Culture's Characteristics

In today's globe-trotting world we have become increasingly aware of the planet’s wide variety of cultures. Anthropologists have made the study of different cultures their purview, as they have traveled the world, seeking the customs and habits of various peoples—in order to understand the range of human civilizations.

I am currently taking an online course from St. Petersburg University in Russia, with the intent of developing a better understanding of Russian culture. The course begins with a succinct and useful definition of culture—consisting of a group's common and dominant (1) values, (2) beliefs, (3) attitudes, and (4) behaviors. Using that definition, several aspects of a people's culture that can be delineated are (1) collective—it is generally common across the populace, (2) situational—culture depends on several particular circumstances of the group, (3) learned—we are born culture-free and gradually assimilate our group's customs, (4) complex—there is considerable variation within any one group, and (5) dynamic—culture evolves.

When we examine the behaviors of a group of people, we can immediately note several obvious and visible aspects of its culture, such as (1) dress and fashions, (2) gestures, (3) speech and language, (4) dance, music, and other arts, (5) manners, etc. But there are also several subtle and hidden aspects that take time to understand, such as (1) how time is experienced, (2) their concept of authority, (3) how they solve problems, (4) what is considered beautiful or ugly, (5) how truth is perceived, (6) the difference between good and evil, etc.

So, back to the definition of culture: the first factor on the list above is the values held by a people. Research has shown that, while values differ between populaces, there is still a strong similarity in the values held across different populations. In order of priority, the commonalities of all cultures are (1) family life, (2) honesty, (3) health, (4) self-esteem, (5) self-reliance, (6) freedom and justice, (7) friendship, and (8) knowledge and learning. Thus it seems, that despite cultural differences, there is quite a bit of similarity across diverse populations.

There is a new cultural phenomenon emerging in the last couple of decades—something that can be described as global culture. Fostered by the internet, this world-wide culture spans political borders. Its values are being commonly held by an increasing number of people, who have taken on and share global concerns, such as ecological sustainability and concern for the welfare of the planet. Despite our many differences, our fear and suspicion of the other, and our propensity to turn to violence, I wonder if this global culture could possibly pull people together to take action on the climate crisis. Wouldn't that be nice?

Cultural or Personal?

I am an inveterate watcher of things—be they nature, animals, or people. Furthermore, being a hermit, I lean towards the introverted end of the personality spectrum, so I’m more likely to watch people than join in their activities. Becoming a fly on the wall comes naturally to me. I’m also easily drawn to sitting at length and watching some intriguing activity of a bug or other critter.

This propensity to become immersed in watching often draws me deeply into an activity or event that I come upon. Hmmmm, what’s going on here? What is that creature doing? Why does he do it that way? I wonder what will happen next. My curiosity gets piqued. My imagination can go on a binge. It’s fun.

When I observe humans, I often find myself speculating whether the behavior I see stems from a cultural or from a personal attribute. General behaviors often originate from one’s culture. For example, people in the Middle East are warmly hospitable to visitors. People in Latin America highly value family connections. I have enjoyed traveling to other countries and watching the novel (to me) practices and traditions of diverse people—especially those surrounding food and holiday happenings.

From within my own culture I become very familiar with my people’s common (i.e., cultural) behaviors. In fact, the customs of our own culture can become quite invisible to us. (For example, I didn’t particularly notice how the typical American dresses until I once spent a month in fashionable northern Italy and returned home, to get jolted by the appearance of relatively casual-to-sloppy looking Americans.) Being familiar with my own culture, when I see one of my people acting uniquely or differently, I can guess that it’s probably a personal thing. That guy over there just did something unusual; it must be an individual eccentricity of his. Hmmmm, I wonder why he did that. What in his background may have led to that? Maybe I’ll strike up a conversation and see if I can find out.

But when I’m in a foreign culture and I observe someone doing something that appears unusual, I have little idea whether it’s a cultural or a personal thing. I’m fascinated. The mystery draws me in. There’s so much to learn about these folks.

Of course, one needs to be cautious and not jump to conclusions about these novel observations, since stereotyping can arise when I decide that what I see is a cultural thing, when in fact it may be personal. I don’t want to conclude, for example, that all Russians are well mannered, just because I saw one behave politely; or that all Californians are child abusers, just because I saw one slap his kid.