ACTIVITY: Culture in the anthropological sense

Modul 2: Arbeiten in Teams AKTIVITÄT: Kultur im anthropologischen Sinne

Modul 2: Arbeiten in Teams

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In this book you can explore the concept of culture in the anthropological sense. You will get familiar with the onion-, and the iceberg model. You can test your knowledge throughout the lesson. The lesson takes approximately 20 minutes to solve.

<h3>Here we will discuss culture in an anthropological sense. Anthropology offers a singular lens for observing common objects: it teaches us how to look behind the surface to perceive hidden mechanisms that produce real-life material consequences.</h3>

It helps to get oriented in new situations, to get included into different communities, to adapt to various cultural settings and ultimately to provoke positive changes consciously in smaller and larger circles.

Culture in the anthropological sense does not equal with cultivation, refinement or high level of education. Art, science religion belongs to the realm of culture, just like the way people eat, work, interact with nature or clean their house.

Culture in anthropology is ordinary. It comprises everything people do, think or believe as members of their groups. This means that those behaviors, ideas and values are not only meaningful for them, but also to most other members of the same group

M. Jason Martin, expert in organizational culture, defines culture as “<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v07n01/martin_m01.htm">the Way We Do Things Around Here”</a>. This sentence expresses that acts, thoughts and moral judgments based on a shared culture do not need justification, because they become the taken for granted “common ground” for members of the group. What is taken for granted becomes invisible, just like water is for the fish.

When we surprise ourselves to think about something that it is just “normal”, probably this is the moment when we can have a glimpse of the force of culture on our thinking.

<h2>An anthropologist, named Ralph Linton wrote in 1936: “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water”. He meant to explain why people usually do not see how social institutions and structures impact the way they think and act. Another way to express the invisible nature of culture is by the metaphor of iceberg, attributed to anthropologist Edward T. Hall.</h2>

<h2>Other metaphors also speak of the hidden nature of most of what we mean by culture. The onion metaphor additionally shows that as we try to understand the world around us culturally, we need to start by what is accessible on the surface to reach deeper conclusions about why things look the way they do.</h2>

Fundamental assumptions: these become rarely conscious, although they constitute a solid base for identity. This is the most taken for granted layer of culture, sometimes also called “the black hole” of culture. Basic, unquestioned understandings about the human, nature and the supernatural is part of the “black hole”. Also, humor belongs here: that is why it is difficult to explain why a joke is funny.

Take a pen and a pencil, look around in your room, or go to the street and occupy an observant position: write down the objects and people that you see. Try to find the cultural values and assumptions underneath to the things observed.

Draw a culture of onion representing your institution’s culture and complete the model by marking the different layers:- What a person not knowing the institution would see dropping by?- What are the underlying norms?- What are the underlying values?- What are the hidden assumptions?