Assignment for use with the Atlas of European Values
Instructional text ‘culture and cultural identity’
Culture is the sum total of views, notions, symbols, knowledge, values, standards, customs, and practices that people within a society acquire and convey. To some extent, culture determines how people look at the world and the manner in which they interpret things and act upon them.
Source: Klaas Bruin, Hans van der Heijde: Intercultureel onderwijs in de praktijk
Culture is often described as everything created by man and presented as the opposite of nature: in other words, everything that is not nature is culture! Culture is a broad concept as is made clear by this definition. It not only concerns culture with a capital C (museums and opera, for example). It includes many things, such as religion, language, whether you feel one may discriminate or not, the orange flag on Queen's Day, the arrival of Sinterklaas, a homo-boat for youths in the Amsterdam Gay Pride, etc. Often you are completely unaware of your own culture; many things are normal and natural, such as eating with a fork and knife (or just a fork). These are things you have learned. To a large extent you learned these things from your family: we call this process upbringing. You also learned some of these things from your friends at school, etc.: we call this process socialization.
Culture contributes to our identity. The renowned Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede describes culture as ‘collective mental programming’, through which the members of one group distinguish themselves from those of another group (see the accompanying figure). Along with this, he distinguishes culture from personality, which is partially innate and partially learned, and from human nature, which is universal and distinguishes us from such things as animals and plants. So culture is something we acquire. We adopt it from our family and friends, our peers, etc.
Cultural identity means that people feel instinctively connected to a particular group. That assumes that people share the same background, values and ways of thinking as the group. This group can be a populace (Dutch, Belgian, Fleming, Brabander) but also another type of group (punk, skater, gay). The latter groups are sometimes also referred to as a subculture. The group with which people feel connected can change over time or as a result of its location. For a populace that seems less likely, but they too can change, as a result of migration for example. It is also possible to have multiple cultural identities, because you can be a skater and Moroccan and Limburger and Dutch and European. The specific situation determines which cultural identity you wish to identify yourself with at any given moment. Virtually no one identifies himself entirely with one culture or cultural group, however. Everyone has his or her individual identity!
Cultural identity is based on recognition and acknowledgement of the distinction between ‘we’ and ‘they’ and ‘the others’. This helps us to understand and classify the world around us. Cultural identity and culture are not static, however; they are processes that constantly shift and change. Culture is dynamic! Look, for example, at how the culture in the Netherlands has changed in recent decades: To return to the example of the youth boat in the Amsterdam Gay Pride – the parents and grandparents and youth were to ride along on the boats and give interviews, too – was unthinkable twenty years ago and simply not possible.
Comprehension exercises to accompany instructional text ‘culture and cultural identity’
1. Read the article :
Which aspects from the instructional text appear in this article? Illustrate each answer with a concrete example from the article.
2. For each of the following examples, specify whether it is an example of upbringing (u) or socialization (s):
A. You secretly smoke your first cigarette with friends at the back of the schoolyard. =
B. You assist with the housekeeping. =
C. You are not punished because you were honest enough to admit that you cheated. =
D. Your parents insist that you return to the shop and offer your excuses because you stole candy there. =
E. You aren't given a gift of money for your good grades, because you learn for yourself. =
3. Go to the website and read the article about ‘desi’.
a. State which cultural identity or identities the ‘desi youth’ (may) possess.
b. Is this a culture or a subculture? Defend your answer.
4. Give three examples of the fact that culture is dynamic.
Uwe Krause – Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Tilburg, NL –