Acquired through socialization
Thus, man is the producer of culture and the product of culture
Reflectio n
CUSTOMS: WHITE DRESS?
Ⅱ. Characteristics of Culture
Chapter 1
跨文化商务交际
Culture & Communication
Learning objectives Understand the definitions of culture. Describe the functions and characteristics of culture. Understand the definitions of communication. Learn business communication. Learn patterns of communication
Ⅰ. What is Culture?
What really binds men together is their culture − the ideas and the standards they have in common. — R. Benedict
1. Define it Yourself
1) From Anthropological Perspective
“Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values”. −Kroeber and Kluckhohn
5. Culture Is Dynamic
Culture is subject to change. It changes through three most common mechanisms:
Innovation
Diffusion Acculturation
6. Culture Is Adaptive
Kinship Education Economy Politics Religion Association Health Recreation
CONCLUSION CULTURE
IS
A man’s second nature
A way of overcoming vulnerability
History abounds with examples of how cultures have changed because of laws, natural disasters, wars, or other calamities.
7. Culture is ethnocentric
It is the belief that your own cultural background is correct. Ethinocntrists believe their culture is the central culture and other cultures are incorrect, ineffective, or quaint.
___The Concise Oxford Dictionary
Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviour, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.
Culture is like an iceberg.
Visibility & Invisibility

Culture Is Our Software
Computer (hardware)& Operating environment (software)
Human (physical selves) & Culture (the software of the mind)
2. Culture Is Learned
Culture is not innate sensibility, but a learned characteristic. Children begin learning about their own culture at home; When Children are growing in the community, their cultural education is advaned by watching, forming their realtionships and taking their place in the culture.
Ⅲ. Useful Terms
1. Cultural Identity
Cultural identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group. People consciously identify themselves with a group that has a shared system of symbols and meanings as well as norms for conduct.
3. Culture Is Symbolic
People have culture primarily because it enable them to communicate with symbols
4. Culture Is Integrated
For the sake of keeping the culture, fuctioning all aspects of the culture must be integrated.
−−Geert Hofstede
从心理学定义文化
文化是使一个人类群体成员区别于其 他人类群体的思维的总体规划。
3) From Sociological Perspective
“Culture is defined as a pattern of learned, group-related perception — including both verbal and nonverbal language attitudes, values, belief system, disbelief systems, and behavior”.
More deeply: what the behaviour and customs mean to the people who are following them
In a word:Culture is all about meanings
Hall: Culture is everything and everywhere
Please write down whatever comes to your mind when you hear or think of culture. Try to figure out how they are related to culture.
On the surface: customs and behaviour
Learned
shared
CULTURE IS…
Dynamic
symbolic
Integrated
1. Culture Is Shared
Members of a culture share a set of ideals, values, and standards of behaviors, and this set is what gives meaning to their lives, and what bonds them together as a culture.
——Bates and Plog
从跨文化交际角度定义文化
文化是个人和群体在种族发展过程中所获 得的知识、经验、行为、态度、阶级、宗 教、时间观、角色、空间观、宇宙观和艺 术品的集合。
5) Our Definitions
Culture is “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively”
2. Aspects of culture
Values and Beliefs
Communication (Verbal & Nonverbal)
Norms of behavior
Customs
Arts, music, dance, sport, ect.
3. What is culture like?
什么是文化？ 广义的文化乊人类创造的一切物质产品和 精神产品的总和。
狭义的文化专指语言、文学、艺术及一切 意识形态在内的精神产品。