MULTIGEN
INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE
Culture is very difficult to define because there is no
one definition for it.
According to Taylor, Culture is a complex whole
which includes: knowledge, belief, art, moral, law,
customs, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society.
Culture can be the reason for differences in ways of
thinking and behaving that exist between human
societies or groups:
➢ Conflicts (For example: The genocide
happening in Palestine can be described as
“Cultural conflict” between Israel and
Palestine.)
➢ This is because culture can make it difficult
to think outside ‘your’ group. We cannot
think outside culture, whatever we know is
given to us by culture. When you are born,
culture is innate within you. YOU ARE A
PRODUCT OF YOUR CULTURE.
DEFINING CULTURE AS A ‘COMPLEX
WHOLE’
Culture is made up of different factors. We also know
that there are different factors and aspects that make
up a person.
We can better explain these two concepts by thinking
of culture as a person– one aspect of a person is not
their entire being, just like how we cannot boil
culture down to a single aspect of it (Ex. We cannot
say art makes up everything in a culture.)
It is a ‘complex whole’ because it’s made up of
different and complex aspects that need to be
examined individually, all of these is what makes a
culture a culture.
CULTURE IS…
SHARED
➢ An attribute of groups (not individuals).
Most modern nations are culturally diverse within
their boundaries (especially if the nation was
colonised/were colonisers).
ALL-ENCOMPASSING
➢ Not only college graduates but all people are
‘cultured’.
➢ Includes ‘trivial’ such as ‘popular culture.
MATERIAL AND NON-MATERIAL
➢ Cultural knowledge (For example: When
you pass through EDSA, you remember the
People’s Power Revolution).
INTEGRATED
➢ Not haphazard collections of customs and
beliefs.
○ For example: Even myths of
mythical creatures such as
‘aswangs’ serve a purpose– They
teach moral lessons and positive
values.
➢ Patterned systems (one affects the other).
SOCIALLY LEARNED [ENCULTURATION]
➢ Passing knowledge is essential for survival
(create, remember, pass).
○ For example: We used to only be
hunters and gatherers, however
through the passing of knowledge,
farming was developed and soon
enough we figured out how to
preserve food. This resulted in
people having a longer lifespan–
new ways to survive were created.
➢ Depends on symbols/signs (human creation).
➢ Geertz: ideas based on cultural learning and
symbols.
➢ Learned consciously and unconsciously.
○ For example: In Filipino magazines
and TV shows, you rarely see
dark-skinned individuals being
portrayed as beautiful. Most
perceive people with light skin as
people who are beautiful and kind,
dark-skinned people are portrayed
as poor and cruel.
SYMBOLIC
➢ It’s verbal and non-verbal.
➢ It is gibberish without any meaning or
context.
○ For example: Filipino jokes are
hard to explain to people from
other cultures because they don’t
have prior knowledge of the
Philippine culture.
COMPONENTS OF CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE
NORMS
➢ Standards of propriety and appropriateness.
➢ Expected behaviours at weddings and in
classrooms.
VALUES
➢ Beliefs about social desirability and
worthwhileness.
➢ Individual rights.
SYMBOLS
➢ Objects and behaviours with conventional
meanings.
➢ Interpretations of non-verbal behaviour.
CONSTRUCTIONS
➢ Divisions of reality into categories and
sub-categories.
➢ Kings of persons and natural phenomena.
WORLDVIEW
➢ Interpretations of events and experiences.
➢ Origin of good and evil.
COHEN ON THE MANY FORMS OF
CULTURE
Culture can be defined in more than 164 ways.
➢ It is designed with subcategories.
➢ Multiple constituents (material, subjective,
and social culture).
Even though there is debate on the definition there is
a consensus on Culture:
➢ Emerges in adaptive interactions between
humans and environments (e.g. farming to
digital natives– farming helped create
civilization.)
➢ Consists of shared elements.
➢ Transmitted across time periods and
generations.
Take-off points
➢ The individualism-collectivism dichotomy is
problematic.
➢ Countries are not necessarily tantamount to
cultures– in other words, countries are not
equivalent to cultures, because there are
different ethnicities in a country.
Central Argument: RELIGION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC
STATUS, AND REGION WITHIN A COUNTRY
REVEAL INTERESTING DISTINCTIONS AMONG
CULTURES AND ARE INFLUENTIAL.
On culture and religion:
Culture and religion TEND TO HAVE
INDISTINGUISHABLE DEFINITIONS (e.g.
Durkheim on unifying people, Geertz on religion as a
cultural system, McCuthceon on detaching religion as
a Western, Christian bias.)
Religious cultures differ in what it means to be
religious
Practice (ortho practice) VS belief-oriented
(orthodox)
COHEN ON THE MANY FORMS OF
CULTURE
ON CULTURE AND SOCIAL CLASS
➢ Snibbe and Markus on individuals with high
socio-economic status valuing control and
agency VS low socio-economic status
valuing flexibility, integrity, and resilience.
➢ Rock music is more preferred by high
socio-economic status people.
ON RELIGION OF COUNTRY AND CULTURE
➢ Differences among different geographic
regions within the country.
➢ Collectivism was highest in the Deep South
while individualism was highest in the
Mountain West and Great Plains.
➢ Poverty and population density were
associated with greater collectivism.
○ The more collectivist as a society
is, the higher the poverty and
population is– we can see that in
urban areas, such as in cities like
Makati and BGC where people live
in condos, people tend to be
individualistic and they don’t know
their neighbours, but in provinces,
we know the people who live
around us.
CRITICAL POINT IN COHEN’S ARGUMENT
Studying more forms of culture shows why there are
so many definitions of culture (promote new views
about what culture is).
There is more to being multicultural (e.g. living in
more than one country/ethnic group)-- All people are
multicultural.
Being Multicultural doesn’t necessarily mean that
you’ve visited many countries– For example: You’re
a Muslim woman in Mindanao who was able to
study.
SWINDLER ON CULTURE AS A TOOL KIT
➢ Swindler states that ‘culture is very
practical’.
➢ “Tool kit” of symbols, stories, rituals, and
world-views, which people may use in
varying configurations to solve different
kinds of problems.
➢ Culture is like having a ‘tool-kit’, whatever
you need to survive, you will find it in the
toolkit.
➢ For example, OFWs who feel very lonely
and disconnected to cultures abroad use
technology to survive through its ability to
connect them to their families.
➢ Culture is not just about beliefs and ideas.
➢ The elements of culture are read and utilised
in acting and in deciding (e.g. contradicting
Cohen on economic status and
tendencies/preferences.)
CULTURE/KALINANGAN IN RELATION TO
POWER AND INDIGENOUS PRACTICES
In the Filipino context, Tampons-Cabazares and
Cabazares argue saying that the term should be
Kalinangan.
Kalinangan comes from the word ‘linang’, which
means to forge something. You create, refine, and
polish something. These authors argue that
Kalinangan is a better way to say it.
“Kalinangan or cultivation of learning which
signifies a collective understanding that separates
Filipinos from the colonisers.”
– Tampos-Cabazares & Cabazares, 2016)
“Exoticization and simultaneous subordination and
colonisation (and sometimes extermination) of native
populations”
– Reed & Alexander, 2009)
Examples of unique Filipino social constructs:
LAPIT, GALANG, HIYA, LUSOT.
CULTURE AND GLOBALISATION
The KOF globalisation index– 207 countries, 2016.
For social globalisation, in the top 10 are:
AUSTRIA,NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, PUERTO
RICO, CANADA, CYPRUS, AND DENMARK.
RITZER’S MCDONALDIZATION OF
SOCIETY
Social globalisation (KOF, 2016, n.d.) is “expressed
as the spread of ideas, information, images, and
people.”
This dimension is based on the following variables:
1. DATA ON PERSONAL CONTACT
Telephone traffic, transfers based on GDP
percent, international tourism, foreign
population, international letters; tourism,
foreign population, international letters.
2. DATA ON INFORMATION FLOWS
Internet users, television, trade in
newspapers.
3. DATA ON CULTURAL PROXIMITY
Number of McDonald’s restaurants, number
of IKEAs, trade in books.
SEVEN WAYS TO DEFINE 6. ‘... basis for political and state organisation
MULTICULTURALISM (HECKMAN, 1993) for the distribution of rights and resources; it
1. IT IS AN INDICATOR OF SOCIAL means REINFORCING OF ETHNIC
CHANGE (Changing ethnic composition of PLURALISM, ETHNIC AUTONOMY, AND
the population) SPEAKS OUT AGAINST
A society is multicultural if there is a sign of ACCULTURATION OR ASSIMILATION
social change. AGAINST ONE ‘STATE LANGUAGE’
The chancellor for Germany opened their The country is not imposing a ‘one policy
borders to refugees– this is an example of for all’.
multiculturalism. In contrast, Jordan and
Egypt closed their borders to Palestinian KNIGHT (2008) ON MULTICULTURALISM
refugees. Multiculturalism is somewhat against integration.
Integration: Moves away from celebrating differences
2. RECOGNIZING THE FACT THAT and moves towards a shared destiny and a cohesive
COUNTRIES NEED IMMIGRATION AND society.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
CONSEQUENCES MUST BE ACCEPTED. KNIGHT (2008) MAJOR FINDINGS
Heckman argues that in a multiculturalist
society, IMMIGRATION IS NEEDED, AND Anglo-Australians do not think about the concept of
INEVITABLE. ‘multiculturalism’ on a daily basis unless prompted
by the media.
3. TOLERANCE TOWARDS OTHERS
(FRIENDLY/SUPPORTIVE TO Contradictions and uncertainties: It appears that in
IMMIGRANTS) AND LIBERAL AND Australia, there is a sense of underlying racism but at
DEMOCRATIC (FATAL CONSEQUENCES the same time, people are trying to gain an
OF NATIONALISM, CHAUVINISM, AND understanding and acceptance of other cultures.
ETHNIC TOLERANCE)
The tendency is the less liberal and Participants instead made a correlation between
democratic a country is, the less multiculturalism and immigrants, rather than
multicultural. For example, North Korea: A associating the term with the first inhabitants of their
totalitarian country (not democratic), land. (Contrary to expectations, the results revealed
therefore the ethnicity and ethnic the term multiculturalism does not extend to
composition isn’t thick. Indigenous Americans).

4. MULTICULTURALISM IS AN Anglo-Australians believe the government does not

INTERPRETATION OF THE CONCEPT OF necessarily define how multiculturalism impacts upon
CULTURE: THERE ARE NO society.
PURE/ORIGINAL CULTURES
For example: Filipino food is not made from Migrants slowly integrate overtime and it is usually
purely Filipino traditions, it takes aspects another generation before migrants fit properly into
from other countries such as Spain, which Australian society.
shows that the culture is just a combination
of different ones. CONCLUDING POINTS

5. MULTICULTURALISM IS AN ATTITUDE People did not think of multiculturalism as part of

THAT LOOKS UPON SOME ASPECTS OF
THE IMMIGRANTS CULTURE (E.G.
FOLKLORE AND FOOD) AND SEES
THESE AS POSSIBLE ENRICHMENT OF
‘OUR’ CULTURE
For example: In the Philippines, we see
people opening Korean restaurants– we
could say that we are accepting their culture
and we are a multicultural society.
their everyday lives, but many admitted to having
some deep seeded views on the topic.
Some people have only a basic idea of what these
values comprise, but in the end, no one can really
give a definitive answer.
Indigenous Australians are not associated with
multiculturalism.
MADAN ON THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON related to heightened appearance-related
THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY self-discrepancy.

Beauty industry seems almost immune to economic STUDY THREE

shocks.
A person’s appearance-related self-discrepancy can
The relentless pursuit of beauty ideals has led to a be reduced by loosening the perceived norm in an
worldwide surge in objectification, face and organisational setting.
body-shaming, body-related disorders, and an
obsession with plastic surgery, and this phenomenon When undergraduate female participants believed
is especially prevalent in the East. that the norms in a company they were interviewing
with were loose, they were less likely to use
Consumers from a more interdependent (collective) appearance-enhancing tools before the interview.
culture, or those possessing a stronger interdependent
self within a particular culture, are more likely to
pursue appearance enhancement.

EASTERNERS, who have a stronger interdependent

self-construal, are more likely to feel obligated to
conform to socially defined beauty ideals, leading to
a sense of discrepancy between their ideals and
current self.

INDIVIDUALISM VS COLLECTIVISM

Self-construal refers to the degree to which the self is

connected with (or separate from) others.

Easterners (China, Korea, Japan) possess a stronger

interdependent self-construal.
Westerners (United-States) possess a stronger
independent self-construal.

RESULTS FROM THE STUDIES IN THE

ARTICLE

STUDY ONE

Participants from China, had more positive attitudes

toward the beauty-enhancing product than those from
Canada.

Chinese participants were willing to pay more for the

product than their Canadian counterparts.

STUDY TWO

The more independent participants indicated they

were, the greater was their indicated use of the
appearance-enhancing app.

Greater interdependence was related to higher

conforming tendencies, which in turn were positively