Name Specific Societies and the Ways That Culture Has Shaped Their Art

Learning Objectives

1. Define culture.
2. Define personal, social, and cultural identities.
3. Summarize nondominant and dominant identity development.
4. Explicate why difference matters in the study of culture and identity.

Civilisation is a complicated give-and-take to define, every bit in that location are at least six common ways that culture is used in the United States. For the purposes of exploring the communicative aspects of culture, we volition define culture every bit the ongoing negotiation of learned and patterned behavior, attitudes, values, and behaviors. Unpacking the definition, we can see that culture shouldn't be conceptualized equally stable and unchanging. Civilisation is "negotiated," and as nosotros will larn later in this affiliate, civilization is dynamic, and cultural changes tin can exist traced and analyzed to better understand why our society is the way it is. The definition as well points out that culture is learned, which accounts for the importance of socializing institutions like family, schoolhouse, peers, and the media. Culture is patterned in that at that place are recognizable widespread similarities among people inside a cultural group. In that location is also deviation from and resistance to those patterns by individuals and subgroups within a culture, which is why cultural patterns change over time. Last, the definition acknowledges that civilization influences our behavior nigh what is true and false, our attitudes including our likes and dislikes, our values regarding what is correct and wrong, and our behaviors. Information technology is from these cultural influences that our identities are formed.

Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities

Ask yourself the question "Who am I?" Call up from our before word of self-concept that nosotros develop a sense of who nosotros are based on what is reflected back on us from other people. Our parents, friends, teachers, and the media assist shape our identities. While this happens from birth, most people in Western societies reach a stage in adolescence where maturing cognitive abilities and increased social awareness lead them to begin to reflect on who they are. This begins a lifelong process of thinking nearly who we are now, who we were before, and who we will go (Tatum, B. D., 2000). Our identities brand up an of import part of our cocky-concept and can be broken downward into three main categories: personal, social, and cultural identities (run across Table viii.one "Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities").

We must avoid the temptation to think of our identities as constant. Instead, our identities are formed through processes that started before we were born and will continue after we are gone; therefore our identities aren't something we reach or consummate. Two related merely singled-out components of our identities are our personal and social identities (Spreckels, J. & Kotthoff, H., 2009). Personal identities include the components of cocky that are primarily intrapersonal and connected to our life experiences. For example, I consider myself a puzzle lover, and you may identify as a fan of hip-hop music. Our social identities are the components of self that are derived from involvement in social groups with which we are interpersonally committed.

Pledging a fraternity or sorority is an case of a social identity.

For case, we may derive aspects of our social identity from our family or from a community of fans for a sports squad. Social identities differ from personal identities because they are externally organized through membership. Our membership may exist voluntary (Greek organisation on campus) or involuntary (family) and explicit (we pay ante to our labor union) or implicit (we buy and listen to hip-hop music). There are innumerous options for personal and social identities. While our personal identity choices express who we are, our social identities align us with particular groups. Through our social identities, we make statements almost who we are and who we are not.

Tabular array 8.1 Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities

Personal	Social	Cultural
Antiquarian Collector	Member of Historical Society	Irish American
Domestic dog Lover	Member of Humane Guild	Male/Female
Cyclist	Fraternity/Sorority Member	Greek American
Singer	High School Music Instructor	Multiracial
Shy	Book Order Fellow member	Heterosexual
Athletic		Gay/Lesbian

Personal identities may change oft as people have new experiences and develop new interests and hobbies. A current interest in online video games may give style to an involvement in graphic design. Social identities practise non change as often because they have more time to develop, every bit you lot must become interpersonally invested. For example, if an interest in online video games leads someone to become a member of a MMORPG, or a massively multiplayer online role-playing game community, that personal identity has led to a social identity that is now interpersonal and more entrenched. Cultural identities are based on socially synthetic categories that teach us a way of being and include expectations for social behavior or ways of acting (Yep, K. A., 2002). Since we are often a role of them since nascence, cultural identities are the least child-bearing of the 3. The means of being and the social expectations for behavior within cultural identities exercise change over time, but what separates them from most social identities is their historical roots (Collier, 1000. J., 1996). For example, think of how ways of being and acting take changed for African Americans since the civil rights movement. Additionally, common ways of existence and interim within a cultural identity grouping are expressed through advice. In order to be accepted as a member of a cultural grouping, members must be acculturated, essentially learning and using a code that other group members will be able to recognize. We are acculturated into our diverse cultural identities in obvious and less obvious ways. We may literally have a parent or friend tell united states what it means to be a man or a adult female. We may as well unconsciously consume messages from popular civilisation that offer representations of gender.

Any of these identity types can exist ascribed or avowed. Ascribed identities are personal, social, or cultural identities that are placed on us by others, while avowed identities are those that we claim for ourselves (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Sometimes people accredit an identity to someone else based on stereotypes. You may see a person who likes to read scientific discipline-fiction books, watches documentaries, has glasses, and collects Star Expedition memorabilia and label him or her a nerd. If the person doesn't avow that identity, it tin create friction, and that label may even hurt the other person'southward feelings. But ascribed and avowed identities tin friction match up. To extend the previous case, there has been a motion in recent years to reclaim the characterization nerd and plough information technology into a positive, and a nerd subculture has been growing in popularity. For example, MC Frontalot, a leader in the nerdcore hip-hop move, says that being branded a nerd in school was terrible, only now he raps about "nerdy" things similar blogs to sold-out crowds (Shipman, 2007). We can see from this example that our ascribed and avowed identities modify over the course of our lives, and sometimes they lucifer up and sometimes not.

Although some identities are substantially permanent, the caste to which nosotros are aware of them, also known equally salience, changes. The intensity with which we avow an identity also changes based on context. For example, an African American may not have difficulty deciding which box to check on the demographic section of a survey. Only if an African American becomes president of her higher'south Black Student Union, she may more intensely avow her African American identity, which has now become more salient. If she studies abroad in Africa her junior year, she may be ascribed an identity of American by her new African friends rather than African American. For the Africans, their company's identity as American is likely more salient than her identity every bit someone of African descent. If someone is biracial or multiracial, they may change their racial identification equally they appoint in an identity search. One intercultural communication scholar writes of his experiences every bit an "Asianlatinoamerican" (Yep, 2002). He notes repressing his Chinese identity as an adolescent living in Peru and then later embracing his Chinese identity and learning well-nigh his family history while in college in the United States. This example shows how even national identity fluctuates. Apparently one can modify nationality by becoming a citizen of some other state, although most people do not. My identity equally a Usa American became very salient for me for the first fourth dimension in my life when I studied away in Sweden.

Throughout modern history, cultural and social influences have established dominant and nondominant groups (Allen, 2011). Dominant identities historically had and currently accept more resource and influence, while nondominant identities historically had and currently have less resources and influence. It's important to retrieve that these distinctions are existence made at the societal level, non the individual level. At that place are obviously exceptions, with people in groups considered nondominant obtaining more resources and power than a person in a dominant group. However, the overall trend is that divergence based on cultural groups has been institutionalized, and exceptions do not change this fact. Because of this uneven distribution of resource and power, members of dominant groups are granted privileges while nondominant groups are at a disadvantage. The main nondominant groups must face various forms of institutionalized bigotry, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism. Every bit nosotros will discuss afterwards, privilege and disadvantage, like similarity and departure, are not "all or naught." No ii people are completely dissimilar or completely similar, and no one person is completely privileged or completely disadvantaged.

Identity Evolution

At that place are multiple models for examining identity development. Given our focus on how difference matters, we will examine similarities and differences in nondominant and dominant identity formation. While the stages in this model help us understand how many people experience their identities, identity development is complex, and at that place may be variations. We must also remember that people have multiple identities that intersect with each other. So, every bit you read, retrieve about how circumstances may be different for an individual with multiple nondominant and/or dominant identities.

Nondominant Identity Development

In that location are iv stages of nondominant identity development (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). The start stage is unexamined identity, which is characterized by a lack of awareness of or lack of involvement in one's identity. For case, a young adult female who will later identify every bit a lesbian may non yet realize that a nondominant sexual orientation is part of her identity. As well, a young African American man may question his teachers or parents about the value of what he'south learning during Black History Month. When a person's lack of involvement in their own identity is replaced past an investment in a dominant group'due south identity, they may move to the next stage, which is conformity.

In the conformity stage, an individual internalizes or adopts the values and norms of the dominant group, frequently in an effort non to exist perceived as unlike. Individuals may effort to digest into the ascendant civilization by changing their appearance, their mannerisms, the way they talk, or even their proper noun. Moises, a Chicano human interviewed in a research projection most identities, narrated how he inverse his "Mexican sounding" name to Moses, which was easier for his middle-school classmates and teachers to say (Jones Jr., 2009). He also identified as white instead of Mexican American or Chicano because he saw how his teachers treated the other kids with "brown skin." Additionally, some gay or lesbian people in this phase of identity development may try to "act straight." In either case, some people motion to the side by side stage, resistance and separation, when they realize that despite their efforts they are still perceived as different by and not included in the dominant group.

In the resistance and separation stage, an individual with a nondominant identity may shift abroad from the conformity of the previous stage to engage in deportment that challenge the dominant identity group. Individuals in this stage may also actively try to separate themselves from the dominant grouping, interacting but with those who share their nondominant identity. For case, there has been a Deaf culture movement in the United States for decades. This movement includes people who are hearing impaired and believe that their use of a specific language, American Sign Linguistic communication (ASL), and other cultural practices constitutes a unique civilization, which they symbolize by capitalizing the D in Deaf (Allen, 2011).

Many hearing-impaired people in the United States employ American Sign Linguistic communication (ASL), which is recognized every bit an official language.

While this is not a separatist movement, a person who is hearing impaired may notice refuge in such a group subsequently experiencing discrimination from hearing people. Staying in this stage may indicate a lack of disquisitional thinking if a person endorses the values of the nondominant group without question.

The integration stage marks a period where individuals with a nondominant identity have achieved a remainder between embracing their own identities and valuing other dominant and nondominant identities. Although at that place may notwithstanding be balance anger from the discrimination and prejudice they take faced, they may direct this energy into positive outlets such as working to end bigotry for their own or other groups. Moises, the Chicano homo I mentioned earlier, at present works to support the Chicano community in his urban center and also has actively supported gay rights and women'south rights.

Ascendant Identity Development

Dominant identity development consists of five stages (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). The unexamined stage of dominant identity formation is similar to nondominant in that individuals in this stage do not recall about their or others' identities. Although they may exist aware of differences—for case, between races and genders—they either don't realize there is a hierarchy that treats some people differently than others or they don't call back the bureaucracy applies to them. For instance, a white person may accept notice that a person of colour was elected to a prominent office. However, he or she may not see the underlying reason that it is noticeable—namely, that the overwhelming bulk of our country's leaders are white. Unlike people with a nondominant identity who unremarkably have to acknowledge the positioning of their identity due to discrimination and prejudice they run across, people with dominant identities may stay in the unexamined stage for a long time.

In the credence stage, a person with a ascendant identity passively or actively accepts that some people are treated differently than others but doesn't practise annihilation internally or externally to accost it. In the passive credence phase, nosotros must be cautious non to blame individuals with ascendant identities for internalizing racist, sexist, or heterosexist "norms." The socializing institutions nosotros discussed earlier (family, peers, media, faith, and education) ofttimes make oppression seem normal and natural. For example, I have had students who struggle to see that they are in this stage say things similar "I know that racism exists, just my parents taught me to be a proficient person and see everyone as equal." While this is admirable, seeing everyone as equal doesn't make it so. And people who insist that nosotros are all equal may claim that minorities are exaggerating their circumstances or "whining" and just demand to "work harder" or "get over it." The person making these statements acknowledges deviation but doesn't run across their privilege or the institutional perpetuation of various "-isms." Although I've encountered many more people in the passive land of acceptance than the active state, some may progress to an active state where they admit inequality and are proud to be in the "superior" grouping. In either example, many people never progress from this phase. If they do, it'southward ordinarily because of repeated encounters with individuals or situations that claiming their credence of the condition quo, such equally befriending someone from a nondominant group or taking a grade related to culture.

The resistance phase of dominant identity formation is a major alter from the previous in that an individual acknowledges the unearned advantages they are given and feels guilt or shame about it. Having taught about various types of privilege for years, I've encountered many students who want to return their privilege or disown it. These individuals may begin to disassociate with their own dominant grouping because they feel like a curtain has been opened and their awareness of the inequality makes it difficult for them to interact with others in their dominant group. Only it's important to acknowledge that condign aware of your white privilege, for example, doesn't hateful that every person of colour is going to want to have you equally an ally, so retreating to them may not exist the most productive move. While moving to this step is a marked improvement in regards to becoming a more enlightened and socially only person, getting stuck in the resistance stage isn't productive, considering people are oft retreating rather than trying to address injustice. For some, deciding to share what they've learned with others who share their dominant identity moves them to the next stage.

People in the redefinition stage revise negative views of their identity held in the previous stage and begin to acknowledge their privilege and try to use the power they are granted to piece of work for social justice. They realize that they can merits their ascendant identity every bit heterosexual, able-bodied, male, white, and so on, and perform their identity in ways that counter norms. A male participant in a research project on identity said the following nearly redefining his male identity:

I don't want to assert my maleness the same mode that maleness is asserted all around us all the time. I don't want to contribute to sexism. So I have to be conscious of that. At that place'due south that guilt. But then, I try to utilize my maleness in positive ways, like when I'k talking to other men almost male privilege (Jones, Jr., 2009).

The terminal phase of dominant identity formation is integration. This phase is reached when redefinition is complete and people can integrate their dominant identity into all aspects of their life, finding opportunities to educate others nearly privilege while also being a responsive ally to people in nondominant identities. Every bit an example, some heterosexual people who discover out a friend or family member is gay or lesbian may take to face their dominant heterosexual identity for the starting time fourth dimension, which may pb them through these diverse stages. Equally a sign of integration, some may join an organization like PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), where they can be around others who share their ascendant identity every bit heterosexuals but also sympathise with their loved ones.

Heterosexual people with gay family members or friends may join the grouping PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) equally a part of the redefinition and/or integration phase of their dominant identity development.

Knowing more about diverse types of identities and some common experiences of how ascendant and nondominant identities are formed prepares us to delve into more specifics about why difference matters.

Divergence Matters

Whenever nosotros encounter someone, nosotros notice similarities and differences. While both are important, it is ofttimes the differences that are highlighted and that contribute to advice troubles. We don't only encounter similarities and differences on an individual level. In fact, we also place people into in-groups and out-groups based on the similarities and differences we perceive. This is important because nosotros so tend to react to someone we perceive as a member of an out-group based on the characteristics nosotros adhere to the group rather than the individual (Allen, 2011). In these situations, it is more likely that stereotypes and prejudice will influence our advice. Learning nearly difference and why it matters volition help us exist more competent communicators. The flip side of emphasizing difference is to claim that no differences exist and that y'all see everyone as a human existence. Rather than trying to ignore deviation and come across each person every bit a unique individual, nosotros should know the history of how differences came to exist so socially and culturally significant and how they go along to impact us today.

Culture and identity are complex. Yous may be wondering how some groups came to exist dominant and others nondominant. These differences are not natural, which can be seen as we unpack how various identities accept changed over time in the next department. There is, nonetheless, an ideology of domination that makes it seem natural and normal to many that some people or groups volition always take power over others (Allen, 2011). In fact, hierarchy and domination, although prevalent throughout modern human history, were likely non the norm among early humans. And then one of the outset reasons difference matters is that people and groups are treated unequally, and better agreement how those differences came to be can help the states create a more than but society. Departure also matters because demographics and patterns of interaction are changing.

In the United States, the population of people of color is increasing and diversifying, and visibility for people who are gay or lesbian and people with disabilities has also increased. The 2010 Demography shows that the Hispanic and Latino/a populations in the U.s.a. are now the second largest group in the country, having grown 43 per centum since the last census in 2000 (Saenz, 2011). By 2030, racial and indigenous minorities will business relationship for one-tertiary of the population (Allen, 2011). Additionally, legal and social changes have created a more open environment for sexual minorities and people with disabilities. These changes straight affect our interpersonal relationships. The workplace is i context where changing demographics has go increasingly important. Many organizations are striving to comply with irresolute laws by implementing policies aimed at creating equal admission and opportunity. Some organizations are going further than legal compliance to try to create inclusive climates where diversity is valued considering of the interpersonal and economic benefits it has the potential to produce.

"Getting Real"

Diversity Preparation

Businesses in the U.s.a. spend $200 to $300 million a yr on diversity training, but is information technology effective? (Vedantam, 2008) If diversity grooming is conducted to advance a company'due south business organisation goals and out of an understanding of the advantages that a diversity of background and thought offer a company, and so the training is more likely to be successful. Many companies conduct mandatory diverseness training based on a belief that they will be in a ameliorate position in court if a lawsuit is brought against them. Notwithstanding, research shows that training that is mandatory and undertaken merely to educate people about the legal implications of diversity is ineffective and may even hurt diversity efforts. A commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace environment must include a multipronged approach. Experts recommend that a company put a staff person in charge of diversity efforts, and some businesses have gone every bit far as appointing a "chief diversity officer" (Cullen, 2007). The US Office of Personnel Management offers many good guidelines for conducting diverseness grooming: create learning objectives related to the mission of the system, use tested and advisable training methods and materials, provide information virtually grade content and expectations to employees ahead of grooming, provide the grooming in a supportive and noncoercive environment, apply only experienced and qualified instructors, and monitor/evaluate preparation and revise as needed (US Office of Personnel Management, 2011). With these suggestions in mind, the increasingly mutual "real-world" consequence of multifariousness training is more likely to succeed.

1. Have you ever participated in any diversity training? If so, what did you learn or have abroad from the preparation? Which of the guidelines listed did your training practice well or poorly on?
2. Do you think diversity training should be mandatory or voluntary? Why?
3. From what yous've learned then far in this volume, what communication skills are important for a diversity trainer to accept?

We can now see that difference matters due to the inequalities that be among cultural groups and due to irresolute demographics that affect our personal and social relationships. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that may impede our valuing of divergence (Allen, 2011). Individuals with dominant identities may not validate the experiences of those in nondominant groups because they do not experience the oppression directed at those with nondominant identities. Further, they may find it difficult to admit that non beingness aware of this oppression is due to privilege associated with their ascendant identities. Because of this lack of recognition of oppression, members of dominant groups may minimize, dismiss, or question the experiences of nondominant groups and view them every bit "complainers" or "whiners." Call back from our earlier give-and-take of identity formation that people with dominant identities may stay in the unexamined or acceptance stages for a long time. Existence stuck in these stages makes it much more difficult to value difference.

Members of nondominant groups may have difficulty valuing divergence due to negative experiences with the dominant group, such equally non having their experiences validated. Both groups may be restrained from communicating about difference due to norms of political correctness, which may make people experience afraid to speak up considering they may be perceived as insensitive or racist. All these obstacles are common and they are valid. Even so, as we will learn after, developing intercultural advice competence tin help us proceeds new perspectives, become more than mindful of our communication, and intervene in some of these negative cycles.

Cardinal Takeaways

• Culture is an ongoing negotiation of learned patterns of beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors.

• Each of usa has personal, social, and cultural identities.

  • Personal identities are components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connect to our individual interests and life experiences.
  • Social identities are components of self that are derived from our involvement in social groups to which we are interpersonally invested.
  • Cultural identities are components of self based on socially constructed categories that teach the states a manner of existence and include expectations for our thoughts and behaviors.
• Nondominant identity formation may include a person moving from unawareness of the importance of their identities, to adopting the values of ascendant lodge, to separating from dominant lodge, to integrating components of identities.
• Dominant identity formation may include a person moving from unawareness of their identities, to accepting the identity bureaucracy, to separation from and guilt regarding the dominant group, to redefining and integrating components of identities.
• Difference matters considering people are treated differently based on their identities and demographics and patterns of interaction are changing. Knowing why and how this came to be and how to navigate our increasingly diverse society tin can make us more competent communicators.

Exercises

1. List some of your personal, social, and cultural identities. Are there any that chronicle? If so, how? For your cultural identities, which ones are dominant and which ones are nondominant? What would a person who looked at this listing be able to tell most you?
2. Depict a situation in which someone ascribed an identity to you lot that didn't match with your avowed identities. Why do you think the person ascribed the identity to you? Were there whatever stereotypes involved?
3. Getting integrated: Review the department that explains why difference matters. Discuss the ways in which deviation may influence how you lot communicate in each of the following contexts: bookish, professional person, and personal.

References

Allen, B. J., Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity, 2nd ed. (Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 2011), 4.

Collier, Thousand. J., "Communication Competence Problematics in Ethnic Friendships," Communication Monographs 63, no. 4 (1996): 318.

Cullen, 50. T., "Employee Diversity Grooming Doesn't Work," Time, Apr 26, 2007, accessed October five, 2011, http://world wide web.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1615183,00.html.

Jones Jr., R. Yard., "Communicating Queer Identities through Personal Narrative and Intersectional Reflexivity" (PhD diss., University of Denver, 2009), 130–32.

Martin, J. N., and Thomas K. Nakayama, Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 5th ed. (Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 166.

Saenz, A., "Census Data Shows a Inverse American Landscape," ABC News, March 21, 2011, accessed October 9, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/demography-data-reveals-changed-american-landscape/story?id=13206427.

Shipman, T., "Nerds Get Their Revenge as at Last It's Hip to Be Foursquare," The Sunday Telegraph, July 22, 2007, 35.

Spreckels, J. and Helga Kotthoff, "Communicating Identity in Intercultural Communication," in Handbook of Intercultural Communication, eds. Helga Kotthoff and Helen Spencer-Oatey (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009), 415–19.

Tatum, B. D., "The Complexity of Identity: 'Who Am I?'" in Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, eds. Maurianne Adams, Warren J. Blumfeld, Rosie Casteneda, Heather West. Hackman, Madeline 50. Peters, Ximena Zuniga (New York: Routledge, 2000), ix.

U.s. Office of Personnel Management, "Guidelines for Conducting Diversity Training," Training and Evolution Policy, accessed Oct 16, 2011, http://world wide web.opm.gov/hrd/lead/policy/divers97.asp#Function%20B.

Vedantam, Due south., "About Diversity Training Ineffective, Written report Finds," The Washington Mail service, January xx, 2008, accessed October v, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011901899_pf.html.

Yep, Thou. A., "My Three Cultures: Navigating the Multicultural Identity Landscape," in Intercultural Communication: Experiences and Contexts, eds. Judith North. Martin, Lisa A. Flores, and Thomas K. Nakayama (Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 61.

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