols. It would take much longer, be more difficult, and likely produce more confusion than clarity to try to express these ideas without these symbols. Symbols provide a way to express cultural experience with others. A cultural representation involves the use of symbols to reflect various aspects of a shared group identity. In other words, culture can be expressed through symbols. This is the expressive function of communication. Consider the word truthiness coined on the U.S. American television program The Colbert Report. Colbert coined the word truthiness to provide a symbol for the idea of truth defined by what a person wants to be true, rather than what has been found to be true through evidence or logic. Because it represented this meaning in U.S. American culture well, truthiness became an entry in U.S. American dictionaries in 2006 and earned Word of the Year by Merriam Webster. Because culture can be represented symbolically, people are able to identify, understand, explain, and discuss aspects of their own culture and compare and contrast these to aspects of other cultures.

Symbols as Cultural Construction

In addition to serving as a representation of culture, symbols allow culture to be constructed. By communicating some symbols rather than any of the other potential symbols a person could communicate, people construct cultural identity. In this way, culture is not a preexisting entity represented in language, but rather a cultural construction created through the consistent and repetitive communication of symbols by people about a group identity. In other words, culture can be created through symbols. This is the creative function of communication. When eating certain food, engaging in certain mannerisms, using certain expressions and language, and by talking about a culture, people work together to create cultural meaning. By treating this meaning as real, people construct the culture itself as real. For example, by satirically coining the word truthiness in order to be humorous, Colbert helped to construct truthiness as a feature that exists in U.S. American culture. By laughing at Colbert's jokes about truthiness, his audience collaborates on treating this version of America as real. Through this construction process, America is created as a place in which truthiness is a common feature. Viewing culture as a construction exposes that culture is a product of communication practices. Culture cannot exist without people communicating it.

Intercultural and Cultural Communication

In your personal relationships, professional lives, and interactions with strangers you are regularly involved in intercultural and cultural communication. Intercultural communication is communication between and among those from different cultures. Even if you have never traveled outside of your town, no doubt you regularly interact with people from cultures other than your own. You may engage in intercultural communication in a variety of settings including your school, workplace, nearby neighborhoods, local events, online, and in your own family.

REFLECT 1.2: When was the last time you engaged in intercultural communication? What similarities and differences seemed to matter during this interaction?

In addition to engaging in intercultural communication, you engage in cultural communication, which focuses on the way in which communication enables people to create and negotiate their cultural identities within a cultural community. People often overlook cultural communication because it occurs more effortlessly than intercultural communication. As a result, cultural communication often seems invisible. You may not know where to find cultural communication even if you were to look for it. This is because you may take your own cultural identity for granted and not notice its importance in your daily conversation. For example, even in a recession when it is hard to pay bills and jobs are difficult to come by, your socioeconomic status or class may not stand out to you as something that is relevant to how you talk to other people because you may be surrounded by other people from the ...