Culture and International Society

高雄市政府「 95年國際事務人才訓練」基礎班課程

3 小時

文藻外語學院國際事務系林建宏助理教授

DanielLin@mail.wtuc.edu.tw

About the Lesson

Painting of Persian women musicians

Ancient Egyptian art

Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi in Africa

Academic Procession

A painting by Edgar Degas

Culture

• The way of life for an entire society– codes of manners– Dress– Language– Religion– Rituals– norms of behavior such as law and

morality– systems of belief

Definitions of culture

• A complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society

• The set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs

Key components of culture

• Values: ideas about what in life seems important

• Norms: expectations of how people will behave in various situations

• Institutions: structures of a society within which values and norms are transmitted

• Artifacts: things, or aspects of material culture derived from a culture’s values and norms

Culture as civilization

• It identifies “culture” with “civilization“ and contrasts it with “nature.”

• In practice, culture referred to élite goods and activities such as haute cuisine, high fashion or haute couture, museum-caliber art and classical music

Culture as worldview

• Nationalist movement• To the theory of evolution

Culture as symbols

• symbols to be both the practices of social actors and the context that gives such practices meaning

• give regularity, unity and systematicity to the practices of a group

Culture as a stabilizing mechanism

• a product of stabilization tendencies inherent in evolutionary pressures toward self-similarity and self-cognition of societies as wholes

Immigrant cultures• Monoculturalism: In Europe, culture is very

closely linked to nationalism, • Leitkultur (core culture): minorities can have an

identity of their own• Melting Pot: In the United States, all the

immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without state intervention.

• Multiculturalism: A policy that immigrants and others should preserve their cultures with the different cultures interacting peacefully within one nation.

African culture

• shaped by European colonialism• differentiated from North Africa

from its lesser influence by Arab and Islamic culture

Influence on Americas

• peoples that inhabitated the continents before Europeans arrived;

• people from Africa • immigration of Europeans

– Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, German, and Dutch.

Asian culture

• Korea, Japan, and Vietnam heavily influenced by Chinese writing

• Buddhism and Taoism • Confucianism• Hinduism and Islam

Oceania

• Much of Australia’s culture is derived from European and American roots

• Distinctive Australian features from the environment and Aboriginal culture

• New Zealand’s culture has derived from European roots with Maori flavor

European culture

• Broad influence beyond the continent of Europe due to the legacy of colonialism

• the spread of the English language • Dominant influences

– ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and Christianity

• Religion

Middle East and North Africa

• Islam• Variations of the Arabic language

Influence causing culture change and resistance

• forces at work within a society• contact between societies• changes in the natural

environment

Globalization

Threats or opportunities?

The End

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