Professional Documents
Culture Documents
15th edition
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Definitions and 4
Origins of Culture
• Traditional definition of culture
– Culture is the sum of the values, rituals, symbols,
beliefs, and thought processes that are learned,
shared by a group of people, and transmitted
from generation to generation.
• Individuals learn culture in three ways
– Socialization (growing up)
– Acculturation (adjusting to a new culture)
– Application (decisions about consumption and
production)
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Origins, Elements, 4
and Consequences of Culture
Exhibit 4.4
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Geography 4
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Social Institutions 4
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Social Institutions 4
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Elements of Culture (1 of 4) 4
• Values
• Rituals
• Symbols
• Beliefs
• Thought processes
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Elements of Culture (2 of 4) 4
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Hofstede’s Indexes 4
Language, and Linguistic Distance
Exhibit 4.6
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Elements of Culture (3 of 4) 4
• According to www.ethnologue.com:
– A total of 7,413 known living languages exist
in the world
– 311 being spoken in the U.S.; 297 in Mexico,
13 in Finland, and 241 in China
– EU has 20 official languages
– India alone has 452 known languages!
Back
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Elements of Culture (4 of 4) 4
• Beliefs
– Superstitions play a large role in a society’s belief
system and therefore, to make light of superstitions in
other cultures can be an expensive mistake
– The number 13 in the western hemisphere is
considered unlucky, where as the number 8 in China
connotes “prosperity”
– The practice of “Feng Shui”
• Thought processes
– Difference in perception between the East and the
West
• Focus vs. big-picture
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Similarities – An Illusion 4