cultural awareness presentation-part 1
TRANSCRIPT
TSLEIL-WAUTUTH CULTURAL AWARENESS TRAINING
Unity in Diversity
Dr. Lee Brown University of British Columbia
Chief Phil Lane Jr. Four Worlds International Institute
June 17-19, 2011
CULTUREAll people have culture - it is how human beings make sense of the world. Culture shapes how people think, learn and solve problems, what they value and respect, what attracts and delights them, what offends them and their sense of what is appropriate. More deeply, culture is the soil in which the tree of identity has its roots. Culture is manifest in human relations, systems of organization, technology, arts, politics, economics, community life - all the things that humans do.
A Metaphor for Culture
MusicFolklore
Primary Culturehighly patterned
implicit rules of behaviorhidden cultural grammar
LanguageLawsFood
Visible Culture
CustomsArtifacts and Behaviour
Beliefs and Values
Assumptions
Relationships
PRIMARY LEVEL CULTURE
….There is an underlying, hidden level of culture that is highly patterned – a set of unspoken, implicit rules of behavior and thought that controls everything we do. This hidden cultural grammar defines the way in which people view the world, determines their values, and establishes the basic tempo and rhythms of life. Most of us are either totally unaware or else only peripherally aware of this. I call these hidden paradigms primary level culture.
E.T. Hall
PRIMARY LEVEL CULTURE
Tempo of work
Concept of Justice
Cooperation
Family relations
Timing
Social interaction
Nature of friendshipLeadership
Handling emotions
Fairness
Money
Problem solving
Decision making
Gender roles
Space
Authority relationshipsEducation
Group vs individual
OTHER METAPHORS FOR CULTURE
The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another - the software of the mind
The eyes through which we see the world
Cultural DiversityUniversals
• Play
• Education
• Marriage
• Food
• Clothing
• Pray/worship
• Art
Specifics
TIMINGAnglo-Saxon A
BLatin A
BAsian A
B
TONE
Anglo-Saxon
Latin
Asian
COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES
Sender tone and timing
non-verbal
spoken word
Receiver
CULTURAL EXPERIENCEHistorical experiences shape cultural patterns which evolve as collective habits of response to circumstances.Human potentiality is expressed through these cultural patterns.
CULTURAL ALIENATION
All systems are cultural artifacts, they are the product of specific cultural values, relationships and attitudes. Individuals from the culture in which the system is rooted can function well within the system. Individuals from other cultures may find the system to be foreign, alienating, and not at all comfortable. In an effort to preserve its ways of doing things, the system can become inhospitable to the “foreign” individual.
CULTURAL DISTORTIONS
Some parts of culture are organized around natural laws and lead to well-being.Some parts of culture develop in response to trauma and cause problems in human systems.These distortions get pasted down historically and become a hidden curriculum - an agenda at a deeply unconscious level.These distortions create blind spots that lead to stereotyping and prejudice.
CULTURAL SELF-AWARENESS
Examine your own culture - what parts of it are life-enhancing and life preserving and what parts of it are distortions and need to be changed.
EQUALITY VS EQUITY
•Equality = Sameness• When we treat people equally we ignore differences
•Equity = Fairness• When we treat people equitably we recognize differences
DIVERSITY
Tolerating differences is not enough. We have to cherish differences, seek them out and cultivate them. This makes our lives, our departments, our organizations better – it makes us more creative, more adaptable, more efficient, more enjoyable.
STEREOTYPES
The capacity to generalize is essential to human intelligence. Overgeneralizations, on the other hand, can be very dangerous because they are based on faulty or partial information. Overgeneralizations that are used to describe people are called stereotypes. Stereotypes cause us to judge people before we have the opportunity to get to know them.
PREJUDICE
To pre-judge a person is to judge them on the basis of stereotypes which have been formed with inaccurate or incomplete information. When people act on the basis of prejudice, their actions discriminate against thee people or groups
Putting it Together
StereotypesBeliefs based on faulty or partial
information
PrejudiceAttitudes and
values arising from beliefs
Discrimination
Action on the basis of attitudes and
values
THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
The Prejudiced PersonalityCertain people, because of their upbringing, their insecurities and their fears, tend to be more prejudiced than others
THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
Learned PrejudiceBy unquestioningly accepting the values and attitudes of the people around us, we can sometimes learn to be prejudiced.
THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
Culture The culture into which we are born determines much of the way we see the world, even though we aren’t aware of it.Cultural differences can cause prejudice because people don’t understand the way those of other cultures dress, worship, eat, etc.
THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
Frustration and Scapegoating People who are frustrated or angry often take out their feelings on a helpless and innocent victim.
THEORIES OF PREJUDICEEconomic CompetitionWhen there is competition for limited resources the dominant or most powerful group in society will exploit the weaker groups in order to gain material advantage. They will often invent a good reason for doing so - one which shows why the exploited “deserve what they get.
THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
1. Prejudiced personality2. Learned prejudice3. Cultural differences4. Frustration and scapegoating5. Economic competition
TYPES OF PREJUDICEType Focus ExampleRace Physical characteristics (skin
colour, hair texture, stature)African, First Nations, Asian
Class Income, clothes, location, education, occupation
Welfare recipients
Gender Male, Female, Sexual orientation
Women, homosexuals
Age Calendar years since birth Elders, children, teenagers
Type Focus ExamplePhysical Physical appearance Handicapped, “good
looking”
Religion Style or method of worship, religious affiliation
Sikhs, Muslims, Jewish, etc.
National Place of origin, citizenship Newfoundlanders, Arabs, Americans
Cultural Language, food, clothing, art, family organization
Ukrainians, French Canadians
TYPES OF PREJUDICE
The Vicious Cycle
Rationalization
Frame of Reference
Overgeneralization & stereotyping
Prejudice and Discrimination
Self-fulfilling prophecy
THE NEW CULTURE
The Golden RuleTreat others and we would want to be treated
The Platinum RuleTreat others as they would want to be treated