The various parts of a cultural system are interrelated. Heroes and legendary figures-people who are dead or alive, real or imaginary-embody the characteristics that are prized in a culture, and serve as models for behaviour. Man-made artefacts and products- including tools and even computers-are invested with cultural significance. Symbols, for example, and the symbolic behaviours that make up rituals, hold particular meaning that is recognised only by those who share the culture. It comprises all those visible features that characterise a particular culture. Using the onion analogy, the outer layer corresponds to the tip of the iceberg. Political systems make decisions for societies economic systems facilitate the production and distribution of products and services legal systems impose sanctions for deviance from cultural norms educational systems enable the transmission of knowledge social systems guide reproduction and child-rearing and religious systems manage uncertainty. Systems and institutions organise culture into formal practices. These fundamental building blocks are encircled by specific beliefs, attitudes, and conventions.īeliefs are like assumptions but more specific: ‘If I achieve material success, I will have greater social status’. Attitudes involve a positive or negative evaluation of an object or idea: ‘The best decisions are made rationally’. Conventions are acceptable behaviours: ‘I eat rice with my hand’. Beliefs, attitudes, and conventions drive cultural systems and institutions. In this model, culture is the deep inner core of abstract ideas that manifest as increasingly tangible outer layers. The inner core equates to the submerged base of the iceberg: values and assumptions. Others prefer to explain culture by using the onion analogy. Values are the worth we attach to something or a broad tendency to prefer one state of affairs to another-for example, freedom of speech, group harmony, or gender equality. Assumptions are ideas that are accepted as truths to even when there is no proof-for example, ‘I control my own destiny’. Hidden differences include cultural values and assumptions. The 90% of the iceberg that remains unseen below the surface represents the hidden cultural differences. The iceberg provides a useful analogy. The small ‘tip of the iceberg’ that can be seen above the water level represents visible cultural elements. Visible cultural elements include artefacts, symbols, and practices such as: art and architecture language, colour, and dress social etiquette and traditions. Although they are the most obvious, visible cultural differences make up only ten percent of our cultural identities.
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