Comparative Culture Vs American Culture

Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate")[1] generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another"[2]

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society."[3] As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and

As a study, it is based upon the obvious premise that the existence of a man-made object is concrete evidence of the presence of a human mind operating at the time of fabrication. The common assumption underlying material culture research is that objects made or modified by humans, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, reflect the belief patters of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased, or used them, and, by extension, the belief patterns of the larger society of which they are a part. (Schlereth, Material Culture Studies in America,

Some Chinese do not understand how Americans can eat beef, believing that it is improper to eat cattle that work on farms. Americans, in contrast, do not understand how some Chinese and Koreans can eat dogs, the animal often treated as pets or family members in the United States. Interestingly, the Korean government, during the Olympics, banned such traditional delicacies as dog stew, snake soup, blood worm soup, and deer antlers for fear of offending foreigners who might label Koreans as barbaric. Therefore, not only does culture influence what is to be consumed, but it also affects what should not be purchased.

3. What is the SRC (self-reference criterion)?

The SRC explains how the individual tends to be bound by his or her own cultural assumptions. The individual thus observes foreign cultures by making reference back to personal cultural values. As a result, perception of overseas events can be distorted by the effects of the SRC.

4. Distinguish between high-context and low-context cultures.

In low-context cultures (e.g., the United States), messages are explicit and clear in the sense that actual words are used to convey the main part of information in communication. The words and their meanings, being independent entities, can be separated from the context in which they