M2 Course 2 

: Intercultural communication

Course 2 (part 1):

Anthropological dimension of culture: characteristics and structure

Definitions of culture started with classical anthropological studies (19th c). For
instance Tylor’s (1871) defined it as follows: “Culture or civilization taken in its
wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired
by man as a member of society”.

Anthropologists are particularly interested in discovering unknown cultures and

cultural specificities with regard to way of life, behavior, attitudes, beliefs,
values, thinking, customs etc…We need to note that what constitutes culture
includes abstract and concrete or material heritage.

A well known work on culture by a highly interested and interesting author,

Kramsch (1998) sets three dimensions of culture: the social, the historical and
the metaphorical aspects.

_ The social aspect:

the ways members of the same social group or community think, behave and
value things; eg. in the use of language, when communicating they know what
to say or not to say, when, where, with whom and how to say it, according to
the socio-cultural norms and environment they live in.
These aspects are first learnt within family, then school and society at large.
_ The historical aspect:
This means that culture has a historical origin in the sense that it is inherited or
transmitted from one generation to another through time, thus it is just
accepted as something natural and most of the time not questioned.

Kramsch (1998) notesthat ”Culture of everyday practices draws on the culture

of shared history and tradition”.
The historical aspect refers also to material elements such as craft, art,
monuments and architecture or other which are generally preserved as part of
material patrimony.
We need to note also that the historical dimension and culture in general are
preserved through language as the means that not only preserves but also
perpetuates cultural heritage through transmission of knowledge,
thoughts,perceptions etc…

The metaphorical aspect:

This refers to the imaginative aspect as she says that “discourse communities
are characterized not only by facts and artifacts, but also common dreams,
fulfilled or unfulfilled imaginings”. These imaginings are part of a society’s
culture. And again it is language that serves as a means to express people’s
metaphorical, imaginative thinking.