Lesson 1: What is Culture?
The Evolution of Culture: Cultural Conditioning
From the books "Global Marketing Management" and "International Marketing" we learned that culture is:
- “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category from those of another.” - Geert Hofestede
- “a learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set of symbols how meanings provide a set of orientations for members of society. These orientations, taken together, provide solutions to problems that all societies must solve if they are to remain viable.” - Vern Terpstra and Kenneth David
- “the totality of knowledge and practices, both intellectual and material of society...[it] embraces everything from food to dress, from household techniques to industrial techniques, from forms of politeness to mass media, from work rhythms to the learning of familiar rules.” - Colette Guillaumin
What do these definitions have in common? All of them say that culture is learned. The process or learning the do’s and dont’s of a culture is called cultural conditioning and even though much is learned as a child (childhood conditioning), you’re never too old to learn (adult conditioning).
As a baby and a child you learn how to do the basics in life. You learn how to eat, how to dress, how to walk, how to talk. This is childhood conditioning.
As an adult, you can learn how to do these basic things in a new way, or even learn new behaviors. Take for example using utensils to eat. In America, most people will use their knife only for the purpose of cutting. They eat with their fork in one hand, switch the hand that the fork is in when they are cutting, put down the knife, and move the fork back to the original hand to begin eating again. Europeans on the other hand use both the knife and the fork as they are actually eating and never do the hand switching thing. I was once told that it was obvious that I was an American because of this habit. I also tend to eat with the unoccupied hand under the table. Another American indicator, I was told. I have since learned to eat the European way when I am amongst them. However, I must admit that I’m still learning the proper way to place my knife and fork on the plate when I’m done.
How did I learn this new behavior? Both adults and children learn it the same way but it may take longer for adults because they have to replace something that they’ve carried around for quite a bit of time with the new behavior. From the Peace Corps, I obtained these five steps in the process of cultural conditioning:
- Observation/Instruction where you are beginning to become aware of the a certain behavior, but you haven’t tried it yet. In the fork/knife scenario, I’ve see other people eating that way or someone may have told me that that is the way it is done.
- Imitation when you actually try the behavior. You don’t do it smoothly yet, for example I may go back to my old style of eating from time to time because this new way seems awkward. If it is something more difficult or even more foreign to you, you may not even be able to pay attention to anything else while you’re doing it because you are trying your best not to make a mistake.
- Reinforcement of the behavior you are trying to learn by the people around you. They encourage you and help correct your mistakes. You take their advice and try to heed it.
- Internalization is the step in the process when you don’t need much reinforcement anymore. Even though you still may be a bit awkward, you know how to perform the behavior.
- Spontaneous Manifestation is when you finally do it “right” without paying much attention to what you’re doing. The behavior is now natural.
It’s important to realize that when people learn and adopt a new behavior they are also internalizing the values and beliefs that go along with it. For example, I always put my knife down after cutting my food because I was taught that it was rude to eat with both utensils in my hands. Now I don’t see it as rude and if someone tried to tell me that it was, I would have quite a conversation with them. This also shows how easy it is for two people to see the same thing in a different light.
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